BrainHeat says...Yet another article I agree with!
Coddled quarterback's extension is latest punch line in Jets' continuing joke
It's bad enough that Rex Ryan has
failed on his Super Bowl predictions. It's even worse that Mark
Sanchez spent so much time last season proving how ridiculous
such guarantees were in the first place. But this latest move by
the New York Jets -- in which they've basically resorted to
their same old coddling tendencies, rewarding regression instead of
progression -- just shows this franchise to be the second-class
citizen it truly is.
Perhaps Gang Green will be something
more tangible, significant, on another day. But on this day, let it
be said that the Jets are a joke. When you take the time and effort
to reward your quarterback and the leader of, arguably, the NFL's
most dysfunctional franchise with a three-year, $40.5 million
extension -- knowing the man still had two years remaining on his
contract -- clearly, you're looking to be laughed at.
Even if this was an exercise
to appease Sanchez after the Jets' supposed pursuit of Peyton
Manning.
"[Sanchez] is a young player,"
Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum told reporters following the team's
announcement of the extension. "And just like any young player,
there's some inconsistencies that have to get better. We've won a lot
of football games with Mark as a starting quarterback for the New
York Jets. That's really what convinced Rex, Woody [Johnson] and me.
It's not a projection. It's not a hope. It's not an incremental leap
of faith. It's, 'Here's a three-year body of work.'"
I'm going to stop right here. I simply
can't take it anymore.
Here's a question: If the point has
been reached at which we're tired of Ryan's boasting about things not
achieved, when does fatigue set in for Sanchez? Yes, he is the man
who catapulted the Jets to two straight AFC title games. But has
anyone forgotten how the Jets initially squeezed into the playoffs
his rookie year? Or how horrible things were this year?
The shrapnel of criticism aimed in
Sanchez's direction isn't entirely about his ability to play
football. Nobody's sitting here fretting over the 26 interceptions he
threw this past season, eclipsing the 22 he threw in his rookie year.
It's just about time to fret over Sanchez's mental makeup and this
insatiable need the Jets evidently feel to nurture his psyche, no
matter who else on their roster they alienate in the process.
Did anyone listen to LaDainian
Tomlinson talk of how much Sanchez was coddled after the season?
How about former Jet and noted ESPN NFL analyst, Damien Woody,
who essentially said the same?
Does anyone recall seeing Santonio
Holmes pout his way into the offseason? Or Ryan being pushed to
a near-tearful mea culpa, acknowledging he was asleep at the wheel
while acrimony and dissent were ballooning in his locker room instead
of wins?
Who's the common denominator in all of
this?
Don't bother answering. We all know the
deal.
The same quarterback who's never had a
viable backup since he arrived in this league is the same quarterback
the Jets just committed to for the next five years. It's the same
Mark Sanchez whose idea of a demotion is being pulled from a few reps
in practice so Ryan could get his attention -- while telling the
media "Shhh! Don't say anything. I want him to sweat!"
Seriously! Stop laughing!
We're talking about the same Mark
Sanchez last seen throwing one pivotal interception after another
with the season on the line versus the Dolphins, tanning in the South
Florida sun -- blow-drying his hair, evidently -- before Holmes had
stomached enough and said "To hell with this, let me go and
relax myself."
Holmes spoke for the silenced among
Gang Green. He spoke to a fan base that had seen the inexplicable,
still desperate for an explanation. He revealed, through his own
disgust, that the Jets, despite having a talented quarterback, are
still saddled with one whose capabilities are limited because the
Jets do everything but don an apron to protect the man undeservedly
called Sanchise.
"This is an NFL locker room,"
one member of the Jets, still on the roster, told me after his team's
loss to the New York Giants. "When men see another man
protected a lot more than others, you don't like it. Especially when
it's your quarterback, and he doesn't seem to mind."
The Jets should have known this was a
problem last season. They certainly know this now. Yet after
rightfully pursuing Peyton Manning -- if for no other reason than to
put Sanchez on notice that more productivity would be demanded, or
else -- they reverted back to form.
"I'm excited that the Jets
believed in me and that I was the guy that they want to move forward
with for the future," Sanchez told reporters once the extension
was announced. "The best part about it is that they chose to
stick with me. I'm going to be the starting quarterback for the next
few years. That's exciting. It gives the team a reminder that I'm the
leader of this team."
Yes, it does!
Congratulations, New York Jets. Your
future is set. You have your quarterback, and all the baggage that
comes with him.
Good luck on thinking it'll get you
somewhere. To places only the Giants can speak about in this football
town, that is.
