The Jet-Blues

(note column was written on Friday, will have an update on the trip later on)

Sitting on a jet plane, heading to New York. The TV isn’t working and the bright stewardesses at JetBlue can’t figure it out, and they’ve said we’ve made progress…

Midterms for Spring A are done and I forecasted, Macro wasn’t so bad and Ops sucked ass. As I predicted, except that I thought Ops would be the easier of the two. Got dinged from Cisco yesterday, just surprised since I thought the interview went really well (apparently it did and I was the victim of a “numbers game” where there a lot of “immediate need”). Whatever……

Really looking forward to this weekend, get to spend some time with the lady, friends, and family. One of the biggest mistakes I made last semester was not going home until December, which definitely ate away at my level of sanity. So far I think I have a much better approach now, but we’ll see when the pressure to gain an internship only mounts even further.

It would be really easy for me to write about A-Rod right now given how much he has been talked about last week. I am going to wait until after he arrives for spring training and starts talking more to the media before I make up my mind what to think about him. There is definitely some holes in the story he told Peter Gammons, but we are going to hear so much more about him so I don’t want to jump the gun on this. A column is forth-coming, I guarantee you that. However…

The Brett Farve era in NY is over. Say what you will about his success in one year, but the guy was clearly hurt in the last 5 games of the season and didn’t resemble the guy who in mid-season was looking to be coming into form and lead this team into the playoffs. You want to blame someone, blame the Mangenius who wasn’t prepared to sit Farve to heal up and put the team in the best position to win. You just can’t start a quarterback with a bad arm and expect to win in November and December. The prudent move would have been to sit him for a week and played Kellen Clemens. Farve then could have at least tried to heal and be in a better spot to help the team win. Maybe this decision is why Mangini is out of here.

Question is now who do you get to replace Farve. The team seems to think Clemens isn’t the answer, but are looking for a guy who can replace the arm strength of #4 as a primary factor. I tend to think that isn’t the best choice. Let’s forget about the draft for the time being since whoever they take won’t help the team next year. And I think that is the big key…next year. This team is built to win within a 2 year window due to the age of their veteran players. Looking for a developmental guy with a big arm is not going to solve the issue of getting this team into the playoffs immediately. Rather they should seek an experienced guy with an adequate arm who can effectively manage the game and put the team in a situation to win. Kerry Collins would be ideal, but let’s assume he stays in Tennessee. Jeff Garcia probably isn’t a good fit, Matt Cassel isn’t happening, and Dante Culpepper isn’t what he used to be. That leaves two possibilities: Byron Leftwich and my dark horse candidate…. Chris Simms. Can’t you see him and Phil taking a limo-ride home together after a big-game in late December?