December 2, 1975: Archie Griffin Is Awarded a 2nd Heisman Trophy

December 2, 1975, 50 years ago: Archie Griffin becomes the 1st player ever to be awarded the Heisman Trophy as college football player of the year for a 2nd time.

Archie Mason Griffin was born (as "Archie," not "Archibald") on August 21, 1954, in Columbus, Ohio, the seat of The... Ohio State University. Perhaps he was born to play football there. He started at running back as a freshman in 1972, the 1st year that freshmen were eligible to play in NCAA Division I. He ran for 867 yards.

Head coach Woody Hayes said, "He's a better young man than he is a football player, and he's the best football player I've ever seen." For the 1973 season, to better take advantage of Griffin's skills, Hayes switched from the T formation to the I formation, with Griffin at the back. He rushed for 1,428 yards, and was named a First Team All-American. Ohio State went 10-0-1, winning the Big Ten Conference title and the Rose Bowl.

Griffin finished 5th in the voting for the Heisman Trophy. At the time, this was considered an astounding achievement for a sophomore. His teammate, guard John Hicks, finished 2nd. In any era, this would be considered an astounding achievement for an offensive lineman. Griffin also finished behind John Cappelletti of Penn State (1st), Roosevelt Leaks of Texas (3rd) and Dave Jaynes of Kansas (4th), and just ahead of another Ohio State player, linebacker Randy Gradishar.

In 1974, Griffin ran for 1,620 yards, as Ohio State went 10-1, winning the Big Ten again, before losing the Rose Bowl. He won the Heisman in, appropriately enough, a runaway. He beat out fellow running backs Anthony Davis of USC and Joe Washington of Oklahoma.

In 1975, Griffin made the most of his senior year, rushing for 1,357 yards, making himself the 1st player ever to lead the Big Ten in rushing for 3 straight years. He remained the only one until Jonathan Taylor did it for Wisconsin from 2017 to 2019.

Ohio State won the Big Ten again, going undefeated, until losing the 1976 Rose Bowl in Griffin's last college game. Overall, the Buckeyes went 40-5-1 with him in the starting lineup. Overall, he rushed for 5,589 yards and 26 touchdowns.

No player had ever won the Heisman twice. Four players had won it as juniors before Griffin: Doc Blanchard of Army in 1945, Doak Walker of Southern Methodist in 1948, Vic Janowicz of Ohio State in 1950, and Roger Staubach of Navy in 1963. Each had good senior years. But, in each case, another player simply had a better season. (In Blanchard's case, it was his Army backfield mate, Glenn Davis.)

But in 1975, the Heisman voters saw no problem with giving the Trophy to Griffin again, as he won by about as big a margin as he had the year before. And he beat a better crop of running backs, too: Joe Washington again, Chuck Muncie of California, Ricky Bell of USC, and the one who ended up winning it the next year, Tony Dorsett of Pittsburgh.

Winning 2 Heisman Trophies has never happened again. The closest call so far has come in 2008, when Tim Tebow of Florida came within 151 votes of a 2nd Heisman. And with players leaving after their junior year having become common, it is unlikely that there will ever be another.

In 1992, Ron Powlus, the most sought-after high school quarterback in the country, signed a letter of intent to play at Notre Dame. Beano Cook of ESPN, a shameless Notre Dame fan, predicted that Powlus would win 2 Heismans. He had a decent college career, but went 0-3 in bowl games, and never came close to winning the Trophy. Having sustained 2 notable injuries in that time, he went undrafted, and, despite having signed with 3 different NFL teams, he never played a down in the League.

Griffin? He was taken in the 1st round of the 1976 NFL Draft, by his home-State Cincinnati Bengals, where his teammates included a pair of Ohio State teammates: His brother Ray Griffin and Pete Johnson. But injuries limited him to 2,808 career rushing yards. He did help the Bengals win their 1st AFC Championship in the 1981 season, but he had a fumble (which he recovered himself) in Super Bowl XVI, and the Bengals lost.

