Newly acquired quarterback Brett Favre will appear in front of reporters in Cleveland tonight at 6PM, prior to tonight’s preseason opener between the Jets and Browns.
So I guess there will be no Chad Pennington farewell press conference? It’s a shame Chad will get washed away quickly since he was a very standup guy who did great things for that team. But then again, I’m happy to see him go some place where he can start fresh and lead immediately…like, ironically, Minnesota.
I’m happy for the Jets simply because that’s an organization that’s thirsty for good press. I have huge doubts about the effects of this trade with the on the field performance, but I’ll discuss that in a later post… today is a day to be positive.
Two weeks ago, Mike Lupica had the following to say about the Jets trading for Favre, which is hard to argue:
It is not even a debatable issue that the Jets go after Brett Favre with everything they have, that they move heaven and earth and Chad Pennington – in no particular order – to get him. Even at 38, Brett Favre does something that Coach Mangini doesn’t do and Mike Tannenbaum, the boy-wonder general manager, doesn’t do, and Kellen Clemens doesn’t do. He makes them relevant again….
….Of course you go after Favre, and hope he plays as long as the contract the Packers still hold on him, which means three years. Of course you move Pennington if that is what it takes to beat out the Bucs and whomever else will be in play for Favre’s services. You get Favre and your fans are as excited to play the season as Giants fans are. And that is saying plenty.
And it is not as if the Jets have their own version of Eli Manning ready to step in and lead them to the playoffs, even with the talent the Jets have added in the offseason, especially up front, and the money they have spent. I know they like Clemens’ size and toughness and arm. They still don’t know what they have, whether you can build a program around the kid. And might not know at the end of this season.
Now they have a chance at Favre. They have a chance to get the only quarterback in Jets history you even put in the same conversation with Namath. In all the years since, it has been Richard Todd and Matt Robinson and Ken O’Brien, Browning Nagle and an aging Boomer Esiason and Vinny Testaverde, even if they did get a career year out of Vinny, saw him give them the best year any quarterback had given them since Namath. Now the Jets’ quarterbacks are Pennington and Clemens.
Favre is a star maybe coming in here at a time when the Giants are the stars of their sport because of what they did last season, who they beat on the way to the Super Bowl and how they beat them. He is the kind of star who makes the Jets feel like a real player again, not in some season down the road, but the one they are about to play.
The Jets still play in the same conference with the Patriots and Colts and Chargers. Favre, if he wants to win now, has a better chance of making the Super Bowl with the Bucs. Maybe the Jets, being the Jets, will find a way to make a mess out of this. They still have to try.
Filed under: NFL - Jets, Writer - Tim Sharobem
