Why the NFL is force-feeding fans the New York Jets quarterback controversy
By Kim Myers
As the old football saying goes, “If you have two quarterbacks, you have none.” This is apparently true in New York as the Jets opened camp with a highly publicized battle at the starting quarterback position, whether NFL fans are interested or not. In my opinion, the NFL got enough coverage of the Jets to last a while and even though at times a quarterback competition can be worthwhile and intriguing, the Jets competition is likely to produce more blooper-reel material than the NFL intrigue your average fan is looking for.
What makes the Jets quarterback controversy more compelling than say, the Jaguars competition? Well anything involving a butt fumble is always going to get more attention. But, in reality, the Jets are expected to be about as competitive in their division and in the NFL as the Jaguars will be in theirs so why more hype? The national media loves to blame the big city market on why they feel compelled to offer nonstop coverage of a competitively irrelevant team. “It’s New York, the biggest stage in the world”, was the excuse for why the Jets bringing in Tim Tebow last season meant ESPN reported from their training camp nonstop for an entire week. As long as the Jets remain in New York and Rex “I love attention” Ryan remains their head coach, you’ll hear about what’s going on with them before any other team.
Before camp even opened for the Jets there were more than enough quotes to go around over who would eventually end up with the starting nod to start the regular season. Rookie quarterback Geno Smith declined to join Sanchez for “Jets West” camp out in California in the spring and following the signing of his rookie contract said that he felt he had a great shot at the starting gig.
Seems like that would be easy enough to show up to camp and tell the coaching staff that you’ve never been involved in any type of butt-fumble and win the job with no competition necessary. I might just try to work in the phrase “butt-fumble” into every paragraph of this column, if I can.
The Jets debuted their quarterback competition Friday night against the Detroit Lions and it started about as well as you can expect. Mark Sanchez threw a pick six for his very first pass in the Jets very first possession of the game — I’m not even kidding. Sanchez went on to redeem himself by going 10 of 13 for 125 yards and a touchdown while Geno Smith went six for seven and 47 yards in an unimpressive debut before leaving the game with a mild sprained ankle.
Competition decided? Most likely not
Smith was reportedly back to practicing in pads with the team by Sunday and has said that he would have stayed in the game had it been the regular season.
Position battles are typically one of the most interesting parts of training camp and preseason. To see whether or not the seasoned veteran can ward off the jump start rookie from taking his job is part of what makes this camp so compelling. Also seeing two relatively young guys duke it out to see who wants it more is an NFL tradition almost.
The preseason games don’t really count, it’s like they could not even keep score so these kinds of competitions give these otherwise meaningless games a bit of meaning.
I get the whole reason why you want to showcase a position battle but honestly, as an avid fan of the NFL I care about who will be starting under center for the Jets come September 8th as much I do about the title of Miley Cyrus’ album.
The Jets more than over-saturated the media last season with the Sanchez and Tebow nonsense and while not all of that was their own doing, doesn’t make me want to tune in any more this season.