After playing a season with the Jacksonville Bulls of the United States Football League, he retired from playing, and became a successful businessman. He served as President of The Ohio State University Alumni Association, and as an assistant athletic director. He is, essentially, an ambassador for the University, and speaks to the team before every game. Although his pro career was a disappointment, he is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. 

In 1991, he filmed a commercial for the University, one of those ads you see colleges air during their football games. He spoke briefly about his experiences, and two Heisman Trophies were shown. He closed by saying, "I received something no one else in the world has: A degree from The Ohio State University with my name on it." A clever piece of misdirection.

Yanks Lose, Arsenal Fans Rooting for Spurs, USA 2-0 Panama, Belichick & Tebow

I've been sick for a few days.  Last night's Yankee game didn't help. It was the opener of a 3-game series against the Oakland Athletics at the Oakland Coliseum (whatever they're calling it this season).

CC Sabathia (6-5), despite pitching in the park where he grew up as a baseball fan, a pitcher's park no less, didn't have his good stuff, allowing single runs in the 1st and 2nd innings, then 3 in the 4th and another in the 6th. Preston Claiborne pitched a perfect 7th and Joba Chamberlain a scoreless 8th -- lowering their respective ERAs to 0.47 and 4.73 in the process -- but, by then, it was too late.

Bartolo Colon (8-2), a Yankee in 2011 and a newly-minted 40-year-old, was phenomenal, throwing 6 scoreless innings. To mix up my sports metaphors, we could barely lay a glove on him. We wasted some opportunities:

* 1st: Brett Gardner led off the game with a single to right. Robinson Cano walked. Mark Teixeira flew out, but Travis Hafner walked. Bases loaded, 1 out. But Kevin Youkilis popped up and Lyle Overbay flew to right.

* 2nd: Chris Stewart got a 2-out single, but Gardner grounded to first.

* 4th: Youkilis led off with a single, but Overbay took a called strike 3, Ichiro Suzuki grounded into a forceout, and Jayson Nix flew to right.

* 5th: Cano drew a 2-out walk, but Teix grounded to 2nd.

The Yankees got a bit closer in the 8th. Three straight singles by Gardner, Cano and Teix brought a run home. After a Hafner lineout and a Youk forceout, Vernon Wells (pinch-hitting for the increasingly slumping Overbay) singled home another.

With 1 out in the 9th, Stewart singled. Gardner struck out. But Cano doubled Stewart over to 3rd.  Teix singled home Stewart and Cano. So now it was 6-4 A's, and the tying run was at the plate. But Grant Balfour (16th save) got Hafner to fly to left.

This defeat leaves the Yankees 2 games behind the Red Sox, though only 1 in the loss column. (The Yankees have 2 games in hand on the Sox.) The Baltimore Orioles are 2 1/2 (2) back, and the Tampa Bay Rays 4 (3) back.

The series continues tonight, with Phil Hughes starting against Dan Straily. No, I'd never heard of him before, either. He's 24, from Oregon, and wears Number 67, which is not surprising for a pitcher whose major league debut was less than a year ago (August 3) and has made a grand total of 16 appearances (in his case, all starts). He was 2-1 with a 3.89 ERA and a 1.322 WHIP last year; so far, this year, he's 3-2 with his ERA rising to 4.67, but his WHIP dropping to a fine 1.135.

Straily is not, however, the proverbial "pitcher we've never seen before." He was, this past May 5, at The Stadium, and on that occasion, while it wasn't pretty, he fit the type. He barely got into the 6th inning, but the A's still won the game, 5-4. The main reason the A's won the game is not that they made the Yankees face a pitcher they'd never seen before, but because Boone Logan allowed the go-ahead run in the 8th. (I may have mentioned this before, but Logan is a bum.)

*

Better news: The San Antonio Spurs beat the Miami Heat last night. Clobbered 'em, 113-77, and took a 2-games-to-1 lead in the NBA Finals.

Think about this: The Spurs are going for their 5th NBA Title. If they get it, then, between them, the Spurs, the Boston Celtics, the Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers, and the Chicago Bulls will have won, between them, 44 titles. Every other team combined? 23.

