Robert Wood Johnson IV, whose great-grandfather founded Johnson & Johnson, won the right yesterday to buy the Jets for $635 million, the third-highest price for a professional sports team and the most for one in New York.
Johnson, whose connection to big-time New York sports had been confined to courtside seats at Knick games, outbid the $612 million offered by Charles F. Dolan, the chairman of Cablevision, which owns Madison Square Garden, the Knicks and the Rangers.
”We want to emphasize that we are totally dedicated to bringing a winning and a championship team to this area,” Johnson said in a statement. ”We understand and appreciate the difficulties inherent in that goal, but we look forward to working with Steve Gutman and Bill Parcells in developing a first-class organization, which is a cornerstone to developing a winning franchise.”
The price seems remarkable for a team with a downtrodden history, and which finished with a 1-15 record as recently as 1996. The Jets staged a revival under Coach Bill Parcells — playing for the American Football Conference championship last year — but spun into public disarray last week when Parcells stepped down and his designated successor, Bill Belichick, cited the uncertainty over the team’s ownership when he quit the next day.
