Ordinarily, this would look like a great deal. But I've been watching the Jets for 30 years. Things generally do not go well for them.
Sometimes they just stink. Other times, they get good and tease you, and then end up collapsing, sometimes even calamitously. Like the Buffalo Bills. Or the Cleveland Browns. Or the Boston Red Sox (used to and hopefully will again). Or the Chicago Cubs. Or the Cleveland Indians. Or the New York Rangers (with one awful exception). Or, if this book I'm currently reading about England's Premier League (Bloody Confused! by Chuck Culpepper) is accurate, Newcastle United.
This could turn out like Joe Montana going from San Francisco to Kansas City (two Playoff berths, one in the AFC Title Game). Or it could turn out like Joe Namath going from the Jets to Los Angeles (Hollywood turned out not to have any effect on his shredded knees), or Johnny Unitas going from Baltimore to San Diego (definitely should've retired the year before).
Or, knowing the Jets as I do, they could have a rash of injuries, and it won't matter what Favre does.
I'm curious as to where Pennington is going to go. I know he gets hurt a lot, but he's 32, and plenty of quarterbacks are still productive when they're considerably older than that. And there's always a team that needs a quarterback. The Miami Dolphins, for one. The Chicago Bears. The Minnesota Vikings are probably a good quarterback away from being the best team in the NFC North (formerly known as the NFC Central and still known as the Black and Blue Division), and maybe even a serious Super Bowl run.
UPDATE: Pennington signed with the Miami Dolphins, and got them into the Playoffs. But the next season, he got hurt, and played his last game the next season.
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Anyway, why am I talking about football? Well, Rutgers starts in 24 days... on a Monday afternoon at 4? Against Fresno State? What gives? Aren't you supposed to open your season against a bad team? Isn't Fresno State usually, at least, a good team? (It was Labor Day, a holiday rather than a school day, so the time of day wasn't ridiculous.)
Dear Old Alma Mater, East Brunswick High School, celebrates its 50th Anniversary next month, having first opened its doors on September 8, 1958. It's "only" the 48th season of varsity football, and as fate would have it, the opening game is away... but in Sayreville, right across the street from the stop where I get off the bus to get to work. It'll be easier for me to get there than it would be to go to a home game!
The Yankees, even with all their injuries, are still within striking distance of the Division lead, but somebody's gotta beat the leaders when we aren't playing them. The Yanks still have six games left against Boston and six against Tampa Bay, so we've got a good shot, especially if Phil Hughes and -- Seriously? Him?!? He could come back? -- Carl Pavano can give us anything, and Joba Chamberlain comes off the disabled list and can throw without pain.
Maybe Jerry Manuel should chew David Wright out after every game, if the result is going to be a walkoff homer in the next one.
Hockey season is two months away. After a frustrating Devils season, I'm ready to kick some Ranger, Flyer and anybody else ass. In the days to come, I'm going to do a Top 10 list on why the Rangers suck. Because, as you may have heard, they do.
Basketball season starts a month after that, but with Jason Kidd gone, Richard Jefferson gone, Vince Carter in obvious decline (can he do anything except dunk anymore?), and the move to Brooklyn currently scheduled for 2 years from now (construction of the Barclays Center is finally underway), I'm not sure I should care anymore about New Jersey's first major league sports team. New Jersey Nets, R.I.P., 1977-2010.
And a week from tomorrow, the Premiership "Fixture" gets underway. Why am I now more interested in that "football" than I am in the American kind? Maybe because it's something new to me, something I haven't buried myself in for 30 years. Or maybe my current resistance to NFL info is due to an ESPN-inspired offseason "overdose." Really, I am knackered over Brett Favre, Terrell Owens, Chad Johnson and the whole ruddy lot o' them.
One and three-quarters books read about English soccer, and I'm using words like that. Bloody hell...
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