George Costanza, Positive K, & Vince Vaughn on Deshaun Watson
Before Larry David uttered his wistful words on Deshaun Watson and the Jets on Curb, his alter ego George Costanza provided some prescient posturing guidance as the NY team he worked for bantered with the Houston club.
“You tell that son of a bitch that no Yankee is ever coming to Houston. Not as long as you bastards are running things.”
Deshaun Watson may be worth the kitchen sink. But as the prophet Positive K would say, what’s your man got to do with me? With each passing day, it’s increasingly clear that the Texans need a well-endowed (traditional sense) square dance partner like Jets. So if you’ve got it, flaunt it.
I concur with VBD Chris Nimbley on today’s Play Like A Jet podcast that the Texans should consider themselves rather fortunate in the timing of their self-inflicted misfortune. If the Jets either didn’t have such assets, played coy, or opted out of the sweepstakes, then the Texans would be considerably closer to as SOL as they deserve to be.
Let’s be clear that the size of the Texans’ appetite is directly informed by the Jets’ impressive account balance. In other words, the Texans’ asking price just so happens to be predicated on a windfall of draft picks over a three-year horizon that one team typically never has. Yeah, so what if there was no Jamal Adams trade?
Don’t look inside my wallet and then tell me how much it costs. That’s not a called a ‘framework.’ That’s called a stickup. But I ain’t mad at ya’. You do you and I’ll do me.
The contours of negotiations are dictated by leverage — something closer to subjective than static. Body language matters. Timing, too. With that in mind, we’d be wise to play it cool like Vince Vaughn in Swingers.
The Texans need the Jets’ account balance to set the market. So eventually Houston will call Florham Park. Let the game come to us. Because it’d be pretty nervy for them to initiate trade talks and then ask for the moon. You called me, dude.
Look for Joe and the boys to keep grinding away in the war room and let the situation down south go further south as the draft creeps closer. Those bastards from Houston will call. Just don’t answer on the first ring.
Jon is the secret decoder ring of Play Like a Jet, because his diverse background in communications and public relations gives him a special insight into how teams and media work behind the scenes. Not many people have played the high-stakes PR game both under the Capitol dome and inside the National Football League, but Jon has. A leading communications and advocacy pro for the better part of two decades, Jon can claim the unique distinction of having served as both a spokesman for a Majority Leader and PR chief for a NFL franchise, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
