DEFENDING CHAD PENNINGTON

I'm re-learning that one of the things you can't control without DirecTV is who you watch the games with on Sundays.

Sure, I have some control over who I go out with, and thanks go out to Dave in Brighton, who currently leads the league in football outings with me. But we can't really control who else we watch the game with.

Take Week 3 - we tried an old haunt where we get our own booth with our own TV to watch the Jets-Titans game. We were allowed to watch the game mostly in peace until a Patriots fan made his way over and adopted our TV to watch the end of the game. He had picked the Jets that week, and had money riding on the outcome. I was happy to have someone on my side in hostile territory, but I wouldn't have minded if he was a little more sober, and a little less physical.

A couple of weeks ago, Dave in Brighton and a friend of a friend of his were out, and I met up with them to watch the Jets-Saints. We sat behind a huge Bengals fan (mostly in stature...although he seemed like he was also really into his team) - and this was the week they almost tied the Browns. He watched that game in the bar like I watch Jets games in my living room. At our table was a girl (the aforementioned friend of a friend) who was rooting for the Bucs...and after meeting her I hope the Bucs don't win a game the rest of the season. But that's not the point.

The point was, as we watched some of the Bills getting smoked by Chad Henne and the Dolphins that week, she started dumping on Chad Pennington. I tried to get her to stop and strongly hinted something along the lines of "But he's my hero...", but she continued, and she became more offensive with each sentence. Comments like, "Addition by subtraction", and "they're better off with Henne"....I mean, it sounded like she was talking about someone like Plaxico Burress.

Well, I feel the need once again to defend Chad Pennington. Especially because the Dolphins are riding a pretty convincing 2-game winning streak with Henne at the helm, and because there's a better than 50% chance that they beat the best team in football this weekend. (Aside: this is such a trap game for the Saints - the Dolphins are coming off a bye week, the Saints have the Falcons the following week in a battle for NFC South supremacy....it's a total look-ahead game...and let's face it, they're not going undefeated...so why not lose this one?) Anyway, after that happens, everyone will be all over Pennington for standing in Henne's way at the beginning of this season.

But I have one simple argument to make - probably for the last time until Pennington becomes relevant again - by backing up a starting quarterback somewhere in the league, taking over that team following an injury, and leading them to a Super Bowl win....and here's that argument:

The New England Patriots have won the AFC East 8 of the last 9 years. The player to stop that streak - Chad Pennington, quarterbacking the Miami Dolphins last year. In every other year that he was healthy, his teams were the only teams to come within sniffing distance of those Patriots (2002 - Jets and Pats both 9-7, but the Patriots won the division; 2004 - the Jets were 10-6 to the Pats' 14-2; 2006 - the Jets were 10-6 to the Pats' 12-4). Now, I know this argument gets weaker in that the Patriots went on to win Super Bowls and the Jets only won a playoff game that whole time (should have been more if not for a certain kicker in 2004, but I don't want to get into that right now), but that's a whole lot better than 90% of the quarterbacks in the league.

So think twice before you go after Chad Pennington and his arm. Because when that arm was healthy, all he did was win.

OH CHAD

The good news, I guess, is that Chad Pennington could be in line for a record third Comeback Player of the Year Award in 2010.

But there's got to be serious doubt that Pennington will be able to come back at all from another season-ending shoulder injury suffered Sunday in San Diego.

The reports are that Pennington has a torn capsule in his throwing shoulder, the same shoulder he had surgery on in 2004 and 2005. The same reports say he is out the rest of this season. I'm guessing the next step, though I haven't heard anything yet, is that the rest of his career is in jeopardy.

For those of you who are not familiar with my past, you need to know that I think the world of Chad Pennington. So much so that last year he had me rooting for the Dolphins (I HATE the Dolphins) over the Jets so that he could make the playoffs again. I know he couldn't throw the deep ball, and I know he didn't play the greatest games of his career in the playoffs, but he was a winner with the Jets. He just couldn't stay healthy.

And that is still a problem.

This latest injury seems a bit much. I'm no expert, but when your career (a career which is already characterized by a weak arm) rests on your throwing shoulder, and that shoulder has already suffered three pretty serious traumas, I would think that would end said career. And I would hate to see it happen...but I would also hate to see Chad Pennington unable to do simple tasks like lift a fork to his mouth because he ruined his shoulder playing football.

My dad and I talk about Pennington often. He likes to say that one day Pennington will win a Super Bowl. I like to agree, because he is such a smart ballplayer, a great leader, and someone you want to see have that kind of success. He has all the traits that would make him a great coach after his playing days are over.

