Jets kicker Jay Feely has post-football political aspirations; he makes no attempt to conceal them. But his comments regarding the late Chris Henry fail to demonstrate a high degree of political savvy.
Feely, with whom we’ve interacted in the past and who seems like a well-intentioned man and without question is a skilled kicker, had this to say on his Twitter page regarding Henry’s death: “Chris Henry seemed to have turned his life around. But, you can’t live on the brink of destruction without inevitably falling off the ledge.”
Later, Feely realized that he probably shouldn’t have said what he said.
“Maybe I did a poor job of expressing my sympathy while trying to look at the bigger picture of why this happened and how to avoid in future,” Feely explained in a subsequent tweet.
A search of Feely’s Twitter handle (“jayfeely”) reveals a variety of responses, most of which express disagreement with his sentiments -- some of which express strong disagreement with his senitments. Mike Freeman of CBSSports.com has written that his Friday column “will prominently feature Jay Feely’s crazy tweets.”
This isn’t about limiting Feely’s ability to speak his mind. He has that absolute right -- and those who don’t like what Feely says have the right to respond. The broader point here is that an active member of an NFL team not named the “Cincinnati Bengals” has deemed it prudent to chime in on the same day Chris Henry died with an opinion that Feely knew or should have known would be polarizing, at best.
So, Jay, we think you’ll ultimately realize your stated goal of becoming President.
As long as the targeted jurisdiction is Del Boca Vista, Phase III.