How Johnson’s ambassadorship might affect Jets
>> NEW YORK: With Jets owner Woody Johnson heading across the Atlantic to serve as the US ambassador to Britain, it is not known how his appointment will affect the day-to-day operations of the team.
But a recent precedent, in which Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Dan Rooney held the ambassadorship to Ireland from 2009 to 2012, offers a possible blueprint.
Rooney surrendered his positions on NFL committees and ceded the day-to-day operations of the Steelers to his son, Art Rooney II, the team’s president.
Dan Rooney still made it to Steelers home games, as well as to owners meetings.
Johnson currently serves on three NFL committees — for media, finance and business ventures — but he will probably have to resign from all of them because of his new post overseas.
Some owners, like Robert K Kraft of the New England Patriots, work from an office at the team facility, but Johnson, 69, does not.
That could ease the transition to a new management structure for the Jets, with Johnson’s younger brother, Christopher Wold Johnson, said to be in line to assume a more visible, and important, role with the team.
Meanwhile, dates were announced on Friday for two of the NFL’s four London games this year, with the league confirming Sept 24 and Oct 1 match-ups at Wembley Stadium.
The Jacksonville Jaguars will face the Baltimore Ravens in the first game with the Miami Dolphins meeting the New Orleans Saints a week later, with the Florida teams designated as “host” teams.
The Jaguars have a deal to play one home game a season in London while the Dolphins agreed to play a home game there as part of the deal awarding Miami the 2020 Super Bowl.
Two other 2017 NFL season contests will be played at Twickenham, with Cleveland facing Minnesota and the Los Angeles Rams to meet the Arizona Cardinals. They are expected to be played in late October but no dates have been announced by the league.