Davante Adams saw enough issues in one game with the New York Jets to feel the urge to speak up.
Shortly after a 37-15 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night left the Jets frustrated and disheartened, the recently acquired wide receiver stood in the middle of the locker room and spoke from his heart.
“It’s not really my personality to see something that’s not right and to just let it go on, regardless of whether it’s from the coaches, players, management, support staff, whoever,” Adams said Wednesday. “There was a lack of energy and urgency out there. And it was apparent, especially coming from, you know, I’ve played on teams that have that winning culture.
“And just basically, I just took a moment to let them know.”
He didn’t scream and yell — “but it wasn’t quiet,” Adams said — after the struggling Jets lost their fourth straight to drop to 2-5.
“I thought it was the realest speech I’d ever heard in a locker room in 20 years,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said.
Adams, traded from Las Vegas to New York on Oct. 15, was only with the Jets for five days and felt a little uncertain about speaking up too soon and how it would be received from the players, most of whom he barely knew.
“I’ve got to do whatever I’ve got to do to help this team move forward,” Adams said. “And lacking energy, I mean, that’s a prerequisite to be able to go out there and have a good year or have a good play or whatever it is. So in my mind, it was something that I wouldn’t have been able to sleep if I didn’t speak up on it.”
And to a man, the impromptu speech by Adams, who had three catches for 30 yards and hustled to make a touchdown-saving tackle on an interception in his Jets debut, was well-received by the entire team.
“I thought it was spot on, was amazing,” interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich said. “For a guy to just show up to have the feel of the heartbeat of our locker room and to speak on it was — he’s making us better in so many ways. And it’s not just the stuff between the…
Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/adams-implores-new-jets-teammates-to-improve-their-energy-during-realest-speech-rodgers-has-heard
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Publish date : 2024-10-23 22:54:37
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