Why does management hate Kellen Clemens?

What did Kellen Clemens do that was so bad that the Jets constantly go out of their way to make certain that he does not play?

It begs the question, if what he did was that bad, why is he still on the team? Are they punishing him by banishing him to the bench?

Did Clemens rape a member of the Johnson family or something? By the lengths they are taking to keep him OFF the field you might think so. (Ok, maybe not rape, but possibly a gentle molestation.)

Clemens' base salary this year is $535,000 ($937,500) if you include his prorated 1.6 million dollar signing bonus he got with his July 28, 2006 contract. His 1.6 million was spread over 4 years in addition to his salary of $275,000 (2006), $360,000 (2007), $445,000 (2008) and $535,000 (2009).

Clemens was the Jets 2nd round pick in 2006, the 49th player picked in the draft. He had a pretty decent career at Oregon. If he was at a college that gets more PR he would have been a pretty high profile guy.

When Chad Pennington got hurt in 2007 Clemens started 8 games. The Jets went 3-5 under Clemens and he was serviceable. Nothing that would catapult him into being THE GUY but no worse that many QB's have in their 1st 8 games. In fact, batter than many who became great QB's.

He lost out to Pennington in 2006, he lost out to Pennington again in 2007, he lost out to Brett Favre in 2008 (not much of a fair fight there, but he was about to lose out to Pennington again anyway), and he lost out to 1st Round pick rookie Mark Sanchez in 2009.

Yesterday, the NY Jets rookie QB Mark Sanchez in his 6th professional career game (he only played 16 college games) faded back to pass 29 times and connected on 15 of them. 10 times the ball went the Jets, 5 times it went to the Bills, and the other 19 times the ball hit the ground with no one catching hit (which I guess should be considered a positive compared to the 5 interceptions.)

I don't care who you are. You could be Joseph Willie Namath. You could be Peyton Manning, a rookie, a veteran it doesn't matter. At some point, after 3 interceptions, 4 interceptions, 5 interceptions, ....... there has to be a unanimous consensus between the 80,000 people in the stands, the millions watching on TV, the offensive coordinator, the head coach, the team owner, the QB's mother an anyone who is even heard second hand what is going on that it's not your day and you have to come out of the game and the back-up has to go it.

After Sanchez threw 4 interceptions did they think that Clemens would throw 2 more and Sanchez would only throw 1 more so the lesser of two evils was to leave Sanchez in? If you didn't put the back-up guy in on a day like yesterday, exactly when would you do it? The Jets would have received a $535,000 Salary Cap Savings if they just cut him this year. Instead, they have a kid QB that desperately needs to sit, relax, watch and learn for a bit and a back-up who apparently, the coach can't or won't play.

A buddy of mine in our office has Rex Ryan's cell phone number. He left the following message during 4th quarter of the game.

"Rex, you are paying the guy $937,500 this year! He's standing there with a baseball cap on freezing his ass off! Put him in the game and let's see what he can do, the other guy doesn't have it today! It doesn't mean that you are calling him the starter. It doesn't mean that you are creating a QB controversy; you have to try to win the game!"

Whatever Clemens did must have been really bad....... - Keith A. Baker

Keith A. Baker is a sports agent in Stamford, Connecticut. His goal is to offer a unique insight to the world of sports. Comments in his columns are for entertainment purposes only and do not reflect the views and opinions of his firm or his client.

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NFL WRAP-UP – Week 3 Final

Did anyone else besides me notice the crest on the 50 yard line of Qualcomm stadium this Sunday? 1960 - 2009??? The Chargers are actually celebrating the 49th year of the AFL? Who celebrates anniversaries this way? Would you celebrate your 50th birthday on your 49th because it is the start of your 50th year of life? Shesh!

On to the week that was.

Lions (19) – Redskins (14)
The Lions tear the Redskins Teepee apart finally winning a game. The people of Motown have been through a lot the past two years and this was long overdue. Good for the Lions and good for the people of Motown but bad for Jim Zorn, very bad. To say he’s on the hot seat is an understatement. Things were so bad for Zorn this week that he even got into an argument with Redskins legend Sonny Jurgensen on the air.

Patriots (26) - Falcons (10)
The Patriots defense clamps down in the 2nd half shutting them out.

Jets (24) – Titans (17)
Rookie Ryan Mouton’s two turnovers do in the Titans. The Titans (who we think will still make the playoffs) are officially the best 0-3 team in football. The Jets are now 3-0. Btw – the Jets need to nix the old NY Titans uniforms, they are awful. There has to be a better way to increase your merchandise sales.

Vikings (27) - 49ers (24)
Frank Gore left this game after his 1st touch of the ball with an ankle injury yet the 49ers (who are better that people expected them to be) were second from going 3-0 and had one taken from them in typical Brett Favre fashion with his long touchdown pass with just seconds to go. You will see this highlight for quite a while. The word is that Gore will miss at least two more games.

Ravens (34) – Browns (3) / Eagles (34) – Chiefs (14)
The Ravens and Eagles took care of inferior opponents. The Browns have scored just 1 touchdown in their past 9 games and the Chiefs are rebuilding. The Chiefs aren’t as bad as the Browns but it’s going to be long years for both. Did I say that the Browns have scored just 1 touchdown in their past 9 games? Mangini is a joke……… more on this to follow.

Bengals (23) - Steelers (20)
The Bengals show some resolve and come from behind to knock off the Steelers. The Steelers miss Troy Polamalu and have absolutely no running game (can’t remember ever saying that about a Steelers team.)

