Nay, friends, I have not fallen into a permanent vegetative state, nor driven my ship off the edge of the earth, to the abyss where the great dragons dwell. It’s actually just kind of been a really busy week for me. As soon as I wrapped up my summer camp work, I was asked to do a near 180 and repack my bags for the Garden State. In the interim, I also happened to come down with bronchitis, or at least that’s what my doctor has told me. I still believe I’ve been stricken with consumption, and they’re going to have to do more than fling a few stethoscopes my way to convince me otherwise. While I was gone, my usually firm handle on the latest Jets news lessened a bit, to the point at which my father, upon picking me up from LaGaurdia, had to break it to me that we had contacted Terrell Owens’ agent. I didn’t believe him. About ten minutes later, he turned on WFAN and Don LaGreca delivered the grim news himself. My assumption at the time was that the team was merely doing their due diligence to investigate a prominent free agent, and that our consideration of him was no more serious than it was concerning JaMarcus Russell. In fact, signing JaMarcus would have made significantly more sense, given that we actually have need for a backup quarterback, whereas I can think of no role for T.O. on this team outside of making people hate us even more and presenting David Clowney with a huge raised middle finger just days after returning from his charity work in Ghana. No matter how serious our interest may have been, Owens indeed wound up in Cincinnati, which was always the only real, logical place for him, and I look forward to watching Cromartie blanket him on Thanksgiving night, while Revis silences his prolifically Twitterish compatriot across the field.

A crowd of Jets fans line up to watch their heroes practice in Florham Park, NJ

Who’s ready for training camp!?

Some people, notably the jumpy and less-than-trustworthy Rich Cimini, expected the Jets to swallow up Mark Brunell as soon the Final Eight rule expired on the 22nd, and were alarmed when this did not happen (Cimini also believed Marques Douglas would be resigned almost as quickly. How’d that work out for you, buddy?) My homeboy Manish Mehta, however, is now reporting that Brunell is in Florham Park ready to work out for the team, which presumably means he will be inked before he steps out the door. Understandably, Kellen Clemens is a goner, even if select members of the team have indicated their opposition to such a move in the past. Kevin O’Connell will presumably also be shown the way out, which is fine, because I’ve never been able to understand why we felt the need to carry a 4th QB, especially one who seemed to bring little to the team beyond his connection to the Pats. The debate regarding Sanchez’s backup has already been had, both here on the Kvetch and elsewhere, but for the record, I am in strong support for a depth chart of Sanchez, Brunell and Ainge. If you’d like to debate that, I’d be happy, thrilled even, to do so in the comments section.

Now that I’m back in the world of the living, being home in Jersey should afford me some great new opportunities. For starters, I’m hoping, however unlikely it may be, to to get up to Cortland for training camp. Failing that, I have already scheduled my season ticket holder tour of the new stadium for this Saturday. Yeah, I know many of you did that long, long ago, and got to attend that open stadium practice, but I’ve never even driven past the completed stadium, let alone been inside of it, so this is pretty exciting. I also still need to write a large number of promised guest posts (sorry guys! I really will do it ASAP!).

Oh, and finally, check out the new-look Jets blog! I swear I had to do a double-take when I first saw it. Looks great, doesn’t it?

Anyway, good to be back. Now let’s get camp started!

- Manhole Out.

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