Le’Veon just the latest player who had enough

Adam Gase is a malignant presence that corrupts every corner of a franchise. He operates by fear and paranoia and the overriding principle that those in his sphere should shield outsiders from his incompetence.

He is the iceberg 500 miles south of the Arctic Circle. He is the albatross around everyone’s necks. He is a big reason why the Jets are lampooned by the football world today.

The short, ugly Le’Veon Bell chapter in the Book of Adam repeats the story of a stubborn charlatan who drove away someone willing to help.

Bell was the latest player who had enough of Gase.

“For whatever reason,” Gase said Wednesday after the Jets cut Bell, “it didn’t work out.”

The reason evidently was only a mystery to Gase. It was plain as day to everyone else.

Gase singlehandedly took

Bell off a Hall of

Fame track, refusing to play to a special talent’s strengths. Instead, the guy who has parlayed Peyton Manning’s greatness into not one — but two — head coaching gigs wanted Bell to conform to his offense.

While actual brilliant offensive minds who are coaching football to where it’s going tailor schemes to what their players do best, Gase didn’t yield. It was his way or the highway.

Now, Bell is on the highway to freedom like Ryan Tannehill, Robby Anderson, Jarvis Landry, DeVante Parker, Mike Gesicki, Kenyan Drake, Damien Williams and others who have found so much more success away from this failed coach.

Gase’s has a boundless ego born from a delusion that he actually had a real hand in his greatest professional success. The truth, of course, is that he rode Manning’s coattails in Denver.

Gase has been on only four teams with a winning record in 17 NFL seasons. Manning was the quarterback in three of those four seasons. In other words, Gase has been associated with just one winning team in 13 NFL seasons without Manning.

It’ll be one in 14 seasons soon unless the 0-5 Jets pull off a miracle in the final three months to finish above .500. (Spoiler: They won’t).

In short, this football lifer is quite literally a loser (as a coach).

Gase is a snake oil salesman who found his mark 22 months ago. Although more and more people inside the organization are tuning Gase out, he curiously still has enough pull to make relatively important decisions even as he makes a beeline to the center of the Earth.

At a time when Joe Douglas should be putting his foot down no matter what the reporting structure technically is, the general manager is allowing more nonsense to continue.

Douglas’ odd behavior behind the scenes is a different discussion for a different day, but one thing should be crystal clear: No GM should placate this lame-duck head coach with a history of alienating good players that he is unable to coach.

A winning organization finds solutions with players like Bell, who can be an asset to a young quarterback. Instead, Jets decision makers signed off on taking away one of the few weapons that can actually help Sam Darnold’s development.

It’s maddening on a million levels.

How exactly does Douglas — who blathered something to Darnold’s parents last year about helping their son — plan on properly evaluating the 23-year-old signal-caller with this woeful supporting cast?

Perhaps the league’s worst offense would get a jolt by replacing Gase with Jim Bob Cooter as the primary play-caller. A fresh set of eyes can’t hurt when you’re circling the drain in virtually every offensive statistical category.

Alas, Gase shut the door on that possibility Wednesday after supposed deep consultation with his staff, Douglas and others.

“We talked about it as a staff,” Gase claimed. “None of those guys thought it was the right move to make. That was just kind of talking with those guys and seeing if we needed to make any changes in that area. Nobody thought that was the reason why anything is going the way it’s going.” ase’s offense ranks 32nd in scoring, passing, first downs, red zone efficiency, scoring margin, points per play and yards per passing attempt. The Jets are 31st in total yards, touchdowns, yards per play and punts per game. Jets running backs are averaging 3.4 yards per carry.

The play-calling? It’s fine. Gase’s buddies said so.

The Jets are a dysfunctional mess for a reason. Somebody inside that building needs to stand up and call it like it is.

G