I want to think maybe he'll still get that Super Bowl win. Unfortunately, after this latest injury, it might have to be on the sidelines as a coach rather than on the field as a player.

AROUND THE NFL: WEEK 1

My thoughts on some of the rest of the NFL weekend:

CHECKING IN WITH CHAD: You are not forgotten, Chad Pennington. Pennington had a typical Pennington day passing, at least in the positive stats category, in the Dolphins' 19-7 loss to the Falcons. Pennington was 21-29 for 176 yards (that's vintage Pennington) with a touchdown and interception each. But he also fumbled, making him responsible for 2 of the Dolphins' four costly turnovers. The numbers look OK, but it wasn't a great day for Chad.

WISHY-WASHINGTON: I swear the only time I've seen the Redskins move the ball well the past couple of years is when they're trailing in the final five minutes of a ballgame. That was when they looked the best against the Giants on Sunday, when Jason Campbell brought them to within six points (big back-door cover!) on a 17-yard TD pass to Chris Cooley. Otherwise the Redskins looked terrible against a Giants team that kind of dominated the game...but it's hard to judge because of how badly the Redskins played. I'm still not buying into the Giants a ton - but I think I may have miscalculted the Redskins. I thought they were better than they looked in Week 1.

COMEBACK: The Denver/Brandon Stokely play is the reason I never, if at all possible, leave a game before the final gun sounds. Rare that it's worth it, though. Also, let's not let that touchdown mask the fact that both the Broncos and the Bengals played a terrible ballgame offensively, and both are going nowhere this year.

MCRIBB: Just what Donovan McNabb needed - an injury to fuel speculation that he should take a backseat to Michael Vick when Vick's suspension is over. The worst part of it all was that it didn't have to happen - it came with McNabb taking on a defender as he entered the end zone when the game was already well in hand.

SPEAKING OF INJURIES: I always listen to at least one sports radio update on my way home from school to catch what I may have missed during the day, and usually the Monday after an NFL weekend has a juicy something. Today it was nothing less than shocking to hear that Brian Urlacher would be out the rest of the season. I watched most of the Sunday night game, and I didn't see him get hurt, but I knew he was hurt and I saw them cut to him on the sideline often during the game...and I'm just very surprised it was a season-ending injury. Bad news for the Bears.

MONDAY NIGHT: Speaking as someone who no longer has the DirecTV Sunday Ticket, I would totally deal with only 3 of the late Sunday games (4pm starts) to have two Monday night games...and one starting at 7pm. I love the 7pm Monday start.

THE ONLY CHOICE

The official word was handed down Wednesday: Mark Sanchez will be the starting quarterback for the New York Jets to start the 2009 season.

The unofficial word: Hopefully he will also be the starting quarterback for many additional years to come.

Rex Ryan gave a fair shake to the "incumbent", Kellen Clemens, whose only claim to the job, really, was having already been on the Jets' roster. Ryan declared the position open to a competition, may the best man win.

Trouble was, no one was best...the numbers this pre-season were pretty equal. And that's bad news for a veteran versus a rookie, because if the rookie can do what the veteran can do, why not go with the rookie...in this case the number five overall pick in the draft.

And in reality, the way the competition turned out is the way it should have gone anyway, because Kellen Clemens has not given any indication that he is capable of leading a franchise. That's why the Jets drafted Mark Sanchez, and now that the "Who's the starter?" discussion is settled it's time to get down to the business of football, and see if Sanchez is the guy capable of leading a franchise.

I have nothing against Clemens. Really, I don't. Unfortunately for him, he was caught in the wrong place, wrong time with the Chad Pennington's situation, when I felt that Pennington did not get a fair shake from the Jets. So I hold Clemens up to a standard that he is not capable of reaching. Now Sanchez has his own standard to uphold.

It's very exciting to follow a guy from the beginning of his career, especially at a position like quarterback. I was shocked to learn that the only other time a rookie quarterback started a season for the Jets was their first year of existence, in 1960.

What's fair to expect from Sanchez? I think it's unfair to make comparisons to Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan and expect a playoff appearance right off the bat. Certainly it's possible in the NFL, where anything can happen any year, but I think it's more realistic to expect Sanchez to keep the Jets in games, and lead them to more of an 8-8 record than a 3-13.

Other than that, it'll be exciting to watch this career get started on the field instead of on the sideline and to see what the Jets have for the future. And it will certainly be more exciting than watching Kellen Clemens quarterback the team.