When Leadership Crosses a Line

Adolescent rites of passage can differ based on generation or culture, but there is one that most boys will experience at some point or another: being called a girl. Now, I’m not talking about a schoolyard squabble where one boy says to another “you play like a girl.” What I’m talking about is being called a girl by an adult, and, perhaps worst of all, an adult in charge.

While things have hopefully changed, when I grew up, this lazy insult was a common thing to hear from gym teachers and coaches. These days, it could actually be more of a compliment, particularly on the basketball court. And while there was a certain amount of misogyny involved, the goal wasn’t so much to disparage girls but to get the boys to play better. Frankly, I don’t think it ever did the trick; no matter how many times my Little League coach called us “ladies” in practice, we were still never able to hit the cutoff man in games.

When someone is the head of a team or the leader of an organization, one of their main jobs is to motivate. People will try harder when they’re given incentives or praise or just the right encouraging words that will light a fire under them. The problem, however, is that some leaders are terrible at this, and there have been a couple of recent sports examples.

It probably comes as little surprise that the NFL team with one of the worst records this century – and currently the one with the longest playoff drought – is the New York Jets. It probably also comes as no surprise that they’ve had the same owner for the last 25 years: Woody Johnson.

Johnson is the great-grandson of one of the co-founders of Johnson & Johnson, and he bought the Jets in 2000 with some of the billions he inherited. Ironically, this came from a company that used to sell Tylenol, which Jets fans have had to take by the truckload to deal with the headaches the organization has caused them.

While Johnson has stiff competition (David Tepper, I’m looking in your direction), by and large he is considered the worst owner in the NFL. And this doesn’t just stem from the fact that the Jets have been dreadful for over a decade. He continually makes terrible personnel decisions, many of which are influenced, apparently, by a video game. Yup, this is a man nearing 80 who evaluates players by looking at their Madden ratings.

In the offseason, Johnson chose to bring in Justin Fields, a quarterback who’s had a pretty shaky career, to say the least. And while he’s had an up and down (mostly down) season, instead of finding a way to inspire him – you know, like a good leader would do – Johnson took the opposite approach, denigrating his QB by saying this after the Jets’ 0-7 start: “It’s hard when you have a quarterback with a rating that we got.” (Presumably he meant QB rating and not Madden rating, but I guess you never know.) He then added: “If we could just complete a pass, it would look good.”

Fields, for his part, took the high road, saying “Everybody's entitled to their opinion. That's just what it is, but you just have a choice or not whether those opinions affect you or not.” He then proceeded to lead the Jets to their first win of the season, so maybe Johnson was onto something with his crass comments?

This wasn’t the first time the Jets’ owner has said questionable things concerning a player. Former quarterback Jordan Travis, who dealt with a serious leg injury that caused his pro career to end early, recalled Johnson making “slick comments” about his leg and asking him if he was ever going to get healthy.

Another guy who also seems pretty inept when it comes to positive reinforcement is Dave Dombrowski, president of baseball operations for the Philadelphia Phillies. When assessing the year Bryce Harper had, he was a bit less than complimentary, saying that although his star first baseman is “still a quality player…he didn't have an elite season like he's had in the past. I guess we only find out if he becomes elite or he continues to be good.”

Dombrowski wondered aloud if Harper would be able to get back to that level. “Again, it wasn't a bad year,” he said. “But when I think of Bryce Harper, you think elite, you think of one of the top-10 players in baseball, and I don't think it fit into that category.”

Harper, who reportedly came close to throwing down with Rob Manfred over the mere idea of a salary cap, was less angry and more hurt by Dombrowski’s comments. “It's disappointing to hear me being questioned about my contribution to the team,” he said. “Just really hurt by that notion because I love Philly so much.” The two have apparently buried the hatchet and only time will tell if this shot spurs Harper on for the 2026 season.

Were Johnson and Dombrowski trying to provide motivation or were they just venting? It’s hard to know. What we do know is that, as of this writing, neither has referred to their players as “girls,” so there is that.