THE NEW YORK TIMES SPORTSWEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2020 N B9SCOREBOARD PRO FOOTBALL
Adam Gase’s continuing em-
ployment as the Jets’ coach
adheres to a questionable princi-
ple: If you can’t be good at your
job, be so thoroughly, defiantly
terrible at it that
your superiors
think that you
must be doing
something right.
The 0-11 Jets
rank dead last in
the N.F.L. in points and total
yards. Football Outsiders calcu-
lates a 32.6 percent chance that
they will finish the season 0-16.
Sam Darnold, the would-be fran-
chise quarterback Gase was
hired to develop, has regressed
so badly that he appears unsal-
vageable. The only reason to
watch the 2020 Jets is to experi-
ence the shameful thrill of rub-
bernecking a turnpike pileup. Yet
Gase retains his job, even though
Bill O’Brien and Matt Patricia,
his peers in coaching ineptitude,
have already been fired this
season, by the Houston Texans
and the Detroit Lions.
The Jets’ 20-3 loss to the Mi-
ami Dolphins last week was
punctuated by a farcical
postgame controversy. Gase
turned play-calling duties over to
the longtime assistant Dowell
Loggains in late October, and
Loggains appeared to be growing
into the role when the Jets
scored 55 combined points in
narrow losses to the New Eng-
land Patriots and the Los Ange-
les Chargers. But on Sunday,
Gase again wielded the headset
and play sheet, the crown and
scepter of play-calling power, and
the Jets were held to 10 or fewer
points for the sixth time this
season.
It looked as though Gase had
seized back authority from his
semi-impressive subordinate the
way Michael Scott of “The Of-
fice” might do if Dwight Schrute
led Dunder Mufflin to two prof-
itable weeks of paper sales. Yet
Gase spun a curious tale in his
postgame news conference that
Loggains selected plays and
relayed them to Darnold through
Gase, with the head coach taking
over on third downs and in two-
minute situations. “It’s not hard.
This is not hard,” Gase insisted.
Perhaps Gase really has inno-
vated an atypical, stunningly
impractical new play-calling
procedure. His postgame expla-
nation seemed as if he were
trying to Jedi mind-trick observ-
ers into doubting the obvious.
Gase’s entire head coaching
career, dating to his three sea-
sons with the Miami Dolphins,has been a tour de force of blame
deflection and expectation tem-
pering. He has appeared to alien-
ate star players until they were
branded as underachievers or
malcontents. His organizational
philosophy seems to hinge upon
scapegoating departed coaches
or executives (like the former
Jets general manager Mike
Maccagnan, who ran the team
from 2015 to 2019 and deserves
plenty of blame), creating buffers
to insulate him from accountabil-ity (the Jets’ current general
manager, Joe Douglas, appears
to fit this bill) and retaining
assistants who are no threat to
his authority (Loggains, until last
week).
On the field, Gase’s game plans
hew strictly to Zeno’s Paradoxes:
The offense always strives to
gain half the distance needed for
a first down, even if it means
calling an 18-inch pass on third-
and-1. It’s a system that was
successful only when Gase co-ordinated Peyton Manning’s
Denver Broncos offense in 2013
and 2014. Like O’Brien (who
coached Tom Brady during the
late-middle of his career) and
Patricia (who in 2017 helped a
Patriots team that always wins
the Super Bowl to almost win the
Super Bowl), Gase successfully
parlayed a brief brush with a
Hall of Famer into a head coach-
ing career. But Gase has proved
more adept than the others this
season at sidestepping conse-
quences.
Gase thrives in an atmosphere
of Jets fatalism: Teams are so
bad this year that they have no
choice but to wait for next year,
yet they cannot expect to com-
pete next year because they
were so bad this year. Perhaps
that’s what the Jets and the
Dolphins saw in him: After 20
years of Patriots dominance,
A.F.C. East teams have been
conditioned to institutionalized
hopelessness.
Consider how the Jets recoiled
from their modest success in- Most teams would have
built upon going 6-2 in their final
eight games of the season by
improving the roster. Gase found
reasons to jettison wide receiver
Robby Anderson, safety Jamal
Adams and (earlier this season)
running back Le’Veon Bell, three
of the team’s few proven veter-
ans/trade assets.