When you count only those titles won in the teams' current cities, that drops the Lakers' total a bit, but those 4 teams would still be at 39; every other team combined, 16.

It's difficult to be an Arsenal fan at this time: Not only do you have to put up with all the transfer gossip, nearly all of which will turn out to be baloney, and the Wenger Out Brigade demanding giant sums of money be spent on big names (forgetting that Liverpool spent £35 million -- $55 million at the current exchange rate -- on Andy Carroll, who turned out to be one of the great busts in sports history), but, if you have any taste at all, you have to root for a team called "Spurs." And, for a club whose arch-rivals are the loathsome Tottenham Hotspur, a.k.a. "Spurs," that's a hard pill to swallow.

Then again, my illness has made swallowing hard enough.

*

Better news: Last night, in Seattle, the U.S. soccer team beat Panama, 2-0, and moved to the top of the "Hexagonal" table for qualification for the CONCACAF places at the 2014 World Cup.

Manager Jurgen Klinsmann and forward Jozy Altidore, 2 misfits if I ever saw any, apparently have begun to work well together. Altidore, who also did so in the friendly against Germany I attended on June 2 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington, opened the scoring, this time in the 36th minute.  Eddie Johnson added a goal in the 53rd.

Slight problem: 4 U.S. players picked up yellow cards for fouls: Altidore, goalie Tim Howard, defender DaMarcus Beasley and midfielder Geoff Cameron. Accumulation of cards can result in suspension; unavailability of certain players could be a problem later on.

Nevertheless, halfway through the Hex, the U.S. has 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss, for 10 points. Costa Rica and Mexico, who played each other to a turgid 0-0 draw last night, resulting in the Mexican fans yet again booing their own team, each have 8 points. Honduras has 7, Panama 6, Jamaica just 2. I should note that all 6 teams have played at least 5 of these Qualifiers, but Mexico and Jamaica have played 6.

The top 3 teams advance to the World Cup. The 4th place team advances to a playoff, the winner of which gets in. The U.S. still has to play Honduras at home, on June 18 at the home of Real Salt Lake in the Salt Lake City suburb of Sandy, Utah; Costa Rica away, on September 6; Mexico at home, on September 10 at Columbus Crew Stadium; Jamaica at home, on October 11 at the home of Sporting Kansas City at Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kansas; and Panama away, on October 15.

If we win our home games, that will give us 19 points, and so even if Costa Rica (23), Mexico (17 -- remember, we've got a home game against them) and Honduras (19 -- remember, we've got a home game against them) win all their other games, we qualify without needing the Playoff.

Our fate is in our own hands: To borrow a cliche that is especially popular in American football, we control our own destiny.

A side note: The word "turgid" seems to have been coined to describe boring nil-nil draws, doesn't it?

*

Speaking of American football: Once the shock of Tim Tebow actually signing with another NFL team wore off, is anybody really surprised that it was the New England Patriots?

Seriously: Bill Belichick is the kind of guy who will do something just to rub it in, especially to his team's biggest rivals -- in his case, the Jets. He is a man out of a Johnny Cash song: He would shoot a man just to watch him die, and he would name his son "Sue" -- not so he'd "have to get tough, or die," but for a laugh.

I looked it up: Belichick has sons named Stephen (for his own father) and Brian, and a daughter named Amanda. He had an affair with a receptionist in the Giants office, breaking up both their marriages.

Not exactly the kind of behavior of which Tebow would approve. But, what does he care? He's gettin' his money, whether he plays or not. "Prosperity gospel," indeed.

And you know this is going to come back to bite the Jets in the ass. Look, I'm not a Jets fan. I have no personal stake in this. I don't have to cringe when I type this. But in some Jets-Pats game, possibly as soon as this coming season, Belichick will put in a trick play that will involve Tebow -- possibly as passer, possibly as something else -- and it will end up being as embarrassing to the Jets as Dan Marino's fake spike on November 27, 1994. Like that day, it will be a day which lives in Jet infamy.

