Jamal Adams, one of the most polarizing players in Jets history, is on a Jets redemption tour of sorts. It has been nearly six years since Adams, who was the Jets’ biggest star and most beloved player, became one of the most hated players in franchise history for admitting he didn’t believe in the future the team was building and forced his way out of town by publicly criticizing nearly everyone in the building.
His messy exit turned him into a villain, and added more scar tissue for long-suffering Jets fans. And he has been the object of many Jets’ fans ire, as they have united in their disdain for Adams on social media and everywhere else, ever since.
But Adams seems to be trying to change that perception in recent months. Posting frequently on social media about his love for the Jets and their fans and even
Adams has repeatedly signaled his love for Jets fans on Twitter in recent months, taking responsibility for his role in his disastrous exit – via a trade to the Seahawks in July of 2020 – and ultimately making it very obvious that he would not only be willing to return to the Jets, but wants to.
It all culminated earlier this week, when Adams spent more than two hours taking questions from Jets fans on the social media platform, X.
“I would be lying to you if I sat here and told you I didn’t want to return home,” Adams said in “The Jets Lounge” on Wednesday night. “I would love to be back with the Jets and obviously finish it the right way. That would be a dream come true.”
But is it an idea that’s even worth entertaining? It’s not a simple answer, because you have to consider Adams as a person and a player at this stage of his career before arriving at the answer.
From a human standpoint? A year ago the idea would have been laughable, because the general manager who was forced to trade him, Joe Douglas, was still on the job. The Adams exit was a huge mess early in Douglas’ tenure, and it was impossible to imagine a reunion with him still on the job.
But with Doulgas – and almost everyone in the building who was here with Adams – gone, the idea doesn’t seem so crazy. Especially considering that Adams is clearly going out of his way to right the wrongs of the past. And he admitted some of those wrongs this week.
“Am I proud about everything that happened, the way I went about it?” Adams said. “Probably not.”
There wasn’t much to be proud of. Adams said he was offended the Jets had conversations with other teams about trading for him – conversations that Doulgas said publicly, multiple times, were never serious – and used that as justification for publicly criticizing the team, from the middle of the locker room, for the rest of the season. And then, before the next season, he continued publicly criticizing the team over negotiations for a contract extension forcing them to trade him.
It was worse because Adams would boast about his leadership skills in the same media sessions where he admitted he was refusing to talk to the head coach (Adam Gase) and general manager, throughout November of the 2019 season – as the Jets were making a run to revive their slim playoff hopes – and had lost faith in their vision for the organization’s future.
There is no excuse for any of it. And it will always define his Jets legacy more than anything else. But should a series of poor decisions in his early 20s, under a harsh spotlight, prevent Adams from the chance at writing a different ending?
Let’s just say that we’d all have a hard time getting through life if the poor (non-criminal) decisions of our early 20s were held against us for the rest of our lives. So yes, we believe in second chances, especially because Adams is saying the right things.
“I’m not upset about how everybody turned on me, or whatever you want to call it,” Adams said of Jets fans. “It was deserved. Because again, as a, what was I, probably, 23, 24? As a 23-, 24-year-old, I didn’t understand how much of an impact I had on the fan base. I knew I had fans, I knew I had love, right? But I didn’t know me leaving would be this whole story, and this big story of hurting people … that was never my goal, but like I said, you live and learn from it.”
Let’s also not forget that while Adams went about it the wrong way, he had a point.
He said this week that he didn’t believe in Gase at the time, because he thought the new coach was a downgrade from Todd Bowles who was fired after the 2018 season. And his frustration grew with Gase, because he was laid back about the things Adams cared about – he wouldn’t address the team at halftime when things were going poorly, wouldn’t acknowledge how poorly things had gone after losses. But Adams said Gase also had rules that interfered with the players’ process – like not allowing music in the locker room before games.
“I felt like we didn’t have the right man for the job at the time to get where we needed to go,” Adams said.
Fair enough. He also said he wished he had handled one thing about the exit differently.
“My biggest regret is me and Joe Douglas never speaking,” Adams said. “We never spoke on the phone one time, we never spoke in person one time, before this trade happened. And that’s where I wish we could have that back, because I cant speak for him but I didn’t go about it the right way at that time.”
Of course, Adams publicly criticizing Douglas, for months, merely for picking up the phone when other teams called asking about Adams, probably had something to do with that. But either way, that’s all water under the bridge now.
If Adams were to come back to the Jets, he would have no problem with the guy running the show, because Aaron Glenn actually ran his Pro Day workout at LSU in 2017, back when Glenn was coaching the Saints defensive backs. And Adams played for Glenn’s Lions at the end of last year as a practice squad pickup.
“When I did get the call to go to Detroit, I was super excited, man,” Adams said. “Because I always wanted to be coached by him. He’s a legend. [His photo is] on the wall at the Jets facility, I used to see that all the time. So I always knew he was a ballplayer, just seeing him get the [Jets] job, it was pretty cool … it’s well deserved.
“He’s a guy who is going to put his best foot forward, he’s going to push his guys, he’s going to hold everybody accountable, and he takes no bullshit, he doesn’t. He’s straight to it. And I can respect that, man. And he’s gonna demand greatness out of everybody in that room and that’s all you can ask for as a head coach.”
So, yes, there’s a world where Adams coming back to the roster wouldn’t be a nightmare for the coaching staff, and while some fans wouldn’t be able to forgive him, understandably, most would probably be able to accept him given his willingness to openly discuss his mistakes of the past.
The bigger question now is if signing Adams makes sense from a football standpoint. Adams is still only 29, so you can’t write off the possibility of him returning to play at a high level. But it seems exceedingly unlikely. He hasn’t been the same player since injuries caught up with him at the end of 2021 in his second season in Seattle. And he hasn’t been able to get on the field: he has played just 15 games in the last three seasons.
And while Glenn’s Lions signed Adams last year, they also cut him from the practice squad a month later, before the playoffs.
So while we hope Adams gets that chance to write his redemption story, his biggest hurdle won’t be winning over the fan base, but convincing the coaching staff that he still has something in the tank.
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Andy Vasquez may be reached atavasquez@njadvancemedia.com.