There used to be a circus around here, beneath a riotous green-and-white Big Top, Rex Ryan behind the wheel of one clown car, Mark Sanchez riding shotgun, Woody Johnson behind the wheel of another, chauffeuring Tim Tebow around for everyone to see.
The circus has officially left town.
In its place stands a defiant football coach and his defiant football team — the New York Football Defiants — who would relish a game with the New York Football Giants, even if it had to take place in the parking lot on New York Super Bowl Sunday with no one watching.
A defiant football coach, former circus Fat Man, fighting to keep his dream job, and his defiant football team, led by a baby-faced kid quarterback starring in a sitcom we can call “I Dream of Geno,” ready and willing, if not always able, to take on all comers who wonder why Bozo has left the building.
When they said they’ll be back, The Rexterminators weren’t kidding.
The Rexterminators, you may or may not recall, are a fearless army that doesn’t want to hear about any damn buttfumble, or any damn Snoopy Bowl mindlessness, or any damn ESPN rankings. Only: Who’s next?
They’ll hunt you down and then bloody your nose in a Big Apple minute, and are younger and hungrier and meaner and tougher than the 0-5 zombies on the blue side of town, especially in the trenches.
The NFL knows them as the New York Jets, and if you are familiar with their unfathomable history, then you certainly know better than to plan any Canyon of Heroes parade any time soon. Perhaps the Mud Bowl might ring a bell. These tortured souls haven’t won a championship since Jan. 12, 1969. Since Broadway Joe.
“It’s not like we feel like we’re King Kong,” Ryan said Tuesday.
But if you don’t think these bad boys are ready to get the monkey off their backs and dream of a playoff berth, just look around at the rest of the AFC and tell me who, other than Peyton Manning, is King Kong?
Because these are the Jets, because this is the NFL, because Geno Smith has all of five flights as the Jet pilot, you can bet there will be turbulence ahead. Any Given Sundays or Monday Nights when he can give you a 147.7 quarterback rating every bit as much as a behind-the-back dribble by the goal line.
But boy, if that was a glimpse of the future Smith provided in Atlanta, then maybe there will be a future for the Rexterminators after all.
“He’s the man,” Jeremy Kerley said.
Nobody, absolutely nobody, owns a crystal ball that can tell us whether Smith will ultimately find himself resting in the franchise’s endless quarterbacks graveyard that is littered with the bodies of would-be phenoms and has-beens and never-weres.
It doesn’t mean he can’t be a symbol of hope for a better tomorrow, whenever that tomorrow arrives.
It doesn’t mean the long-suffering Jets fan should be discouraged from singing “I Dream of Geno” at the top of his or her long-suffering lungs.
It should not be lost on anyone that in his sixth NFL start, Mark Sanchez endured a five-interception nightmare.
On the other end of the spectrum, Eli Manning was 0-5 (sound familiar?) in his first five starts, completing 55-of-124 passes with three touchdowns and seven interceptions. Peyton Manning was 1-4 after five starts with four TDs and 12 INTs.
The expectations for I Dream of Geno should be tempered also because of the dearth of playmakers around him. But he can sure sling that rock when he is made comfortable by Marty Mornhinweg.
And if the growing pains continue to subside, then we may have a football season around here after all. Season’s greetings from the Rexterminators.
I Dream of Geno should be the quarterback for the rest of the season, the boy leader of the remorseless Rexterminators, who don’t care whether you like them or not, who don’t care about style points or
Winning Ugly. Because in the NFL, the face of a clown is much, much uglier.