UPDATE: I was wrong. Tebow played in 2 preseason games for the Patriots, but was cut before the regular season began, and, through the 2018 season, has never played another regular-season down in the NFL. He went into broadcasting, and spent the 2018 baseball season in the Mets' farm system.

No Particular Place, Tebow

In all fairness, Mark Sanchez has led the Jets to 2 AFC Championship Games -- as many AFC Championship Games as all other Jet quarterbacks combined: Richard Todd, 1982-83; and Vinny Testaverde, 1998-99. This doesn't count the AFL Championship Game won by Joe Namath in 1968.

And, in all fairness, Tim Tebow led an NFL team to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in the postseason. The list of quarterbacks who've done that is actually pretty impressive: Tommy Thompson (1947 Eagles), Bob Griese (1972 Dolphins -- and his son Brian never did it for the Broncos), Ken Stabler (1973 & '76 Raiders), Craig Morton (1977 Broncos), Dan Fouts (1982 Chargers), Jim Plunkett (1983 Raiders), Dan Marino (1984 Dolphins), John Elway (1989 & '97 Broncos), Jim Kelly (1992 Bills), Joe Montana (1993 Chiefs), Stan Humphries (1994 Chargers), Troy Aikman (1995 Cowboys), Drew Bledsoe (1996 Patriots), Tom Brady (2001 & '04 Patriots), Steve McNair (2002 Titans), David Garrard (2007 Jaguars), Aaron Rodgers (2010 Packers) and Tim Tebow (2011 Broncos).

But now, neither Sanchez (who is just 26 years old) nor Tebow (a year younger) seems to be good enough to be the starting quarterback for the New York Jets.

And Greg McElroy is? Who the hell is Greg McElroy?

He's a 24-year-old righthander, born in Los Angeles, who played high school football in the Dallas area while his father, a former quarterback at the University of Hawaii, worked in the front office for the Cowboys. On the team at Carroll Senior High School in Southlake, he was stuck behind Chase Daniel until his senior year. (Daniel went on to star at the University of Missouri, and is now Drew Brees' backup on the New Orleans Saints.) But in that senior year, McElroy led them to a 16-0 season and a State Championship, and was named the State's Player of the Year.

He went to the University of Alabama, and here's what he did in the 2009 season: Knocked off Virginia Tech, then ranked Number 5 in the nation, with a 2nd-half comeback; beat Number 22 South Carolina; beat Ole Miss in front of the biggest crowd ever to attend a sporting event in the State of Mississippi; dethroned Number 1 Florida with a performance that earned him the game's MVP, despite sustaining two cracked ribs; and beat Texas to win the National Championship.

His senior year wasn't quite as good, as Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton led Auburn past Alabama and knocked the Crimson Tide out of contention for another SEC title. But he was named a National Football Foundation scholar-athlete, so he wasn't one of these guys who went to a big school just to play football.

In other words, while he was not as accomplished at the college level as Tebow, he was more accomplished at that level than Sanchez.

The Jets drafted him in the 7th round in 2011. In his 1st year, he was available for the entire season, and took a grand total of zero snaps. In his NFL career to date, he has made 1 appearance, throwing 5 passes -- 1 of which was a touchdown to Jeff Cumberland for the Jets' only score in a 7-6 "win" over the suddenly-pathetic Arizona Cardinals on December 2.

Which certainly suggests that McElroy deserves as much of a chance as the Jets have given Sanchez -- and more of one than they've given Tebow.

*

So the era of "The Sanchize" appears to be over. And the Tebow Experiment hasn't even been tried. And there's a rumor going around that, A, the Jets are shopping Sanchez; and, 2, Tebow has asked to be traded. (In that other kind of football, this would be called "putting in a transfer request.")

The Jets are 6-8. No chance at the Playoffs. My thoughts on Rex Ryan are well known: His tenure as coach has been a failure, not so much because of what he's done (2 AFC Championship Games are more than any other Jet coach has been able to do), but because of what he said he would do, and hasn't.

So Sanchez may go, Tebow probably will go, and Ryan should go.

