You tell the Jets they have a “puncher’s chance,” because that’s the phrase you hear everywhere now: on the radio, in the papers, on the Internet, over a beer in your favorite saloon, over a double espresso at your neighborhood Starbucks.
One guy to the next guy: “You think the Jets have a shot?”
Next guy to the other guy: “Yeah. They have a puncher’s chance.”
It’s really supposed to be a good thing, if you think about it. Look, it’s easy to get caught up in the green winds this week. Every time you turn around, another national football voice is picking the Jets. They’ve gone from being the longest kind of long shot to being the most fashionable choice of all. And why?
Because they have a puncher’s chance.
Because everyone says so: “They have a puncher’s chance.” It is designed to be both a compliment and a critique, of course, the image of the bumbling boxer with a rocker hidden in his right hand, the pug with no business sharing the ring with an out-of-his-class opponent
. . . unless that hand happens to connect with a jaw.
The classic puncher’s chance.
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Rex Ryan is the kind of guy who relishes the image of his players being the kind of street-wise tough guys that should be reckoned with and feared, of course. He’s not so fond of the notion that the only chance the Jets have against the Colts in Sunday’s AFC Championship is of the lucky mutt who gets in a free shot and connects.
But he sure jumped on the imagery when it was presented to him yesterday.
“Sure,” he said, “we’ve got a puncher’s chance the way George Foreman had a puncher’s chance.”
And then: “We don’t punch like just anyone.”
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Foreman, you may recall, became the puncher’s-chance patron saint on Nov. 5, 1994, in Las Vegas, when he entered the 10th and final round of a title fight with Michael Moorer way behind on all three cards and looked for all the world to be flailing out the string . . . until he landed a short right hand that nearly rearranged Moorer’s lip with his forehead.
It’s not a bad model for the Jets to emulate, truth be told. Some of the Jets understand that having a puncher’s chance certainly beats having zero chance. Marques Douglas, for one, embraced the imagery and ran with it.
“We’re going to have to be like Mike Tyson in the early days,” the defensive end said. “We’re going to train as hard as [Floyd] Mayweather [Jr.] trains. We’re gonna be as ruthless and relentless as [Manny] Pacquiao.”
That said . . .
“I don’t expect the Colts to think that we have any chance, let alone a puncher’s chance, because that’s the way almost everyone looks at us,” linebacker Calvin Pace said. “That’s OK. I get it. I understand. That’s a great team, and when you’re as great as they are they should be expected to beat us.”
Added Jim Leonhard: “I don’t think we look at that as a good reflection on us, necessarily. But there’s nothing we can do about it. People want to think we’re million-to-one shots or whatever, they’re allowed to think that. As long as the longshot comes in, that’s all that matters to me.”
Added Douglas: “And that explains why we play with chips on our shoulders. That’s why it’s OK with us if teams don’t want to respect us, or don’t think that we belong where we are. It makes us play with more confidence in ourselves. And you know what happens when you do that? You play in the AFC Championship game.”
The same thing happens when you take advantage of your puncher’s chance one week in Cincinnati and another week in San Diego. The Colts are next, and they are way ahead on points, and even all those prognosticators who love the Jets right now would probably sing a different tune if they had their mortgage riding on the game. The Colts are Michael Moorer, settling in for the kill.
Maybe they finish the old man off this time.
But maybe they don’t. Maybe the right hand connects with the jaw one more time. Maybe he sends him tumbling to the canvas. You never know.
michael.vaccaro@nypost.com