Crackback wrote a great FanPost asking GGN members their five favorite Jets. I'm going to take his idea and post it here. For a rule, let's say they have to have been active players since you started rooting for the team. The first year I watched the Jets religiously was 1993. Some of you go back much further. Others have only been rooting for the Jets for a few years. When you started will undoubtedly color your decisions.
Here are my five.
Wayne Chrebet
Chrebet is my all-time favorite. How can you not love the story? He was a small school local kid. He didn't have a ton of talent. He wasn't even good enough to make a CFL team when he tried out. Somehow he stuck with the Jets and had a productive 11 year career. Sadly it ended with concussion problems. The last play of his career was a fitting tribute. He was knocked unconscious but still somehow held onto the ball after making a third down catch to extend a drive. I also liked the way Chrebet handled some of Keyshawn Johnson's public criticisms.
Curtis Martin
He was the rare superstar who somehow managed to fly under the radar in New York. He didn't seek out attention. His game wasn't flashy. He just kept going out and producing with a level of consistency almost no running back has ever touched in the NFL. He was like Superman. He didn't just play through serious injuries. He played like serious injuries had no impact.
Mo Lewis
If you have read this site long enough, you know there are certain topics that irritate me to no end. One of them is how people act like the only thing Lewis ever did was injure Drew Bledsoe and get Tom Brady into the Patriots' lineup. Lewis was a great linebacker for the Jets for over a decade. He was the only good thing on a lot of miserable teams in the 1990's.
Chad Pennington
He was the closest thing I've seen to a franchise quarterback in the time I've rooted for the Jets. Those first two or three years, he looked like he could be something special. Then he was decimated by injuries. In a way, I might have liked post-injury Pennington even more. He could barely put more zip on the ball than some of the people in the stands, but he still figured out a way to be effective and get the Jets into the Playoffs. From everybody I've talked to who would know, Pennington is a really great guy off the field too.
D'Brickashaw Ferguson
Sometimes you know you have a good left tackle when you don't have to think about the position at all. That's what the Jets had for a decade with Brick. He was also remarkably durable.