As a result, the 2020 Jets were
custom-built to fail, making it
easier to justify weekly humilia-
tions and Darnold’s stagnation.
Gase may not actually be trying
to fail, but it’s difficult to pinpoint
what someone would do differ-
ently if they were.
The greatest testament to
Gase’s near-willful ineptitude is
not the Jets’ current failure but
the success he has left in his
wake. Ryan Tannehill, whose
career flatlined under Gase in
Miami, is now a Pro Bowl quar-
terback for the 8-3 Tennessee
Titans. Adams leads the 8-3
Seattle Seahawks in sacks. An-
derson ranks fourth in the N.F.L.
with 75 receptions for the Car-
olina Panthers. Bell is a con-
tented role player for the mighty
Kansas City Chiefs. And many of
Gase’s former extended-stay
doghouse residents are having
productive seasons for the 7-4
Dolphins.
Perhaps that means that there
is hope for Darnold, and that the
Jets can slingshot toward rele-
vance once Gase is (inevitably?)
gone..
If life tends to get better in the
post-Gase era, the Jets should do
everything possible to hasten its
arrival.Losing Every Game, and Shifting the Blame
MIKE
TANIER
TREND
WATCHKATELYN MULCAHY/GETTY IMAGESJamal Adams (33) pressuring Carson Wentz on Monday night.
Gase jettisoned Adams, who now leads the Seahawks in sacks.ELSA/GETTY IMAGESAdam Gase
has a 32.6
percent
chance of
guiding the
Jets to an
0-16 record,
Football Out-
siders said.SOCCER
SOCCERM.L.S. PLAYOFF SCHEDULE
CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS
Eastern Conference
Sunday, Nov. 29
New England 3, Orlando City 1
Columbus 2, Nashville 0
Western Conference
Tuesday, Dec. 1
Dallas at Seattle
Thursday, Dec. 3
Minnesota United at Sporting Kansas City,
8:30 p.m.
CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Eastern Conference
Sunday, Dec. 6
New England at Columbus, 3 p.m.
Western Conference
Monday, Dec. 7
Seattle-Dallas winner vs. Sporting KC-
Minnesota winner, 3 or 6:30 p.m.
M.L.S. CUP
Saturday, Dec. 12
Teams TBD, 8 p.m.
FOOTBALLN.F.L. STANDINGS
AMERICAN CONFERENCE
East W L T Pct PF PA
Buffalo .......8 3 0 .727 299 282
Miami ........7 4 0 .636 284 205
N. England ....5 6 0 .455 229 255
Jets .........0 11 0 .000 152 322
South W L T Pct PF PA
Tennessee ....8 3 0 .727 324 285
Indianapolis ....7 4 0 .636 302 253
Houston ......4 7 0 .364 268 297
Jacksonville ....1 10 0 .091 227 325
North W L T Pct PF PA
Pittsburgh ....10 0 0 1.000 298 174
Cleveland .....8 3 0 .727 265 286
Baltimore .....6 4 0 .600 268 195
Cincinnati .....2 8 1 .227 230 289
West W L T Pct PF PA
Kansas City... 10 1 0 .909 348 238
Las Vegas..... 6 5 0 .545 292 319
Denver .......4 7 0 .364 209 298
L.A. Chargers... 3 8 0 .273 277 300
NATIONAL CONFERENCE
East W L T Pct PF PA
Giants .......4 7 0 .364 214 253
Washington ....4 7 0 .364 241 243
Phila. ........3 7 1 .318 237 277
Dallas ........3 8 0 .273 251 359
South W L T Pct PF PA
New Orleans... 9 2 0 .818 326 225
Tampa Bay ....7 5 0 .583 344 280
Atlanta .......4 7 0 .364 295 281
Carolina ......4 8 0 .333 280 300
North W L T Pct PF PA
Green Bay ....8 3 0 .727 349 283
Chicago ......5 6 0 .455 216 250
Minnesota .....5 6 0 .455 292 305
Detroit .......4 7 0 .364 252 328
West W L T Pct PF PA
Seattle .......8 3 0 .727 341 304
L.A. Rams .....7 4 0 .636 263 215
Arizona .......6 5 0 .545 304 258
San Fran. .....5 6 0 .455 261 254
Monday, Nov. 30
Seattle 23, Philadelphia 17
Wednesday, Dec. 2
Baltimore at Pittsburgh, 3:40 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 6
Las Vegas at Jets, 1 p.m.
