(Photo: Alchetron.com)
The NFL Draft is in one week. As I have not yet crossed the Rubicon of giving up on football, and as my New York Jets are in a position to finally draft a franchise quarterback, I'm fairly stoked. But although the draft is the best and most certain way to build a winning team, today I want to look back at a great undrafted legend. Enjoy!
In April 1995 a young man, of average height and average athletic measurables, decided to take advantage of the fact that a professional football team was using the home field of his college team, where he had just graduated, as a practice facility. Wayne Chrebet, WR for the 3rd-tier football program of the Hofstra University, attended the season-starting open practice of the New York Jets, held in a stadium he knew so well.
Maybe if the Jets had been a better team during those years, the relatively short (5'10), relatively slow (he is white), relatively low-leaping (see above) no-name player might not have had a chance at making the team. But the Jets were the worst team in the league back then, the go-to joke for desperate late-night hosts everywhere. In a time when the salary cap and free agency had yet to work their full effect, no sane player wanted to come to New York's ugly step-sister.
Chrebet impressed the coaching staff with his toughness, his determination and the knack he displayed even then of catching 3rd-down passes. So the young man from Garfield, NJ was invited to the spring minicamp that marks the end of the offseason. He continued to impress with his sticky hands, precise route-running and by giving it ALL he had on every play. In the morass of failure and indifference of those Jets, that was plenty. So Rich Kotite (a Peter-principle poster boy who thought he could be an NFL Head Coach while “not liking to work long hours”…) made one of his few good moves as HC of NYJ, and signed the white boy to a one-year contract.
Being a local boy and a player who left it all on the field, Chrebet quickly became a fan favorite. He repaid the affection by leading the team in receptions and yards – one of the few bright lights in a 3-13 season.
Wayne Chrebet led the Jets in both categories the following year as well, shocking the football world by becoming the player with the most receptions in his first two seasons, with 150 – one more than a fellow named Randy Moss (that mark has since been eclipsed by Anquan Boldin and many others. It's much more of a passing league now).
In a league that had known Jerry Rice, Lynn Swann, Michael Irvin and any number of other amazing wide receivers, with athletic abilities from an entirely different galaxy than Chrebet, the humble young man looked down at them from atop the history books. Yes, it says something about the lack of alternatives on the team at the time, but it was much more than that.
THROW ME THE DAMN BALL
In Chrebet's second season, he led the team in receiving despite the presence of brash and talented rookie (not as talented as he thought, though), named Keyshawn Johnson. Johnson was so miffed at playing second fiddle to some slow white boy with no streed cred that he decided that was the reason for all the Jets problems, and inaugurated his sophomore year in the pros with a book modestly titled “Throw Me The Damn Ball.”
Chrebet paid no mind to the presence of the loud-mouthed rookie. The next year the fortunes of the Jets began to turn with the arrival of two-time Super Bowl winning coach Bill “The Tuna” Parcells. The Jets finished with a winning record for the first time in nine years. Chrebet dropped to second on the team in receiving, but ranked first in the entire NFL in what became his specialty – 3rd-down receptions. It is a specialty that takes a high football IQ, precise route-running and fearlessness. It would inevitably lead to an intimate familiarity with the enemy that would one day end his career – concussions.
But that was far in the future, and not something a working-class hero like Chrebet was going to shy away from. Some WR's are divas – Chrebet was a football player, so he carried on. At this point he was officially one of the most beloved Jets, and that status required an official nickname. His specialty determined it, and he became Mr. Third Down
A TRIP TO THE FINALS
In 1998 Chrebet ranked 3rd in the NFL in 3rd-down receptions, and for the first and only time recorded over 1,000 receiving. This was the year in which the Jets resurrection was completed as they went 12-4, reaching the AFC final where they gave John Elway and Co. a huge battle before losing en route to Denver's 2nd straight title. Chrebet was huge on the biggest stage of his career, with 8 catches for 121 yards. Keyshawn, now officially Wayne's locker-room enemy, had 7 receptions for 73 yards.
In the following season, as the Jets hopes for another deep post-season run went down along with QB Vinny Testaverde in the first week of the season, relations between the two wide receivers continued to deteriorate and Me-shawn, as the fans began to call him, exasperated everyone with his petty attacks on the man who insisted on standing between him and all the passes in the world.
On the eve of the 2000 draft the Jets surprised everyone by dealing their malcontent star receiver to Tampa Bay for two 1st-round draft picks, who became linchpins in a team that went to the playoffs four times in six years. This trade also set up a juicy matchup that very season: Week 4, NY Jets @ TB Bucs. Before the game, Me-shawn said that comparing him with #80 in green was "comparing a flashlight to a star". Neither of the two wideouts had a great game, but while Keyshawn was invisible with 1 catch for 1 yard, Chrebet had 2 for 32 but most importantly – the winning TD (21-17). It was as though the football gods wanted to make sure there was no question who their favorite son was. After the game, Working Class Hero Wayne just said, "I guess sometimes a flashlight is enough," and let it go at that.
This seemingly apocryphal episode required a new nickname. The Jets colors quickly decided it and Wayne was dubbed The Green Lantern. It was a very fitting nickname, as the comic book hero may get his powers from a special ring, but he must exercise his will power at all times to make it work.
All about that will-power (Photo: Camo-Flauge DeviantArt )
NEW MILLENNIUM, SAME HEART
A new millennium began, shinier wide receivers came to town, but Chrebet remained a vital cog in the green-and-white machine. Even if Laveranues Coles or Santana Moss filled the stats sheets, you always knew that if it's 3rd and long, look for #80 to keep the drive alive.
In 2002 the Jets made the playoffs with Chrebet leading the team – and ranking 5th in the league – with 9 touchdowns. That was the year in which he also made his final post-season appearance, posting a catch for seven yards in a 30-10 loss to Oakland.
After that Chrebet's production tail-dived. The Green Lantern's receptions and yardage dropped by over 50%, proving that in the real world, even great willpower will only take you so far. 2004 was somewhat better, for Chrebet and the Jets, but in 2005 he posted only 15 catches for 153 yards and no touchdowns. That season, and his career, ended for Wayne Chrebet on November 6, in a week 9 loss to San Diego. Two minutes to the end of the game, with the Jets desperately trying to come back, Chrebet caught a 3rd-down pass (of course) for 1st down (of course), but paid the price when safety Jerry Wilson slammed into him. It took Wayne a few minutes to get up, and when he did he had that glassy-eyed look. Another concussion – at least his ninth in college and the pros combined.
Chrebet was placed on the disabled list, and a month later announced that The Green Lantern would no longer shed light on the lives of the Gang Green faithful. The man with the modest size, modest measurables and endless heart and smarts decided to save himself before it was too late. After 11 years in which, with the stoic courage of a simple man, he carved a place for himself among the finest athletes in the world, it was time to call it quits and be with his family. Happily, Wayne did not join the ranks of those whose lives tailspin once their playing days are over, and he has built a successful second career in wealth management on Wall Street.
You know the story about the humble guy who comes out of nowhere and manages, with tons of heart, hard work and brains, to win a place among the super-talented, for whom it all comes much more easily? Literature and film are full of those, but they're usually just Hollywood feel-good fiction. For Wayne Chrebet, it happened in real life.
- I dramatized the story of how Wayne Chrebet first got to the pros just a bit. He also tried out for the Saints but only received an offer from the Jets. All the rest? Simple unvarnished truth. Look it up.