With the NFL lockout on the verge of ending, New York Jets owner Woody Johnson assembled the entire organization Monday morning in the team's auditorium and told about 150 employees that all lost wages from the lockout would be returned to them by the time they returned to their desks, according to a person familiar with the meeting.

"At the beginning, we realized that asking people to take 25 percent pay cuts at this time would be a tremendous hardship. It was a shared sacrifice in a period where we had unknown financial conditions," Johnson said, according to the team's website. "I don't think anybody was happy about it. I wasn't happy that I had to ask people to do this. But now that the agreement is in place, we're living up to our end of the bargain, and we're all moving forward."

Coach Rex Ryan and general manager Mike Tannenbaum also spoke at the assembly, the person said, with Ryan delivering a fiery, training camp-style pep talk to the coaches and staffers in the room. Basically, his message was, "The Jets are ready to get down to business."