Jan 3rd 2009 1:30PM by Adam Gretz (author feed)
Filed under: Jets, NFL Coaching
The current saga that is New York Jets football continues to take bizarre twists and turns, as Teddy Atlas, a friend of recently fired head coach Eric Mangini and a personal assistant for the team (in the field of ), has become the latest person to jump on the pile of chaos in the Big Apple.

As Atlas tells it, Mangini wanted to enter the season with an open quarterback competition between Chad Pennington and Kellen Clemens, while the team would play a “protect the ball, intelligent approach.” Things changed, naturally, when Brett Favre came to town and played his . It worked for a while, then all went terribly wrong in the second half of the season, resulting in finger-pointing, name-calling, and general insanity. Here’s what Atlas had to say, courtesy of Brian Costello of the : “Mangini went into the season ready for a whole different approach, whether it was going to be Chad Pennington or Kellen Clemens (at quarterback), whoever won that battle,” Atlas told The Post. “It was going to be a secure, protect the ball, intelligent approach. It was something he was comfortable with, something he believed in. The whole plan, the whole blueprint got thrown out the window when Favre came. He’s the antithesis of that. He throws the ball all over the place.”Atlas also claims that Jets owner Woody Johnson “forced” the trade on Mangini, and called Favre “basically a selfish guy.” Well, Teddy, you’re going to have to get in line behind Thomas Jones, Kerry Rhodes and Bruce Ciskie.Continue Reading