Imagine going to work in the morning, arriving at your office and politely being told to go home.
Imagine going to work and being told you were welcome to walk around, but you were not permitted to use the office facilities.
Such is the bizarro-world life for the Jets players as well as many more around the NFL at the moment.
Despite the Monday ruling by U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson that granted the players’ request for an injunction to end the 45-day lockout by the owners, the lockout really wasn’t lifted at all.
When the judge ruled for the lockout lift Monday, players thought they could return to their respective places of work and begin to work out and see the trainers. This was not the case at the Jets’ Florham Park, N.J., facility yesterday as at least six players came to work and were turned away.
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When Jets right guard Brandon Moore, the team’s assistant player rep, arrived he immediately felt like an outsider despite being one of the longest-tenured players on the team.
“It was uncomfortable, like we shouldn’t be there,” Moore said. “They, in so many words, told us to go back home. We were told the weight room wasn’t open and that we couldn’t go into the trainer’s room. They asked us to respect that.”
The “they” Moore was referring to included Dave Szott, the Jets’ director of player development, and Ari Nissim, the team’s director of football administration.
Though players saw coaches’ cars in the parking lot, no coaches appeared to be in their offices.
“Everybody was cleared out,” Moore said. “It was like a ghost town.”
Moore, coming off surgery in the offseason, wanted to see head trainer John Mellody to be checked out and work on some exercises.
“I was told that the trainers were at some meeting or conference in the city, which was strange,” Moore said. “So we were told we couldn’t use the facility unsupervised. They told us we could walk around but we couldn’t use anything. It was very strange to come to work and be treated that way.”
Moore was joined at the facility by left tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson, defensive tackle Mike DeVito, receiver Jerricho Cotchery and linebackers Bart Scott and David Harris. Some of the players, including Ferguson ($750,000), DeVito ($350,000) and Scott ($250,000) came to work as a clear maneuver to protect the workout bonuses that are written into their contracts.
Ferguson, for example, must attend at least 85 percent of the workouts, so he was advised by his agent, Brad Blank, to get to work yesterday.
“I told him it was important for the record that you go there to show you’re willing to go to work, to protect the workout bonus,” Blank said.
“While it’s still a pending matter, they said they’re not letting players work out,” Ferguson said. “I don’t know if that makes sense. Maybe tomorrow I’ll brush my hair differently and they’ll let me in.”
Scott, who loves to gas bag with the media to showcase his loquacious personality when it’s convenient for him, did the image of his fellow locked-out players no favors by speeding away in a white Ferrari that’s probably worth more than the $250,000 workout bonus he was there to protect.
As for Rex Ryan, he and the coaches were nowhere to be found, and the team declined any comment, referring any comments from the league.
Ryan is not only preparing for the NFL Draft, which begins Thursday and runs for three days, but he’s also gearing up for a media tour to promote his new book.
Though the players find nothing funny about their current situation, Ryan will be yukking it up with David Letterman on Monday night as part of his book-publicity blitz.
Asked what the plan is from here, Moore said, “I don’t think I’ll be wasting gas going back and forth to see if they’ll let us in the building to work. This is getting silly now.”