TOKYO – The Jets embarked on the first adventure of what they hope will be a wildly-successful 2003 season when they boarded Japan Airlines Flight No. 8811 en route to Tokyo yesterday.
It’ll be in Toyko, a daunting 14-hour flight and a litany of time zones away, where the Jets will begin their preseason with a game against the Super Bowl champion Buccaneers on Saturday.
The team, 85 players strong, coaches and support staff were scheduled for about an hour-long walkthrough almost immediately upon arriving at 3:45 p.m. Tokyo time.
The most popular and pressing question involving this trip is whether it’ll set back the Jets’ preseason preparation because of the long flights, jet lag and general interruption.
Because of the above-mentioned pitfalls, Bill Parcells always ardently avoided overseas preseason trips while with the Giants and Jets.
The Herman Edwards Jets, however, are embracing the trip for a number of reasons.
Firstly, Edwards is a league man. For Edwards, it’s all about the NFL shield and whatever the league asks him to do, he’ll do. Team owner Woody Johnson, also, is a significant ally of the league, so it was a no-brainer for him to accept the invite.
“The league wants us to go and that’s an honor,” Jets’ GM Terry Bradway said. “They want us to represent the league. It’s not like we’re some 6-10 team. We feel like we’ve got a pretty good program here.”
The Jets, too, are much more in tune with marketing their product than they ever were, so this is a perfect opportunity to enhance their profile.
Can it hurt the program on the field?
The consensus is that it can if you let it.
“If you make a big deal out of it, it can be a built-in excuse,” Edwards said. “While I was with Kansas City, we played the American Bowl in Japan and in Germany, and it didn’t affect us that badly. Both years we still made it to the playoffs. I don’t use it as an excuse.
“You can look at it [negatively], that this is going to be disruptive and knock us out of our camp routine, but we started a week earlier than everyone else. We’ve got a 10-practice head start.
“Once we get on the plane and read three novels, watched 10 movies, have no batteries left for the DC, then we’ll practice,” Edwards said. “That’ll be an eye-opener for all of us, to go right to practice after being on plane [for 14 hours].”
Edwards said he’s taking extra precautions to make sure the players are well-rested and over jet lag when they return. The team is due back around midnight Saturday after the game and will have off Sunday and Monday.
“I haven’t heard any negative comments from any of our players,” Bradway said.
The players are, indeed, curious, however.
“I don’t know what it’s going to be like; I’ve never really thought about going over there,” WR Santana Moss said. “This will be a chance for all of us to do something different, even if it’s only for a short time.”
Kevin Mawae said though it’ll be a short turnaround, it shouldn’t hurt the team.
One player who’ll surely embrace this experience more than anyone is Yoshi Imoto, who’s not even a real Jet, though he’ll be wearing No. 9 in a Jets’ uniform for Saturday’s game. Imoto is the Jets’ designated Japanese player for the game. He’s a receiver who actually sells apparel in Japan for a living.
You can rest assured that Edwards will make every effort to throw a number of balls Imoto’s way in an effort to appease the Japanese fans.
He’s a 27-year-old who played football at Ritsumeikan University in Japan. He’s been taking part in training camp so far this summer.
“This has been an experience I’ll remember for a lifetime,” Imoto said. “I cherish being able to be here.”
Hopefully, the rest of the Jets will feel the same way once the trip is complete.
