This team hasn’t quit on Rex, so says a Jets player who is convinced that this 2-10 team will play “to the bitter end, no matter what the world says.” And they will do so for their head coach, who continues to be their inspiration. The Jets were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs two weeks ago with a loss to the Bills but the season, in many ways, felt lost weeks before that for many fans. Despite this fact and even as the losses continued to mount, the team continued to play hard. A Jets veteran told Metro on Tuesday that with the move back to Smith, management has “packed it in, waived the white flag, whatever you want to call it.” This player reached out to Metro again on Wednesday to clarify that the locker room hasn’t quit on the season. “I wasn’t trying to say that we’ve quit, that any of the players quit. I don’t think any of us have quit in this [locker] room,” the player told Metro. “But it seems like those above us, they’ve quit on this season. You can’t do that. Players need to make a living, get stuff on tape, play for that next year. But it seems like that isn’t important, that winning this year isn’t a big deal to them anymore. Like they’re already looking at 2015 and beyond. Maybe they felt that way earlier this year and stuff but I don’t know.” He underscored that his remarks to Metro on Tuesday “weren’t about us [the players] but a sense that the men upstairs have moved past this year. Like they’ve turned their backs on us.” There is one unifying factor in the locker room right now that guarantees that the team won’t entirely quit. That factor is ‘Rex.’
“Man, let me tell you something, Rex still has our hearts in his hands man,” the player told Metro. “He still gets us fired up, he gets it. You can tell that he’s doing his best to put us in the best spot to win, but it feels like he’s fighting that battle alone. “You see him here, late night. I heard he’s here until the early morning hours. Sometimes you’re here at this facility early for whatever and you see him in the hallway like ‘The Walking Dead’ or something. He’s still putting his all into this team. I don’t think anyone in here is going to quit on him or the fans. “We’re going to fight and do things the right way here as much as we can to the bitter end, no matter what the world says.”
Jets player: We fight even though management doesn’t care