Giants at Seattle, 4:05 p.m.
Cincinnati at Miami, 1 p.m.
Cleveland at Tennessee, 1 p.m.
Detroit at Chicago, 1 p.m.
Indianapolis at Houston, 1 p.m.
Jacksonville at Minnesota, 1 p.m.
New Orleans at Atlanta, 1 p.m.
L.A. Rams at Arizona, 4:05 p.m.
New England at L.A. Chargers, 4:25 p.m.
Philadelphia at Green Bay, 4:25 p.m.
Denver at Kansas City, 8:20 p.m.
Open: Carolina, Tampa Bay
ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE
Team GP W D L GF GA Pts
Tottenham ....10 6 3 1 21 9 21
Liverpool .....10 6 3 1 22 17 21
Chelsea .....10 5 4 1 22 10 19
Leicester .....10 6 0 4 19 14 18
West Ham ....10 5 2 3 17 11 17
Southampton.. 10 5 2 3 19 16 17
Wolverhampton 10 5 2 3 11 11 17
Everton ......10 5 1 4 19 17 16
Man United ....9 5 1 3 16 16 16
Aston Villa .....9 5 0 4 20 13 15
Man City ......9 4 3 2 15 11 15
Leeds....... 10 4 2 4 15 17 14
Newcastle ....10 4 2 4 12 15 14
Arsenal ......10 4 1 5 10 12 13
Crystal Palace. 10 4 1 5 12 15 13
Brighton .....10 2 4 4 14 16 10
Fulham ......10 2 1 7 11 19 7
West Brom... 10 1 3 6 7 18 6
Burnley .......9 1 2 6 4 17 5
Sheffield United 10 0 1 9 4 16 1
Monday, Nov. 30
Leicester 1, Fulham 2
West Ham 2, Aston Villa 1
Friday, Dec. 4
Aston Villa vs. Newcastle
Saturday, Dec. 5
Burnley vs. Everton
Man City vs. Fulham
West Ham vs. Man United
Chelsea vs. Leeds
TRANSACTIONSM.L.B.
American League
CHICAGO WHITE SOX — Named Miguel
Cairo bench coach; Ethan Katz pitching
coach; Curt Hasler assistant pitching coach;
Frank Menechino hitting coach; Howie Clark
assistant hitting coach; Daryl Boston first-
base coach; Joe McEwing third-base coach;
Shelly Duncan analytics coordinator.
KANSAS CITY ROYALS — Signed LHP Mike
Minor to a two-year contract. Agreed to
terms with RHP Jakob Junis on a one-year
contract.
OAKLAND ATHLETICS — Agreed to terms
with RHP Burch Smith and INF/OF Chad
Pinder on one-year contracts.
National League
SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS — Announced the
hiring of J.P Martinez as assistant pitching
coach.
WASHINGTON NATIONALS — Agreed to
terms with RHP Joe Ross to a one-year
contract.
N.B.A.
OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER — Waived G
Josh Gray.
WASHINGTON WIZARDS — Signed F
Anthony Gill.
N.F.L.
ARIZONA CARDINALS — Activated DL
Rashard Lawrence from injured reserve.
ATLANTA FALCONS — Placed WR Olamide
Zaccheaus on injured reserve. Activated WR
Laquon Treadwell from the reserve/COVID-19
list and signed to the active roster.
CLEVELAND BROWNS — Activated DE
Myles Garrett from the reserve/COVID-19 list.
Placed S Ronnie Harrison on injured reserve.
Released CB Stephen Denmark from the
practice squad.
DENVER BRONCOS — Activated QBs Drew
Lock, Brett Rypien and Blake Bortles from
the reserve/COVID-19 list.
DETROIT LIONS — Signed DT Kevin Strong
to the practice squad.
GREEN BAY PACKERS — Signed WR Tavon
Austin. Released WR Darrius Shepherd.
INDIANAPOLIS COLTS — Released RB
Darius Jackson from the practice squad.
MINNESOTA VIKINGS — Waived LS Austin
Cutting and LB Hardy Nickerson. Released
CB Marcus Sayles from the practice squad.
Placed TE Brandon Dillon on the protected
practice squad list.