But, until Ryan does go, Tebow remains the bigger story. Not since George W. Bush went on vacation in August 2001, ignoring a certain memo about Osama bin Laden, has a man generated as much publicity for doing nothing as has Tim Tebow.

Only, in Tebow's case, it isn't really his fault. Whether he deserves to be a starting quarterback in the NFL is a discussion worth having -- and, from what I've seen, he seems to be a decent enough person, but not a quarterback good enough to start at the NFL level.

But, support him or not, I think we can all agree that he didn't deserve what's happened to him with the J, E, T, S, Jets, Jets, Jets.

To the tune of "No Particular Place to Go" by Chuck Berry (which sounds a lot like one of Chuck's earlier hits, "School Day"):

Riding along to the Mile High.
He can be their post-John Elway guy.
He stole the money, Brian Griese.
As good as his dad, he'd never be.
Cruisin' to Denver, Colorado.
To that particular place, Tebow.

Riding along, and he is for real.
He beat those Pittsburgh men of Steel.
His passing yards were 316.
Like the Scripture said, know what I mean?
But then got slaughtered in Foxboro.
So it's no particular place, Tebow.

No particular place, Tebow.
So off to New York, the kid did go.
The streets of the City are paved with gold.
And the Sanchez losses are getting old.
Can you imagine the way he felt?
Stuck to the bench like he's in seatbelt!

Sitting along in the Meadowlands!
Sanchez can't keep the ball in hands!
But Timmy won't be Rex's boy!
Passed over for who? Greg McElroy?
A bunch of Jet minds that are working slow!
It's no particular place, Tebow!

Ryan Out!

I'm thankful that I didn't go to the East Brunswick-Old Bridge game yesterday, Thanksgiving Day.

The Purple Bastards scored 20 points in the 1st quarter, and coasted from there, beating Dear Old Alma Mater, 34-0.

I'm also thankful that I'm not a Jets fan. They looked like turkeys out there, and they got stuffed, losing to the New England Patriots, 49-19.

Lots of Jets fans are already calling for quarterback Mark Sanchez to be benched in favor of Tim Tebow.

Yes, because, when you've got a quarterback who isn't getting the job done, the answer is to go to another guy who can't throw a football with sufficient accuracy.

Face it, going from Sanchez to Tebow will do nothing more than taking a playboy quarterback who can't throw and replacing him with an evangelical quarterback who can't throw. You'll be pleasing Pat Robertson and Rick Santorum, but you'll still be condemning Jet fans to a poor offense.

No, the first problem to solve lies elsewhere -- and if it's solved, maybe it would be better for Sanchez.

*

In case you've forgotten, Rex Ryan made his name as a defensive coordinator -- like his father before him, Buddy Ryan, who built the great Chicago Bear defense of the 1980s.

Rex was with the Baltimore Ravens from 1999 to 2008, and as defensive line coach helped build the defense that dominated the NFL in winning the League's 2000 championship, Super Bowl XXXV. Some observers called the 2000 Ravens' defense the NFL's most dominant since his father's '85 Bears.

Starting in 2005, he was their defensive coordinator. In 2008, he was granted the additional title of assistant head coach. All through that time, while the Ravens occasionally struggled on offense, their defense remained strong enough to keep them in Playoff contention.

In 2009, Rex was named head coach of the Jets, for whom his father had been a coach on their Super Bowl III team of 1968-69.

Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote the following...

Getting to back-to-back AFC Championship Games is good, right? Of the 16 current AFC teams, 5 have not done it: The Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars and Kansas City Chiefs -- and of those, the Begnals and Chiefs have been around for the entire life of the AFC. Make it 7 teams if you count the Tennessee Titans as being separate from the Houston Oilers.

On the other hand, how many teams have lost back-to-back AFC Championship Games? The Oakland Raiders (3 straight, 1973-75), the Oilers (1978-79), the San Diego Chargers (1980-81), the Cleveland Browns (1986-87)... and the Jets.

