{"id":201,"date":"2012-03-22T16:53:54","date_gmt":"2012-03-22T20:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/?p=201"},"modified":"2012-03-22T16:56:30","modified_gmt":"2012-03-22T20:56:30","slug":"201","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/?p=201","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I remain convinced the New York Rangers will hoist the Cup this spring after watching them defeat the beat-up but talented Detroit Red Wings 2-1 at the Garden Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

I went as a guest of The Heckler who is a way bigger Ranger fan than me.\u00a0 The Heckler has recently formed a connection with a season ticket holder who has a pair on the aisle in section 329.\u00a0 The guy unloads his seats with regularity and according to The Heckler asks below market value in return.\u00a0 They do all their business via Pay Pal.<\/p>\n

After an early dinner at The Meatball Shop, we had a few rounds at Boss Tweeds on Essex and then Jack Demsey\u2019s on 33rd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

John Amirante\u2019s rendition of the anthem was spectacular.\u00a0 Unlike fans of the city\u2018s other pro sports teams, the Rangers crowd is fully assembled and ready to go when the anthem is performed.\u00a0 The 7:30 PM faceoff allows those with a regular day job a little extra time to get there.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no team the Rangers should fear before reaching the finals.\u00a0 They lack the firepower of the Penguins but are more balanced.\u00a0 They have a great goalie and a great captain in Ryan Callahan.\u00a0 It was the guy wearing the \u201cC\u201d who scored the game winner on a screamer in OT.<\/p>\n

The Rangers also have toughness.\u00a0 And when I say toughness, I don\u2019t mean the kind of ugly display two nights earlier when the Blueshirts opened the game against the Devils with a choreographed riot.<\/p>\n

Torts posted an opening lineup to match the Devil trio of punchers with three of the same.\u00a0 A three-on-three fight with just three seconds elapsed left blood on the ice and little accomplished beyond the distasteful spectacle that we now know does damage to the human brain.\u00a0 Faces were broken and the fans stood and cheered.\u00a0 Torts would later say his hand was forced but he could have easily started his top line to skate around the Devil goon squad.<\/p>\n

If you read John Branch\u2019s Times series on hockey fighting a few months ago, one should wince when gloves drop and haymakers connect.\u00a0 Branch will win a Pulitzer for his efforts.\u00a0 The NHL\u2019s reaction to the groundbreaking revelations contained in the work borders on criminal.\u00a0 Soon the League will be forced to address it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The big story here Wednesday of course was Gang Green\u2019s acquisition of Tim Tebow for a couple of low picks and cash.\u00a0 The swift removal of Tebow from Denver was predictable.\u00a0 Where he ended up was anything but.<\/p>\n

The Jets will tell you Tebow\u2019s sudden availability for a relatively low price attracted them because of the unique and occasional wrinkle he\u2019ll add on offense.\u00a0 No doubt Tebow\u2019s role will start out that way.\u00a0 To the roars of the home crowd, Tebow will run out on third down and take the snap in wildcat formation.\u00a0 If it\u2019s the Patriots defense on the other end (or others who have already cracked Tebow\u2018s code), the play will get stuffed.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all fine.\u00a0 Tebow adds a new dimension.\u00a0 He\u2019s a genuinely refreshing character with great locker-room attributes.\u00a0 He joins a team that badly needs leadership.\u00a0 The real problem here is that the Jets already have a young starting quarterback who lacks the maturity and makeup to respond positively to the not-so-veiled challenge to his authority.<\/p>\n

It is so beyond predictable to see how this plays out.\u00a0 Sanchez struggles.\u00a0 He hangs his head.\u00a0 The bad eggs locked in here (Holmes, Cromartie) will continue to yap unproductive nonsense.\u00a0 The Jet crowd will demand more Tebow, more Tebow, less Sanchez, less Sanchez – until it devolves into a bigger mess than the one that took down the 2011 season.<\/p>\n

Francesa believes the Jets made the deal for Tebow without any rational consideration of the complications it could cause.\u00a0 \u201cGive the Jets a chance an opportunity to embarrass themselves from a football standpoint – and they\u2019ll will never pass it up.\u00a0 With them, it\u2019s not about winning.\u00a0 The first priority is to fill the building and sell the merchandise.\u00a0 That\u2019s why they\u2019re always after the guy with the most sizzle.\u00a0 There are people in the league right now who are laughing at the Jets.\u00a0 It turns your team into a colossal joke.\u00a0 It turns the team into a dysfunctional mess.\u201d<\/p>\n

I suppose it\u2019s possible Tebow will come in handy should Sanchez sputter.\u00a0 The plan pre-Tebow was to back up Sanchez with Drew Stanton.\u00a0 It\u2019s just very hard to imagine how a franchise that has such constant tension among its key parts can work through all of this in an orderly manner.<\/p>\n

Trusting Rex to convert the conflicts presented by Tebow\u2019s place on the depth chart into anything but more laughable instability is impossible to do.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d love to think some of the magic Tebow brought to the final couple months of the Bronco season can be pulled out of a hat here too.\u00a0 But the track record of the Jet organization under the guidance of Woody Johnson and Rex Ryan makes it feel like a publicity stunt.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Broadway Joe Namath called it when asked for his reaction to the deal.\u00a0 “I’m baffled. I just think they’re kind of mixed up over there, and I’m talking about the folks that are making the decisions\u2026It certainly seems like they’re trying to make noise, get recognition.\u00a0 Well, win some games, win a championship [and] you get recognition.”<\/p>\n

For the record, the Jets are only obligated to pay Sanchez guaranteed money for two more seasons.\u00a0 The much-discussed, new three-year extension was billed by the team as a \u201ccommitment\u201d to Sanchez, but it was actually a restructuring that guaranteed 2013 but leaves \u201914, \u201915 and \u201916 completely at the discretion of the Jets at a relatively cheap $12.5 mil per.\u00a0 Should the Tebow experiment completely demoralize Sanchez as some fear, he\u2019d be easily trade-able given the desperate need at the position by teams that lose QB\u2019s during a season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I remain convinced the New York Rangers will hoist the Cup this spring after watching them defeat the beat-up but talented Detroit Red Wings 2-1 at the Garden Wednesday night. I went as a guest of The Heckler who is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[36,34,35],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s28tEv-201","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=201"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions\/205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}