GIANTS — Placed OLB Kyler Fackrell on
injured reserve. Activated OT Matt Peart, WR
Dante Pettis and TE Kaden Smith from the
reserve/COVID-19 list. Released WR Derrick
Dillon and TE Nate Wieting from the practice
squad. Waived DB Montre Hartage and P
Ryan Santoso.
SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS — Placed CBs
Jamar Taylor and Ken Webstr on injured
reserve. Waived S Chris Edwards.
COLLEGE BASKETBALLMEN'S SCORES
EAST
Bryant 93 ........ New Hampshire 85
Navy 78 ............ Georgetown 71
St. Peter’s 82 ........ Stony Brook 68
Villanova 87 ............ Hartford 53
SOUTH
East Carolina 91 ...... NC Wesleyan 62
VMI 84 .............. Longwood 71
Virginia 76 ........ St. Francis (Pa.) 51
MIDWEST
Creighton 94 ...... Nebraska-Omaha 67
Purdue 93 ............. Oakland 50
Texas 66 ............... Indiana 44
Wisconsin 82 .......... Green Bay 42
FAR WEST
North Carolina 67 ........ Stanford 63
Southern Cal 79 ............ BYU 53
UC Riverside 57 ....... Washington 42
WOMEN'S SCORES
EAST
St. John’s 85 .......... St. Peter’s 47
SOUTH
Campbell 42 ...... UNC-Greensboro 38
Florida St. 81 ............ Florida 75
George Mason 77 ....... Longwood 65
Tulane 77 ......... South Alabama 73
Virginia Tech 92.. George Washington 57
MIDWEST
Akron 70 ............ N. Kentucky 60
The United States Soccer Fed-
eration and its World Cup cham-
pion women’s team said Tuesday
that they had resolved the play-
ers’ outstanding claims about
working conditions, a rare mo-
ment of détente — and mutual
happiness — before the sides’
long-running fight about equal
pay returns to federal court.
The agreement, filed in United
States District Court for the Cen-
tral District of California, is equal
parts labor peace and legal ma-
neuvering. For the players and
their lawyers, the deal brings op-
portunity: In settling their issues
related to working conditions, the
women’s stars cleared the way to
appealing a judge’s decision in
May that had rejected most of
their equal pay claims.
For the federation, removing
one of the last unresolved items in
the team’s wage-discriminationlawsuit allowed its new leadership
team to rid itself of one more point
of contention in a dispute they
would prefer to see end, and to sig-
nal that U.S. Soccer is open to
more accommodations.
U.S. Soccer’s president, Cindy
Parlow Cone, hailed Tuesday’s
agreement, saying it signaled the
federation’s efforts “to find a new
way forward” with the women’s
team and, hopefully, a way out of
the rest of the litigation. In a con-
ference call, she spoke of “a differ-
ent relationship” with the wom-
en’s team, of which she was once a
member, and of a chance to “re-
build the trust” between the sides.
In some ways, the agreement
simply codified an effort that U.S.
Soccer had already begun to re-
move any differences in areas like
staffing, travel, hotel accommoda-
tions and venue choices related to
men’s and women’s national team
matches. U.S. Soccer said it would
put the deal into effect immedi-ately.
The settlement does not ad-
dress past working conditions or
involve any payments to the wom-
en’s players, according to a U.S.
Soccer official familiar with the
agreement. And it does nothing to
address the women’s equal pay
claims, on which the sides remain
far apart. But in resolving the
players’ issues related to working
conditions, it will allow the play-
ers to refocus on overturning the
devastating ruling on their equal
pay claims. That effort, if success-
ful, could be worth tens of millions
of dollars in back pay and dam-
ages.
“We are pleased that the
USWNT players have fought for
— and achieved — long overdue
equal working conditions,” Molly
Levinson, a spokeswoman for the
players, said in a statement. “We
now intend to file our appeal to the
court’s decision, which does notaccount for the central fact in this
case that women players have
been paid at lesser rates than men
who do the same job.”
The women’s players and U.S.
Soccer have been plotting a path
forward in their relationship since
May, when a federal judge, R.
Gary Klausner, delivered a crush-
ing blow to the players’ equal pay
arguments.
