I find myself confused as well, Jackson is way too smart to believe the team wouldn’t face considerable backlash and how he’s commented on how the front office will run and how decisions will be made, it seems like while maybe there’s some traits he values in Bowman he likely could of found another similar candidate without the baggage. Its why I don’t think Bowman’s past GM track record is all that relevant because Jackson is going to have the final say on player personnel, trades and signings so really it’s his judgement that matters and going off what he’s done so far I’m confident the team will be making good moves.
It’s why the decision to deal with the headache of hiring Bowman is perplexing and I’ve come up with two possible reasons for it. The first is to use the opportunity to spin a negative into a positive, once they quell the initial backlash I wouldn’t be surprised to see them doing more work in this space, rolling out awareness initiatives, maybe work through the community foundation, maybe a 50/50 in support of victims of abuse. Working with stakeholders in this space and taking steps to raise awareness, visibility and be a leader. Spin it as hiring someone else would have been the easy thing to do but Bowman’s hiring gives them an opportunity to confront and bring awareness to a difficult subject. Bowman’s mistake and subsequent work to educate himself and the sharing of his experiences could help others make better decisions in the future if they find themselves in a similar position.
The second reason is using the public hate as motivation. Jackson likely knew the hiring would come with a lot of hate directed towards the team and that can be extremely motivating. That outside noise tends to galvanize an us vs the world mentality and really when people are hating on you there’s no better feeling then throwing success in their faces,it can be a really powerful tool. Thats one of the reasons I love Michael Jordan, the guy would invent slights and situations to use as motivation, what if this is just a version of that on Jackson’s part. Floyd Mayweather is another one of these athletes who loved making people hate him just so he could use that as motivation to win.