Brian Bassett , theJetsBlog.com

Sometimes you see a quote so succinctly encapsulate something you yourself think that you wish you thought of it first.  That is absolutely the case for me when I read George Bretherton’s tweet last night while watching the Broncos-Steelers game.

It's time to state the obvious… the REAL circus the last few months in NY has been the media's coverage of the Jets, not the team… #NYJ—
George Bretherton (@fifthdownnyc) September 10, 2012

There’s been two things at work here all offseason that we’ve witnessed and has been driving us crazy.

1) In general, the media knows what sells and has desperately shoehorned Tebow Coverage right alongside of the Jets Coverage.  Editors have been pushing it from humble local papers to national outlets alike.  There were at least two national outlets present during my time at Jets camp who sent two reporters, one to cover the Jets and one to cover Tebow … no joke.

2) The analyst side of the house in many cases of the very same news gatherers has discounted the Jets this season – especially during the preseason – I’m guessng mostly based on the fatigue from their (and our) forced consumption of this media manufactured coverage/controversy from their own executives.  Also because most TV NFL analysts can only knee-jerk react to what’s in front of their face, not think cogently about the larger picture like the fact that much of the team who made two AFC Championship runs is still intact.

So the Jets win yesterday and Bart Scott’s reaction after the game is evidence that the Jets players aren’t taking too kindly to the way they’ve been treated publicly.  After the game, Bart Scott was on a crusade to make the media aware that their condescension isn’t much appreciated by him or his team.

Via USA Today.

“You guys treat us like we’re a (bleeping) joke,” Scott said. “You all want us to feed your papers, but then you all talk (bleep) about us. So why would I want to give you all quotes to sell papers with if you all treat us like (bleep)? That doesn’t make sense.

“You all talk stuff about us, and then when we win you flip the story. You all win either way.”

So you’re boycotting the media because you take exception to the circus references?

“I’m just going to be quiet,” Scott said.

I got to talk with him shortly during training camp and Jim Corbett is a super nice guy.  So in some ways I’m sorry he was the beneficiary of this, but it’s clear that Scott’s was sending a message to a larger audience and Corbett was the unfortunate recipient.  For some fun, you can see Scott winding himself up on the field with SalPal before heading into the locker room and talking to Corbett, and you can see that ESPN interview here.

We hope the Jets don’t lose the us against the world vibe any time soon.  They’re going to need it over the course of the season – especially coming up this week against a Steelers team now livid after losing their opener on the road.

If anything maybe all the media fun at the expense of the Jets helped to make this team come together all the more.  There were a lot of broken pieces at the end of last season, but maybe the white hot scrutiny that the media has placed on the Jets only helped to fuse them back together.