Sports

END OF AN ERA – CHREBET PREPARING HIS FAREWELL TO ‘PASSED’ GLORY

It started back in the summer of 1995 and it hardly had the look of any sort of fairy tale.

Rich Kotite was the head coach. Wayne Chrebet was 12th on the receivers depth chart. The Jets were perennial losers.

The words “long shot” were almost too optimistic a phrase to describe the chances of the free agent out of Hofstra making it through first cuts let alone making the team – let alone nearly catching Don Maynard as the franchise’s all-time leading receiver.

Yet there was Wayne Chrebet yesterday, standing in front of the very same locker he has occupied since that summer of 1995 when he climbed that depth chart faster than any new U-2 song zips to the top of the music charts these days, 565 regular-season catches and 41 TDs to his credit, smelling the roses of his unthinkably marvelous career.

Yesterday marked the day after the Jets’ 2004 season was over. Players met the coaches for the last time before dispersing to parts unknown.

Chrebet, though he still doesn’t want to let go, seems to be realistic deep in his heart that this is the end for him. He spoke about talking to doctors and his family and eventually Herman Edwards, but all of that seems to be a mere formality.

He’s due a $400,000 roster bonus in March and is due to count $2.35 million against the salary cap in 2005, when, if he were still on the team he’d be a No. 4 receiver, at best, prone to concussions and who doesn’t play special teams. You get the picture. So does Chrebet.

When he walked off the Heinz Field turf after the Jets’ crushing overtime loss to the Steelers in Saturday’s playoff loss, Chrebet said he walked slowly and soaked every second of the moment in so he’d remember his last walk forever.

“I did that a lot this year, walking off the field thinking, ‘You never know,'” Chrebet was saying yesterday, holding his helmet in one hand, readying to bring it home to the Jersey Shore, surely for the last time. “I gave it a good, long, hard look around to take it in, seeing just everything it symbolizes being on that field.

“That,” Chrebet said, “was one of the best games I’ve ever played in.” For Chrebet, who suffered a mild concussion in the Jets’ regular-season finale and was forced to sit out the wildcard playoff game in San Diego, Saturday’s game in Pittsburgh was a parting gift of sorts. He didn’t catch a pass and the Jets didn’t win, but it marked a special moment for him.

He walked out of that stadium on his own, which means he didn’t finish his career standing on the sideline

inactive due to those concussions that KOed him last season.

“It was tough,” Chrebet said, “but I tried to enjoy the moment as best I could.”

The walk off the field – painful because of the way the Jets lost – sent snippets of his magical career flying through his head.

“How could anyone have imagined this?” Chrebet said, referring to his unlikely journey. “I thought I could play; that was one thing I found out right away. I just wanted a chance.”

That chance came from Kotite, to whom Chrebet is forever indebted.

Few have taken advantage of his chance and climbed as many rungs on the ladder in a more hungry and passionate way than Chrebet, which is why it was so difficult to say “Goodbye” yesterday.

Chrebet has caught his last pass as a Jet, but those No. 80 Jets jerseys, symbols of the cult-like everyman hero Chrebet became, will still fill Giants Stadium and perpetuate his legacy.

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Here are the career statistics of Wayne Chrebet – meeting with the media yesterday – who likely played his last game as a Jet Saturday:

Year Team GS Rec. Yds. Avg. TD

1995 Jets 16 66 726 11.0 4

1996 Jets 9 84 909 10.8 3

1997 Jets 1 58 799 13.8 3

1998 Jets 15 75 1083 14.4 8

1999 Jets 11 48 631 13.1 3

2000 Jets 16 69 937 13.6 8

2001 Jets 15 56 750 13.4 1

2002 Jets 15 51 691 13.5 9

2003 Jets 5 27 289 10.7 1

2004 Jets 1 31 397 12.8 1

TOTALS 9 yrs. 104 565 7212 12.8 41