Well, Jet fans you finally got your wish.
On Monday coach Eric Mangini decided to go with second-year pro Kellen Clemens at quarterback in the Jets home game against Washington. Mangini wouldn't go as far as naming Clemens the starter beyond the Redskins game, but the writing is on the wall. Pennington's time in the Green and White is over. Pennington is due a $4.8 million base salary next season.
This is a move fans and members of the media have been asking for since preseason. Don't believe me? Check out this
post I wrote in August.
Mangini tried not to pin the blame on the Jets 1-7 record squarely on Pennington's shoulders, but these words ring absolutely hollow to me:
"I made this decision not based on singling out Chad for where we are, but based on the fact that I think Kellen has earned this opportunity. I want to give him this opportunity. It's in no way an indication that Chad is solely responsible. We all are."
Uh-huh. It's football's version of the "it's not you, it's me" line that everyone uses to dump somebody.
No. 10 handled the situation in his usual way:
"When your team is struggling, people look for answers and coaches have to look for answers and sometimes the first position that is looked at is the quarterback position. I understand that."
My first allegiance is to the Jets -- no player will ever become greater than the team I root for, but this situation makes me sick. I still don't understand why fans and certain members of the media take such supreme joy in ripping Pennington. The guy plays with heart and wins. Yeah, I know -- he hasn't won this year -- and I guess it always comes down to that. What have you done for me lately?
In a way this is a good thing. The situation in New York has become toxic. Every pass was scrutinized to the nth degree. Every incompletion. Even every completion.
Pennington deserved better than that.
I'll be rooting for Kellen Clemens when he trots onto the field on Sunday. He plays for my team. That's what I do.
Let's see how long this lovefest for Clemens lasts.
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