In his ruling, Judge Klausner
not only dismissed the players’
contention that they were system-
atically underpaid by U.S. Soccer
in comparison with men’s national
team players, but he also said the
federation had substantiated its
argument that the women’s team
had actually earned more “on
both a cumulative and an average
per-game basis” than the men’s
team during the years at issue in
the lawsuit.
The ruling was a significant, if
unpopular, victory for U.S. Soccer.The stars of the women’s team —
players like Megan Rapinoe, Alex
Morgan and Julie Ertz — are some
of the federation’s most popular
and highest-paid employees, and
they had embraced the equal pay
fight. Using their years of media
training, their popularity and
their huge social media follow-
ings, they had worked effectively
since going public with their fight
nearly five years ago to bring fans
and, critically, federation spon-
sors to their cause.
In February, months before
Judge Klausner’s ruling, they had
set a price for ending their law-
suit: $67 million in back pay and
damages. On Tuesday, Parlow
Cone said even a much smaller
figure “would likely bankrupt the
federation.” But she stressed sev-
eral times during her conference
call that she and the federation’s
new leadership were eager to en-
gage in discussions that might
lead to a resolution.Reaching Deal With U.S. Soccer, Women’s Team Revives Fight on Pay
By ANDREW DASBASEBALL
The Mets agreed to a deal Tues-
day with a free-agent right-
handed pitcher named Trevor —
not Trevor Bauer, the National
League Cy Young Award winner,
but Trevor May, one of the better
relievers in the majors as a setup
man for the Minnesota Twins.
A baseball official with knowl-
edge of the deal confirmed the
agreement but spoke on condition
of anonymity because May must
first pass a physical exam. The
deal will be for two years, accord-
ing to ESPN.
May, 31, had a 3.86 earned run
average in 24 games for the Twins
last season, with 38 strikeouts in
23⅓ innings. Since returning from
Tommy John surgery in 2018, he is
one of only 10 active pitchers with
at least 100 relief appearances, an
E.R.A. below 3.20 and at least 12
strikeouts per nine innings.
A starter throughout the minors
and early in his major league ca-
reer, May has more pitches than
the typical reliever. He abandoned
his curveball last season, usingfewer fastballs, more changeups
and twice as many sliders as be-
fore. The combination helped him
strike out 14.7 hitters per nine in-
nings, the best figure of his six
seasons with the Twins.May has also cultivated a wide
following outside baseball as a
streamer for Luminosity, with
178,000 followers on Twitch. He
also hosts a podcast and founded a
company in Seattle that sells art-work inspired by the gaming
world.
In May — who worked with the
pitching coach Jeremy Hefner be-
fore the Mets hired him from Min-
nesota last year — the Mets add
another power arm to a deep
group of right-handed relievers
that also includes Dellin Betances,
Edwin Diaz, Jeurys Familia, Seth
Lugo, Brad Brach and Jacob
Barnes, who was claimed off
waivers from the Los Angeles An-
gels last month.
Under their new owner, Steven
A. Cohen, the Mets plan to be ag-
gressive in free agency, which is
off to a typically sluggish start. A
new wave of free agents will hit
the market on Wednesday night,
the deadline for teams to offer
contracts to players eligible for
salary arbitration.
The Mets must decide whether
to retain or non-tender the left-
hander Steven Matz and the right-
hander Robert Gsellman, two
homegrown pitchers who strug-
gled last season. Matz was 0-5with a 9.68 E.R.A., while Gsellman
had no record and a 9.64 E.R.A.
Bauer, who led the N.L. with a
1.73 E.R.A. for the Cincinnati
Reds, is the best starter of a thin
free-agent group. The market is
deeper elsewhere, with catchers
J.T. Realmuto and James McCann,
outfielders George Springer, Mar-
cell Ozuna, Michael Brantley and
Jackie Bradley Jr., infielders D.J.
LeMahieu, Justin Turner, Didi
Gregorius and Marcus Semien,
and closers Brad Hand and Liam
Hendriks.The New Mets Get a Fast Start in Free Agency by Signing a Reliever
By TYLER KEPNERTrevor May, who has agreed to a deal with the Mets, struck out
38 batters in 23⅓ innings for the Minnesota Twins last season.BRUCE KLUCKHOHN/ASSOCIATED PRESSBUSINESS:
Revolut Technologies Inc. in NYC,
NY seeks Operations Analyst; mail
resume to Revolut FAO: Talent, 148
Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10013
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