Jets fans urging owner to fire GM

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Monday, November 3, 2014

A group of fed-up New York Jets fans hoped to raise $10,000 to put up a billboard near MetLife Stadium to implore owner Woody Johnson to fire general manager John Idzik. It took them less than a week to reach their goal.

Jason Koeppel, his brother Jared and two of his friends started the website FireJohnIdzik.com last week, launching it last Monday after listening to the second-year general manager's rambling state-of-the-team news conference.

They announced Sunday on Twitter that they had raised enough money for the billboard and displayed via another tweet that donations came from angry Jets fans throughout the country.

The billboard is expected to be in place by the end of this month and remain in place until early next year.

"We thought that it would take until the end of the season to raise the necessary fund. It took five days," the website's founders said in a statement, according to the New York Daily News. "This is only the beginning. FireJohnIdzik.com and our supporters will not go quiet until our mission of removing John Idzik from this organization is complete. The longer he is employed, the louder we will get. The fans have spoken. Are you listening, Woody?"

The location of the billboard will be announced later this week.

"We cannot disclose the location yet but we will say that we give our Joe Namath guarantee that it will be very visible," Jason Koeppel told Metro New York.

Idzik has been criticized for his failure to improve the Jets' roster this offseason despite having ample salary-cap space to sign players. The Jets entered the season with over $20 million in cap space. Idzik picked 12 players in the 2014 draft, but just eight remain with the franchise, and two of those players are out for the season with injuries.

The Jets fell to 1-8 with their 24-10 loss on Sunday to the Kansas City Chiefs. It was the Jets' eighth straight loss, tying the longest single-season losing streak in team history (previously done in 1975 and 1996).

In January 2013, Idzik became the fourth general manager to be hired in Johnson's 13-year tenure as Jets owner. He inherited coach Rex Ryan, who was retained by the Jets after the 2012 season despite the firing of then-general manager Mike Tannenbaum.

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