(In the NFC, there's been the 1970-71 San Francisco 49ers, the 1972-73 Dallas Cowboys, the 1974-76 Los Angeles Rams, the 1980-82 Cowboys, the 1992-93 49ers, and the 2001-03 Philadelphia Eagles.)

Well, so what? The Buffalo Bills won 4 straight AFC Championship Games... and lost 4 straight Super Bowls as a result! Does that mean that their coach, Marv Levy, failed? Actually, yes.

But while the Bills went into their first 2 Super Bowls rather cocky, it was nothing like what Rex has done with the Jets.

Like Joe Namath in January 1969, he has been predicting, even guaranteeing, that the Jets would win a Super Bowl.

They've gotten within 2 games of achieving that, twice... but haven't done it.

This season, he was predicting it before the season. Results? So far, the Jets are 5-5.

If the Jets run the table, they'll be 11-5, which is nearly always enough to at least win a Wild Card. If they go 5-1 the rest of the way, they'll be 10-6, which is often enough to reach the Wild Card, but not always. If they go 4-2, not a bad stretch by any means, they'll be 9-7, and the Playoffs would still be possible.

Their remaining games? Home to Buffalo this Sunday (tough one, even if they did beat the Bills in Orchard Park not that long ago), at Washington (should be a win, the Redskins are terrible this season and Landover is as bad a home-field advantage as RFK Stadium was a good one), home to Kansas City (the Chiefs got pounded by the Pats last night but were a Playoff team last year and I don't expect them to roll over), at Philadelphia (who knows which Eagles team is going to show up), officially a "home game" against the Giants on Christmas Eve afternoon (and the Giants have been hard to figure as well), and closing at Miami on New Year's Day afternoon.

None of those games will be easy, not even the last: We all know that the Jets, since January 12, 1969, anyway, have had trouble playing in Miami. On the other hand, all of these games are eminently winnable, if the Jets can avoid serious injuries and Mark Sanchez doesn't throw interceptions. The Jets are fortunate that the 3 hardest games of the season, the home-and-away with the Pats and the visit to Baltimore (all losses), are already out of the way.

But even if the Jets do win at least 5 of their last 6 and make the Playoffs, what then? After 2 AFC Championship Game losses, anything less than a Super Bowl win would mark this season as a failure.

The only question left is whether it marks Rex Ryan's tenure as a failure.

This may be the most talented Jets team ever. Indeed, I think they're every bit as good as Namath's 1968 team; the 1982 team that had Freeman McNeil, Wesley Walker, and the defensive line known as the New York Sack Exchange; Parcells' 1998 squad that came within 30 minutes of a Super Bowl trip; and Herman Edwards's never-say-die "play to win the game" AFC Eastern Division Champions of 2002.

*

But Rex has raised the bar too high. And it seems like every time he opens his mouth, he puts his foot in it.

Oh, was that a double-entendre?

In his column in Sunday's New York Daily News, Gary Myers spells it out.

Rex Ryan made a promise he will not be able to keep. He guaranteed the Jets were going to win the Super Bowl this season, which is going to be hard to do without making the playoffs.

Broken promises. Two years ago, he said the Jets should be the favorites to win it all. He didn't guarantee anything, but was certainly implying the Jets would finish with the trophy in their hands.

Last season he declared the Jets "soon to be champs." Soon, as in right away. He left no room for interpretation this year...

"I believe this is the year that we're going to win the Super Bowl," Ryan said in February. “I thought we'd win it the first two years. I guarantee we'll win it this year."

Ryan became a cult hero to Jets fans craving a championship. But there's only so many times you can make a promise, not deliver, and then expect anybody to still pay attention...

Realistically, the Jets just completed a five-day stretch that puts an end to their dreams for 2011. There is nothing they've shown the first 10 games that would make anybody believe they can sweep their final six against the Bills, Redskins, Chiefs, Eagles, Giants and Dolphins.

