Blakeman and Hochul in an NFL Draft of their own

Daily Point

Gov candidates look downfield for voters with their NFL Draft takes

Even in the offseason, football fans can get pretty fired up about their teams.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and her Republican opponent, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, love talking football. Democrat Hochul never misses a chance to hype up the Buffalo Bills, and Blakeman has been known to wear his love of the New York Jets on his sleeve — literally, with a Joe Namath jersey.

After the National Football League's annual draft concluded Saturday, pundits gave high marks to all three New York teams, but The Point wanted to know: How did the state's gubernatorial rivals think their fav teams fared?

In pumping up her hometown pigskin team, Hochul didn't pass on the chance to take a shot at Blakeman. Hochul, through a spokesperson, touted the Bills' draft while mocking Blakeman's fandom. "Governor Hochul's Bills crushed it this draft, bolstering the defense and giving Josh Allen a new target at wide receiver — but good luck getting analysis from Bruce Blakeman, a lifelong Jets fan who's still got his Jets jersey and forgot the Bills even play in New York."

Blakeman did, in fact, provide analysis, even praising Buffalo's performance in the draft and predicting greatness while lauding the Jets and giving a shoutout to the Giants' fourth-round pick last year, Cam Skattebo, who has become a whimsical icon.

"Hope springs eternal that the Jets' picks will materially improve the team," Blakeman told The Point in a statement. "Nothing was more exciting than my fellow Arizona State alum Cam Skattebo getting drafted last year, and hopefully he's recovered from his injury, and this year's picks will add to the momentum he brought last season. The Bills had a truly awesome season last year, and these new picks should give them the extra push to get into the Super Bowl."

Will voters throw an unnecessary roughness flag on Hochul for taking a shot at Blakeman when he focused on football and not politics?

NFL pundits generally gave the Jets higher grades in this year's draft, largely due to securing three picks in the first round. The Giants also fared better than the Bills in draft grades from ESPN.com, NFL.com, USA Today and CBS Sports. According to The Point's highly scientific and completely legitimate analysis, the Jets' average draft grade was an A with the Giants and the Bills both getting an average grade of B+.

Ultimately, we won't know who had the better draft for a few years, long after we know who will be quarterbacking the state from the governor's office in the new term.

But Blakeman may take a measure of solace in the fact that this year's Mr. Irrelevant — the dubious title given to the last player taken in the draft — is from Buffalo. Red Murdock, from the University at Buffalo, was drafted 257th by the Denver Broncos, the final player taken despite owning the NCAA record for forced fumbles. Blakeman must be hoping Hochul fumbles down the homestretch of the campaign and fades into irrelevance.

But will his prior rooting for the Jets be a harbinger?

In a resurfaced social media post from 2014, when Blakeman was running for New York's CD4, he is seen in a Jets jersey talking to supporters. The caption reads: "Our campaign is like @nyjets. Press said they couldn't win Superbowl III & they did. It's January 1969 again! #ny04”

That year, after winning the season opener, the Jets lost eight in a row and were eliminated from playoff contention with a 38-3 loss in Week 12 to — you guessed it, Buffalo. Blakeman was eliminated from his congressional run that year in a 53-47 loss to Kathleen Rice.

— Mark Nolan mark.nolan@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Florida reimagined

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Final Point

County to issue RFP for southern Ronkonkoma Hub land

Suffolk County is expected to issue a request for proposals in the coming weeks for the property it owns south of the Ronkonkoma Long Island Rail Road station, The Point has learned.

The RFP would come about a year after the county had issued its initial request for "expressions of interest" for its 48 acres of land — a pitch that received three submissions, from Syosset-based Blumenfeld Development Group, Tritec Real Estate in Ronkonkoma and IMEG, an engineering firm in Woodbury previously known as Cameron Engineering.

Multiple sources told The Point that the RFP specifically would not include housing as a potential use for the site, since Islip Town officials had previously stated that they would not support housing on the southern part of the Ronkonkoma Hub, as the land is known. The northern part of the Ronkonkoma Hub, which falls in the Town of Brookhaven, is home to Station Yards, a Tritec development that is expected to have as many as 1,450 apartments.

Ed Blumenfeld has previously told The Point that he was still "very interested" in developing the site as long as there was "clear-cut direction that this would happen."

When asked about the RFP, a spokesman for Blumenfeld Development Group told The Point last week that the builder was "not in receipt of nor aware of the document being described."

"However, BDG is on the record as being an advocate for appropriate economic development on the site," the spokesman added.

An RFP would potentially jump-start development efforts that have stalled previously. Last year, Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine canceled the plan known as Midway Crossing, a proposal from JLL, or Jones Lang LaSalle, that included a convention center, life science facilities and a hotel, after funding and progress failed to materialize.

A county RFP would come as Islip officials are still evaluating responses to their own bidding process for a new or upgraded terminal at Long Island MacArthur Airport, to the south of the county land. The town has proposed potentially moving the terminal to the north end of the airport land. Sources said that decisions and further movement on those plans are expected in the next month or two.

"The two projects are interrelated to some degree," one source told The Point of the county and town efforts. "That necessitates some joint efforts to determine where things are going."

Last February, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced plans to invest $150 million in infrastructure improvements, especially related to connecting the airport to the LIRR station. Both Romaine and Islip Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter attended the event when those investments were unveiled, and voiced support for economic development on the land.

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

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