A clandestine undertaking on behalf of Israel, the Jets and the Jews.

 
A Sad Day?

Today is a sad day for Jets fans. The Jets starting quarterback, Chad Pennington, who was supposed to bring them back to a Super Bowl for the first time since 1969, is reportedly out for the season with a career threatening injury. Worse, backup quarterback Jay Fielder also sustained a serious injury, and may be lost for the season too.

I've heard a number of people - both in the media and Jets fans - state that their sadness has to do with sympathy for Pennington, whose promising career has come to a halt.

While I certainly feel bad for Pennington, a player who courageously (albeit foolishly) actually played two straight seasons with a tort rotator cuff, the primary sadness should not relate to his misfortune. He is but one of many athletes with promising careers that were ruined by injury. The latest example, New York Rangers goalie Dan Blackburn, retired this week at the age of 22. A few years ago, Blackburn was a top draft choice, playing in the NHL at 18 and was seen as the hier apparent to Rangers longtime star goalie Mike Richter.

While the remainder of his contract is not guaranteed, at least Pennington has made more than $30 million in his career.

The sadness, instead, relates to the loss of hope. In 2002, when Pennington came out of nowhere to lead the Jets to an AFC East title, Jets fans thought they had finally found their star quarterback. Even with Pennington hurt, the Jets should have made it to the AFC Championship last season, only failing to get there because of two missed field goals and abysmal coaching by Herm Edwards. Entering this season, many Jets fans still saw Pennington as the franchise's savior.

A glimmer of hope remains, that perhaps the initial MRI was read incorrectly, that perhaps Pennington can shake off serious injuries and come back to lead his team to a Super Bowl victory, just like Phil Simms did for the Giants. But realistically, the Jets can't rely on Pennington to be effective again until and unless he proves otherwise.

I am a pretty obsessive Jets fan. I go to just about all of the home games and watch all of the road games except those that occur on the Jewish sabbath or holidays. When my son was born a few hours before the Jets vs. Steelers (regular season) game last season and my wife was still in the waiting room when it came time for the opening kickoff, and my initial requests for her to be placed in a room were ignored, I implored her to tell the nurse that she worked as a resident in the hospital and wanted a room immediately.

When it came time to plan for my winter vacation, I scheduled it so that we would leave on Monday, January 9 and return on Monday, January 16. Sure, I'd have liked to leave on Sunday and get an extra day of warm weather, but how could I be an on airplane on January Sundays that were also rounds 1 and 2, respectively, of the NFL playoffs?

And I feel sad today, about the crashing of a promising career, about the likelihood that the Jets have started a freefall into another dark period in their painful history.

I also know that it is all quite irrational for Jets fans to feel sad at all today. After all, in the worst case, Pennington will be a rich man whose NFL career ended prematurely. He will be alive and will live a healthy day-to-day life. If those of us unfortunate enough to be Jets fans had been born outside of the New York area, or had (G-d forbid) chosen to be a Giants fan, we might have a little bit of sympathy for Chad Pennington, but wouldn't otherwise care. Indeed, caring about whether the group of men whether one uniform or those wearing the other uniform wins is itself silly and irrational.

Yesterday, the day that the terrible news about Pennington was revealed, Israel's Shin Bet also revealed that a Jerusalem man had been kidnapped and murdered by Hamas terrorists. That's something to feel sad about.

Even keeping things in perspective, though, I expect to be back at Giants Stadium a week from Sunday, knowing the Jets will likely lose to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but hoping for a win.
posted on 9/27/2005