Monday, April 2, 2012

As Gang Green Turns: Tebow and Sanchez - Ryan Knows You Can Take Only One Girl to the Prom

First published on Blogcritics.

One suspects that New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan is delighted as can be about the newest wrinkle in the Jets soap opera, with Tim Tebow crashing into the party. For if nothing else, Ryan loves to mix things up; he is definitely a "shaken not stirred" kind of guy. There were times last year that the Jets resembled the Titanic, and if anything Tebow represents the iceberg that hit the starboard side. Since we all know how the ship fared, one can only wonder how the S.S. Jets will stay afloat this season.
Perhaps in Ryan's mind there is no impediment, but that is the same thinking that the Titanic's Captain Smith took to his watery grave. Ryan, despite all his posturing and mouthing off, does know a thing or two about football. He is not some young schmuck who inadvertently asked two girls to go to the senior dance. Ryan knows you can take only one girl to the prom, and if he really wants to get to that Super Bowl and dance the final dance, he is going to have to choose a partner.

Make no mistake, this "love" triangle is something right out of Shakespeare, but if we don't want a tragedy on our hands (with almost everyone dead on the floor after the final sword fight), something has to give. Ryan knows it, Sanchez does too, and without a doubt young Mr. Tebow knows it. He came here of his own volition - choosing the Jets over Jacksonville Jaguars, despite knowing that Sanchez had just received a contract extension. Now isn't that just like the girl who says "Yes" when asked to the prom, even knowing the guy has asked out another gal already?

No one knows how this is going to play out this year, but you have to wonder what owner Woody Johnson and GM Mike Tannebaum were thinking. The obvious thing was to grab the headlines away from those NY Giants, but there is something even more insidious in the works here. Could they have given Sanchez the extension full well knowing that they had their eyes on Tebow? That's like asking if Judas gave up Jesus without thinking about those thirty pieces of silver.

I have been watching the soap opera I like to call As Gang Green Turns for most of my life, but I think these latest episodes are about the wildest I have ever seen (and training camp is still months away). So until the next drama unfolds; same Jet time, same Jet station, old chums.

Photo Credit: foxnews.com

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