Sean Payton received’t be the final hater to take a classless swing at Jets

The Jets have entered a territory they haven’t been in for greater than a decade.

The Land of the Hated.

It’s a must to return to the Rex Ryan period and his bombastic Bill Belichick “kiss the rings’’ musings to discover a time when the Jets have attracted this a lot consideration.

There isn’t a workforce within the NFL that enters the 2023 season as extra of a lightning rod than the Jets, with haters mendacity in wait to see them fail after which pounce.

Aaron Rodgers is as polarizing a participant as there may be within the league, and because the Jets traded for him, he and the group have been residing a really public affection-filled honeymoon.

Then there’s the Jets because the subject of the HBO series “Hard Knocks.’’

There’s an assumption that the groups that do “Laborious Knocks’’ are doing it as a result of they’re publicity hungry. The actual fact is, the Jets didn’t ask for “Hard Knocks.” They have been persuaded to do it by powers greater than those who reside in Florham Park, N.J.

The Jets, too, are scheduled for at least five prime-time TV games this season, due to the acquisition of Rodgers and the hype that surrounds a workforce that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2010.

And now, the win-now Jets are in play to signal former Vikings star working again Dalvin Prepare dinner, who’s scheduled to visit this weekend.

So, whether or not you prefer it or not, the Jets are going to be in your face this season.

On Thursday morning, earlier than the they’d even taken the sphere for his or her coaching camp follow, the Jets have been dished a heaping plate of hate for breakfast, within the type of classless, pointless, unfriendly hearth from throughout the nation, the place Broncos coach Sean Payton dropped a bomb on them.

Payton, in his first 12 months because the Denver coach, took explicit intention at Jets offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, who was fired after 15 video games final 12 months because the Broncos’ head coach, calling Hackett’s work in Denver “one of many worst teaching jobs within the historical past of the NFL.’’

The 59-year-old Payton, who coached the Saints from 2006-21, received one Tremendous Bowl and has by no means been quick on love for himself, unloaded on Hackett and the Jets in an interview with USA Immediately.

He, too, torched the Jets for being consideration mongers, relating the Broncos’ 2022 troubles to what would possibly lie forward for the Jets in ’23.

“It doesn’t occur usually the place an NFL workforce or group will get embarrassed,’’ Payton mentioned. “And that occurred right here. A part of it was their very own fault, relative to spending a lot [expletive] time making an attempt to win the offseason — the PR, the pomp and circumstance, marching folks round and all these things. The Jets did that this 12 months. You watch. ‘Laborious Knocks,’ all of it. I can see it coming. So, pay attention … simply put the work in.”

It’s a must to surprise if Payton unwittingly forgot that his workforce, which went 5-12 final season, performs the Jets in Week 5 in Denver. Or perhaps he didn’t and doesn’t give a rattling. No matter, that Oct. 8 sport simply bought some sizzling sauce added to it.

“I’m not going to acknowledge Sean on that,’’ Jets coach Robert Saleh mentioned after follow addressing Payton’s outlandish rants. “He’s been within the league some time [and] he can say regardless of the hell he desires.’’

The Jets third-year coach, who doesn’t lack ardour, wasn’t completed.

“So far as what now we have occurring right here, I sort of stay by the saying, ‘In the event you ain’t bought no haters, you ain’t popping,’ ’’ Saleh mentioned. “So, hate away. Clearly, we’re doing one thing proper in case you’ve bought to speak about us once we don’t play you ’til Week [5] … and I’m good with it.

“I get it. There’s lots of exterior noise, there’s lots of people who’re hating on us, there’s lots of people who’re trying ahead for us to fail. There’s lot of crows pecking at our neck.“The one fowl that can truly assault an eagle is a crow,’’ Saleh mentioned. “It perches on its neck, pecks at it and as an alternative of combating again, the eagles soars to a top the place the crow can’t breathe anymore, and finally the crow falls off.’’

“All you are able to do it preserve spreading your wings and preserve flying excessive till these crows fall off and suffocate from the shortcoming to breathe. That’s a complete different analogy I’ll get into later.’’

Then he did after the press convention was over.

The Jets are a straightforward goal. They used to get beat up only for being the Jets — 12-plus years with out a playoff berth and 50-plus years since their solely look in a Tremendous Bowl. Now they’re getting picked on as a result of they really is perhaps fairly damned good.

Welcome to the Land of the Hated.