Your head coach puts you in harm’s way in the fourth quarter of a meaningless game and you get knocked into next season and lose any chance at the starting job you appeared to have won.
Your general manager drafted Geno Smith and signed David Garrard to replace you.
Your owner suggested that maybe if you would have protected yourself better, maybe you wouldn’t have a partially torn labrum and maybe you wouldn’t have had to go on a Mark Across America tour seeking a medical consensus about the merits of surgery.
Mark Sanchez has every right to rail at the Jets on the day he officially was reduced to an $8.25 million quarterbacks coach and, if and when he rehabs his way back off injured reserve in time for Week 11 in Buffalo, an $8.25 million backup quarterback and insurance policy.
“I love being part of this organization,” Sanchez said.
He could have sung an angry song of betrayal, could have called for a football Warren Commission to ferret out, “What did they know, and when did they know it?” to examine whether there was a grassy knoll on the MetLife Stadium sidelines.
He could have gone the Alex Rodriguez route, getting some doctor to chime in on his X-rays on talk radio, or even call Mike Francesa himself to argue his case in the court of public opinion.
“I don’t know what else they could have done for me in this situation,” Sanchez said.
“I’m not blindsided by this IR situation. This whole thing has been out in the open.”
Sanchez takes the high road instead, on his way to a dead end that has been waiting for him from the day Smith walked across the NFL Draft stage on at Radio City Music Hall and became John Idzik’s Rockette, who would kick Sanchez out of sight and out of mind and eventually out of town.
Gen. Patton might not have wanted Sanchez as his field general, but he would have loved what a loyal soldier he is. Either that, or Idzik is some kind of amateur hypnotist.
To wit:
“John, do you want Mark to be on your team in 2014?”
Idzik: “We’re not looking forward to 2014. We’re looking squarely at 2013. Mark is a very important part of this team.”
“Mark, your GM won’t commit to you for next season.”
Sanchez: “I don’t know if he was non-committal. I think he’s taking things one week at a time.”
And just look how day-to-day worked out for Sanchez.
“Everybody is different, every single injury is different,” Idzik said. “It wasn’t misdiagnosed at all. We were literally taking it day-to-day.”
They were forced to take it day-to-day because coach Rex Ryan, who coddled and enabled Sanchez for four years, recklessly threw him under Smith’s bus to, cough cough, win the Snoopy Bowl.
Idzik: “No, it was not a mistake. Unfortunately, injuries are part of our game. We feel terribly Mark was injured, and Mark feels worse.”
Smith suffering a shoulder injury in that situation, now that would have been a mistake.
Sanchez: “What’s done is done. I don’t think you heal tight if you hold grudges. That negative stuff doesn’t help. It’s over, it’s done with. I’ve moved on, and we’re moving on together.”
So that settles it, Smith is the starter, no ifs, ands or Buttfumbles.
Idzik: “I’d characterize the quarterback position like everything else. We don’t look too far ahead. Right now our sights are set on Buffalo. We literally take it day-to-day, week-to-week, game-by-game.”
Well, that could be interpreted as Matt Simms and Brady Quinn are in the competition now, too.
Idzik: “Right now for Buffalo, Geno Smith is our starting quarterback, and that’s the way we’re going to take it.”
So apparently the Idzik Jets could have Aaron Rodgers or Peyton Manning or Drew Brees as their quarterback, and perhaps Simms or Quinn could be the starter after Buffalo. Only the Jets can stage an ongoing quarterback competition throughout an entire season. Never mind that a team needs to know who its quarterback is.
Can Sanchez possibly believe if and when he returns, he will feel entitled to reclaim the starting job he has told us he won?
Sanchez: “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. I’m expecting to be the starter, I always have been.”
That would make him either delusional or in denial.
Sanchez: “I’m a Jet. I’ve been a Jet since Day 1. I don’t plan on doing anything else.”
He should. It’s over for him here.
Dead Quarterback Rehabbing.
Sanchez: “I’m trying to help Geno … keep him fired up, give him as much insight on these games. This IR spot gives us an opportunity to have another roster spot.”
He ruined it for himself with those 52 crimes against Jets Nation the past two years. Now the organization ruins him. They took away his job. But apparently you can’t Buttfumble class.
Idzik: “Mark is the ultimate team player.”
Maybe next year he’ll be on the ultimate team.