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Fire John Idzik billboard shifts attention to Woody Johnson: Fire Idzik or sell Jets – Metro US

Fire John Idzik billboard shifts attention to Woody Johnson: Fire Idzik or sell Jets

Fire John Idzik billboard shifts attention to Woody Johnson: Fire Idzik or
Kristian Dyer

There’s a new message from the people behind FireJohnIdzik.com and it hit billboards across North Jersey just hours after a 38-3 Jets loss to the Bills on Monday night.

A billboard on Route 3 West, roughly a half-mile before MetLife Stadium and near the exit for Route 17, has displayed a message for the last several weeks asking Jets owner Woody Johnson to fire general manager John Idzik. Now, the founders of FireJohnIdzik.com have broadened their message beyond asking for Idzik’s termination to include Johnson himself.

At 9:00 A.M. on Tuesday morning the digital billboard was updated to read: ‘Woody Johnson: Fire Idzik or Sell the Jets.’

The group’s founders say that the new message is not a response to the Monday night loss but rather is in keeping with their message over the past month. It has been a fall of discontent for many Jets fans, especially after last year’s surprising 8-8 record set up playoff expectations for this year. But the Jets, currently 2-9, will miss the playoffs for a fourth straight season and Idzik has become the source of much frustration.

He failed to land an upgrade at cornerback after losing Antonio Cromartie to free agency and his first two draft classes have netted only one impact player in Sheldon Richardson.

The desire to force Johnson out is a new remedy for these fans, who have raised $10,000 in recent weeks to buy digital billboards as well as a static billboard in prominent positions near MetLife Stadium. Johnson has owned the Jets since 2000 and is personally responsible for the building of Atlantic Health Jets Training Center, considered to be the best practice facility in the league. He has opened up his checkbook in recent years to sign free agents such as Eric Decker and has dished out big contracts to the likes of D’Brickashaw Ferguson, David Harris, Nick Mangold as well as the recently departed Santonio Holmes and Mark Sanchez.

“This message change is not necessarily in response to l[Monday night’s] performance. We made a promise to our supporters that the longer this debacle dragged on, the louder we would get. What we want is for our owner to take responsibility for his mistakes,” said Jason Koeppel, one of the founders of FireJohnIdzik.com. “If he does not accept that responsibility and make the necessary changes, it will show Jets fans that he does not care. That is unacceptable and will shift 100 percent of the blame on to him.”