They are 5-5, the essence of mediocrity. Their five losses are more than the Patriots, Bills, Steelers, Ravens, Bengals, Texans, Titans and Raiders have. The Broncos are tied with the Jets but own the tie-breaker. Right now, the Jets are in 10th place out of 16 teams in the composite AFC standings. Taking the four division winners out of the battle for the wild cards, the Jets would have to jump over four teams to get to the second wild-card spot. All five of their losses are in the AFC, which hurts, and they would lose the tie-breaker to the Ravens, Raiders and Broncos because they fell to each to them...

This was the defense Ryan has bragged about for three years? It couldn’t stop Tim Tebow? All he can do is run and he carved them for 57 yards on the ground on the final drive. I have never seen an NFL quarterback be as inept throwing the ball as Tebow...

Back in March, I was talking with Ryan on the street right outside the hotel in New Orleans where the NFL was holding its annual meetings. It was about one month after he had issued his Super Bowl guarantee. I mentioned he would lose credibility making statements like that if he didn’t deliver. Kind of like the boy who cried wolf.

Instead of showing concern about his words losing impact, Ryan compared himself to Babe Ruth, but only after first invoking the words of Teddy Roosevelt. It was an interesting way to express his confidence.

"They talk about walk softly and carry a big stick. I love that. I agree with that 100%," Ryan said. "But I guess I feel more like Babe Ruth. I’m going to walk softly, I'm going to carry that big stick and then I’m going to point and then I’m going to hit it over the fence." ...

There is no joy in Jetville. The Mighty Rex has struck out...

How many times can Ryan guarantee the Super Bowl? Broken promises.

*

Joe Namath guaranteed a Super Bowl win in 1969. He delivered, and the Jets were World Champions.

Mark Messier guaranteed a key Playoff win in 1994. He delivered, and the Rangers went on to become World Champions. To my everlasting dismay and disgust.

Jim Fassel guaranteed a Playoff berth in 2000. He delivered, and the Giants got all the way to the Super Bowl before losing.

They succeeded.

Patrick Ewing guaranteed an NBA Championship for the Knicks a few times. Not until 2009, when he was an assistant coach with the Orlando Magic, did one of his guarantees come true (beating the Boston Celtics in a Game 7). As a Knick, he failed.

Rex Ryan has to lead the Jets to a Super Bowl. If not this season, then the next. If he doesn't do it in either one, then he is no longer helping this team, as he once did.

If, as we go to bed on February 3, 2013, the New York Jets have won neither Super Bowl XLVI nor Super Bowl XLVII, Rex Ryan needs to be fired. For cause. For failure.

Because, as things stand right now, he is a failure.

Sure, Tom Coughlin of the Giants is more likely to lose his job first... but he is not a failure. He won a Super Bowl for a New York team.

*

Now, with the Jets 4-7, with almost no hope of making the Playoffs, I think it is safe to say: Rex Ryan has failed, failed, failed.

It's time for a new coach.  Don't even wait for the end of the season.  He needs to be sacked now.

As they say in English soccer, "Ryan out!"

Pat Robertson: Not an NFL Expert

The Rev. Marion G. "Pat" Robertson operates out of Virginia Beach, part of the "Hampton Roads" area of southeastern Virginia, which includes Norfolk.

This is the largest metropolitan area in the United States that has no major league sports teams whatsoever. The largest teams are the Norfolk Tides, the former "Tidewater" farm team of the Mets, now the Triple-A club of the closer Baltimore Orioles; and the women's basketball team at Old Dominion University, which is far more successful than ODU's men's team.

Robertson founded and runs Regent University in Virginia Beach, but the school is not exactly known for sports success.

*

Having previously said that he could steer hurricanes away from the Hampton Roads area, and that Hurricane Andrew (1992) was God's punishment for the sinfulness of Miami (I guess he didn't consider Hurricane Hugo, 1989, to be punishment for South Carolina), and that the 9/11 attacks were punishment for New York for wickedness and America in general for homosexuality, abortion and feminism, now, Pat Robertson has weighed in on football.

He thinks the Denver Broncos should not have signed Peyton Manning and then traded away noted evangelical Christian Tim Tebow.

Apparently, Robertson is unaware that Manning has given contributions to several Republican candidates, including George W. Bush.