Saints (27) – Bills (7)
The Saints offensive machine continues as they come alive late. Great game next week, Jets vs. Saints.

Bears (25) – Seahawks (19)

The Bears hold off the Seahawks. Not sure how to look at this one as this was closer than many had thought with the Seahawks playing without 9 starters. The Seahawks uniforms were worse than the Jets. Awful really, what are they thinking? The NFL has so many rules about uniforms giving fines for sox being uneven, shirts not tucked in, players wearing unauthorized bandannas under their helmets, but they let the Seahawks wear fluorescent green over puke green?

Giants (24) – Bucs (0)
Not much to say here. Even Gaints fans were changing the channel.

Broncos (23) – Raiders (3)
Broncos too care of business. JaMarcus Russell may be a man boy, but he’s not an NFL QB. 61 yards passing? Ca’mon. How do they explain cutting Jeff Garcia? The defense plays their hearts out every week. If I were on the Raiders defense I would be pissed.

Jaguars (31) – Texans (24)
Can the Texans defense stop anyone? Put the Raiders defense with the Texans offense and you have a complete NFL team.

Chargers (23) – Dolphins (13)

The Chargers drowned the fish. Looks like Chad Pennington is done for the year, and maybe his career. What a shame. Throughout his career Chad, certainly showed that he has guts and, he’s one of the brightest and classiest guys in the NFL. Chad has the highest completeion percentage in NFL history.  He’s gonna make a great coach some day. Unfortunately, maybe sooner than later now; it’s hard not to root for this guy.

Colts (31) – Cardinals (10)
The Colts just don’t lose in September. Did you know that the Colts have the NFL best regular season record of 116-46 in the last decade? Think of how much money you would have made the past 10 years picking Peyton Manning and the Money Line in the regular season. When you think about it, it’s actually amazing that Peyton doesn’t get more press than he does!

Cowboys (21) – Panthers (7)
Wow, what an awful start for John Fox and the Panthers. It was a tight game with the Panthers actually staring a drive that could have given them a lead until Jake Delhomme threw 27 yard TD pick to Terrance Newman with 5:07 left in the 4th ¼. It’s an every other year thing for the Panthers. Unfortunately this one appears to be the other.

Mike Cardano is the founder of the Around The Horn (Baseball Blogs) and Extra Point (Football Blogs). Mike is also the founder of the fantasy sports games Ultimate Franchise Baseball™ and Ultimate Franchise Football™.

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One Bad Play Call - “good night, the lights…..”

The Miami Dolphins had the perfect offensive game plan against the Indianapolis Colts on Monday night. It reminded me of the “keep away” strategy the New York Giants used against the high-octane Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXV. Bill Parcells had a part in that as head coach, and I’m sure as GM he had his hand in this.

The Giants had just shocked the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game in San Francisco and were boarding buses for the flight back east. Parcells, playing with a backup quarterback and no scary offensive weapons, knew they'd have to face the best offense in football, Buffalo's, in the Super Bowl. He looked across the aisle of the bus at offensive coordinator Ron Erhardt and said to him, "Shorten the game.''

The Colts had the ball for just 3:07 in the first quarter, 6:25 in the second and 1:30 in the third. That's right -- three plays and 90 seconds in one quarter, sandwiched around 11- and 13-play Miami drives.

Dan Henning and Tony Sparano made a mistake in play calling though. With 4:33 left in a 20-20 game the Dolphins had ball at the Colts 30 yard line and it was 3rd and 6 yard to go for a 1st down. They play they called / ran was a run by Brown behind the left side of the line, behind guard Justin Smiley and Jake Long. The play gained only three yards and Miami settled for a Carpenter field goal from 45 yards out to take a 23-20 lead and gave the ball back to Peyton Manning with 3:55 to play. Opps!

It took Manning 32 seconds to go 80 yards, thanks to the 48-yard catch-and-run by Pierre Garcon, the replacement for Anthony Gonzalez. That made it 27-23 with 3:18; “good night, the lights…..”, the Dolphins couldn't score in the last 3:18 and the game was over.

Think about it. If the Dolphins converted made a meaningful attempt to convert that 1st down and made it, they get to cut more time off the clock, and maybe the Colts have to start using their three timeouts? Maybe Peyton Manning gets the ball back with less than two minutes left, needing a field goal or touchdown to tie or win? Maybe the Dolphins can get two more first downs before kicking a field goal or scoring a touchdown, the clock could bleed down to zero and Miami will have won without letting Manning have another possession. If Pennington throws an incompletion, kicker Dan Carpenter has a 48-yard field-goal attempt. Carpenter's a second-year kicker; his career-long is 50, and on the evening, he had already hit from 45 and 44 yards missing once on a 49 yarder.

Chad Pennington has the highest completion percentage of all time in the NFL at 65.61%. That’s his strength, short accurate passes. He had been very efficient and safe with the ball all night – they should have let him throw the ball. …….

P.S. Observation - Besides NOT BEING ABLE TO CATCH THE BALL Ted Ginn Jr. is a wonderful receiver.  He is in the wrong profession, he should be in track and field. -Keith A. Baker

Keith A. Baker is a sports agent in Stamford, Connecticut. His goal is to offer a unique insight to the world of sports and Major League Baseball in particular. Comments in his columns are for entertainment purposes only and do not reflect the views and opinions of his firm or his clients.

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Have a Fantasy Football or Rotisserie Baseball question? Want to know who to pick up, who to activate and who the hot prospects are? Ask Dr. Roto. Let Dr. Roto guide your team to a league championship!