"The Education of Geno" coming to an ESPN station near you

If there is yet another thing I despise, it is the media lavishing praise and slavish sympathy on the current darling. No, I’m not talking about Hillary Clinton this time, but the way ESPN has the “back” of current New York Jets quarterback Geno Smith. It was most obvious on its website commentary after the loss to the New England Patriots, since the truth is easier to hide there than on broadcast media; people are not as easily gulled by commentary that doesn’t jibe with the replays. On a day that even the helpless Jacksonville Jaguars should have beaten the Patriots, the Jets were confronted with a mere 13-10 deficit in the fourth quarter, and as the final seconds ticked away, it was still 13-10. What happened in between—such as between the ears—seemed to be lost on Coach Rex Ryan and fawning commentators. 

Fans and commentators were apparently easily persuaded that last week’s freak win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was “legit” and a harbinger for future success. That is a matter of opinion, of course. That the Buccaneers even were in position to win that game despite their hapless play said more about the Jets’ incompetence; that the Jets had the extraordinary luck to be the beneficiary of one of the dumbest and most fortuitous penalties in NFL history merely exhibits the irony of fate. Now, against a Patriots team without a single legitimate starter tasked to catch a football and was nearly beaten by another rookie quarterback last week in EJ Manuel, the Jets were again virtually handed the ball game, and were themselves too incompetent to take it.

And despite what is being said, some of that incompetence lies squarely on the shoulders (or rather, head) of Smith. Not that you would glean any of that from Ryan, who blamed receivers for not holding on to passes in rain. ESPN’s Rick Cimini also demanded that we not blame Smith for anything. He blathered “Smith showed accountability, accepting full responsibility for the 13-10 loss to the New England Patriots on Thursday night at Gillette Stadium. Yeah, he was bad, but his teammates were worse. At least Smith had an excuse; he's a rookie, and there will be more games like this as we watch the Education of Geno over the next few months. For his offensive teammates, there was no excuse.” 

Considering how badly Smith played, some of his teammates might secretly take affront at that statement. Cimini went on to say that “A great quarterback (Tom Brady) surrounded by kids, even on an off night, was good enough to beat a kid surrounded by veterans,” and quoted Smith “I don't like to look at it as a learning experience, because I think I'm ready for this. I know I'm ready for this” before observing “Can his teammates say the same?”

Ready for what? Are we talking about the guy who, after all those dropped passes, completed but 6 of 12 passes in the fourth quarter, and three of those were to the other team? Even in the rain and with third-rate receivers, Brady completed six of his 10 fourth quarter passes to the guys wearing the same colored jersey as his. Dropped passes are just part of the game; Aaron Rodgers managed to win a Super Bowl and 15 games the following year with a top receiving corps that didn’t hang on to every ball thrown to them. It happens. Here, it just sounds like an excuse, and a lame one at that. Smith was horrible all by himself in the fourth quarter, throwing as many picks in that one quarter as Mark Sanchez did all of last year. 

The first interception, viewed from eye level, was thrown at a beeline straight at a defender in front of the receiver; an obvious decision malfunction. But Smith showed “composure.” The second interception showed that not only didn’t Smith learn from his first mistake, but he seemed to forget what color jersey his teammates were wearing. But at least his “composure” was impressive. His third inception only solidified the suspicion that maybe Jets receivers—and the rest of the team generally—were not the problem after all. I mean, a team is only as good as its quarterback, right? But hey, that “composure” was something to marvel at, wasn’t it? It almost gives you the idea that he thinks that he’s immune from criticism, because we are all ready to be fed the “Education of Geno,” courtesy of New York-based sports media, whether we in the rest of the world like it or not. Eat that spinach. 

Another ESPN columnist, Ian O’Connor, was impressed that Smith took “all the blame,” except that he really didn’t, and probably was aware of all the sound bites of everyone else blaming, well, everyone else but him.  People were doing very much the same thing last season in Seattle when Russell Wilson was struggling early in the year, but it doesn’t seem like an appropriate comparison. Unlike Wilson, Smith showed no particular promise in the preseason, and there is no real reason to believe that he is anything more than what he has already showed us. Sure he had big numbers in college against awful defenses; so did Andre Ware and Dave Klingler from the “where are they now?” files. O’Connor also mentioned a “staggering” dropped pass that “mentally affected” the whole team, which apparently included Smith, composure and all. But, then again, he’s only a rookie and has a lot to learn about other things, like leadership. You are not going to learn that if everyone tells you you are not at fault; you might put up a front before the media, but inside you prefer to blame everyone else, too.

It seems that Smith is a rookie, but he’s not under the kind of pressure Mark Sanchez was from day one. I was wrong about Wilson last year, and I may be wrong about Smith as well. But most of the pro-Smith commentary sounds like a desperate attempt to marginalize Sanchez at any cost, even to provide the kind of “excuses” for failure that Sanchez rarely received; it is also likely that the kind of “butt” jokes that Sanchez was frequently the target of will be seen as being in poor taste (if not racist) if applied to Smith no matter how bad he plays. One thing for certain is that even at his worst, Sanchez never played as horribly as Smith did in the fourth quarter against an on-its-heels Patriots team. Yet all we are to see are the “positives,” which at this point only seems to mean that Smith is not Sanchez. 

Meanwhile, the Jets, who should be 0-2, have a chance to blow the whole season wide open with “winnable” games against Buffalo and Tennessee. The assumption, of course, is that Smith is “better” that EJ Manuel and Jake Locker, which gives the Jets the “edge.” I frankly don’t think Smith is a better quarterback than either of those two, but for the fanatic even the wildest dream can seem true.