So has John Elway, Mr. Denver Bronco, who took a big role in convincing the Broncos to bring Peyton in.

In other words, the Broncos got rid of an evangelical quarterback who has done very little in the NFL, and brought in a conservative quarterback who has accomplished more than 99.9 percent of all the quarterbacks we'll ever see.

Pat Robertson knows less about football than he does about the teachings of Jesus.

Here's a link to the story in USA Today.

*

A Democratic Twitterer asked if Tim Tebow's contract has a "Rapture clause."

I'm from New Jersey. I've been watching the New York Jets all my life. Considering that he's now with the Jets, Tebow would be better off with a rupture clause!

Tim Tebow? On the J-E-T-S-Jets-Jets-Jets?!?

This is one for the What-the-Hell File.

Tim Tebow? The new Christian gentleman of sport?

In New York? The ultimate "What have you done for me lately?" town?

It's not going to be like Jeremy Lin: As popular as Lin has gotten, he's not The Man on the Knicks. Carmelo Anthony is. He's not even the man The Man counts on. That's Amare Stoudemire. If Lin has a bad game, so what? There are two All-Stars who can pick up the slack.

In football, if the quarterback has a bad game, the team usually loses, and the quarterback gets raked over the coals.

Putting Tebow in New York will be like putting a 2-month-old kitten in a junkyard. With a junkyard dog. And I don't mean Hercules from The Sandlot, either: I mean "The Beast" that Smalls and the gang thought Hercules was!

Of course, that film had a character nicknamed "Benny the Jet" -- and it took place in 1962, long before Reginald Dwight become Elton John, let alone recorded "Bennie and the Jets."

Buh buh buh Bennie and the Jetssssssss. Dink, dink, did-ink, DONK!

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I don't get it. Why are the Jets getting Tebow? There are a lot of teams that need a good quarterback, but the Jets aren't one of them. They have Mark Sanchez.

Is this move supposed to scare Sanchez into fighting for his job? A fat guy who can't throw? Is going to intimdate a USC quarterback? Who took the ever-lovin' New York Jets, of all teams, to 2 AFC title games? Who's already beaten Peyton Manning in Indianapolis, Philip Rivers in San Diego, AND Tom Brady in Foxboro? All in January? Okay, he hasn't beaten Ben Roethlisberger in Pittsburgh in January yet... But neither has Tebow. And Sanchez has beaten Brady in Foxboro in January. Tebow hasn't done that in any month.

Yes, yes, I know: Tebow has beaten Sanchez and the Jets in December. Well, guess what: Tebow is on the Jets now, and if he plays against the Denver Broncos, he won't be opposing Tim Tebow. He'll be opposing Peyton Manning.

In today's Washington Post, Tracee Hamilton titled her column, "Tim Tebow and the Jets: What could possibly go wrong?"

It's the Jets. It's Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong, will.

UDPATE: Tim Tebow played in 15 games for the New York Jets in the 2012 season. He started 2: A 30-9 loss to the Miami Dolphins at MetLife Stadium, and a 28-7 road loss to the Seattle Seahawks. He threw 8 passes. He completed 6, for 39 yards, an average of 6.5 yards per pass. There was 2 that went for 1st downs. No touchdowns, but no interceptions, either. He was injured in the Seattle game. 

Hang down your head, Tim Tebow.

Hang down your head and cry.

Hang down your head, Tim Tebow.

With you, the Jets won't fly.

He was 25 years and 3 months old in that game. Through the 2020 NFL season, he has never played another regular-season professional football game. He played preseason games in 2013 with the New England Patriots and 2015 with the Philadelphia Eagles, but was cut before the regular season started each time.

He has played professional baseball, playing 5 seasons in the New York Mets system, rising to Class AAA before washing out with a .163 batting average for the 2019 Syracuse Mets. And he has been a studio analyst for college football games, something he actually is qualified for.

For the 2021 NFL season, he has signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars, whose head coach is Urban Meyer, who had been his head coach at the University of Florida. But he's been signed to play tight end, not quarterback. Stay tuned.