As our Wise Old Egg ruminates in the wake of the coming of the Turk

Mr. Hackett, Sir,

Wouldja Please Tell,

Where the Hell

Is RB Burnell?

To demonstrate that this is not just a one-note website, and as proof if any were needed that we are in no way paid agents of the Jets, but just fans like you who want that stadium, we bring you this piece of criticism. We feel we have earned the right to do so (as Richard Sandomir, Charles V. Bagli and assorted Times sportswriters can attest.)

Last week I joined a busload of other crazed devotees in a specially invited trip to the team’s Hempstead training camp. As we stood there watching our heroes cavorting, I kept looking for Number 40, a running back – he doesn’t seem to be out there – is he hurt? Gee, I don’t see any Number 40.

Practice over, players streaming off the field. Here comes Number 89, Jerricho Cotchery, the WR who made David Rivers such a hot draft choice at North Carolina State. “Mr. Cotchery?”

“Yes?” very pleasant. Sportswriters seldom call them Mister.

“I want to welcome you to the Jets – that was a swell catch you made there in the end zone. Can you tell me, I’m looking for a back, Number 40, they put into the game in the fourth quarter last week, ripped off some big gains?”

“Oh, yeah, Burnell,” Cotchery said, almost apologetically. “They cut him.”

I told that story at home and I got laughed at: So much for you as a scout.

Oh, yeah? Comes now Jets Confidential, a must read for all of us, produced by the undoubtable/redoubtable Dan Leberfeld. The following is reproduced here word for word.

*

The cutthroat nature of the NFL was never more apparent than in the way the Jets handled running back Keith Burnell. The free agent out of Delaware, who had a brief stint with the Jets’ practice squad last season, was signed prior to the Monday preseason game against Indianapolis. The Jets were banged up at the running position with B. J. Askew (knee) and Ward (ankle) on the shelf. Burnell practiced all week, then played in the fourth quarter against the Colts.

He honestly was the Jets’ most impressive running back in the game.(Italics ours)He had three carries for 22 yards, showed impressive toughness by breaking tackles, and also displayed very good speed.

Edwards wasn’t even asked a question about him at the press conference the next day, yet still offered effusive praise.

[Note: Coach has a nice way with a phrase]: “Keith Burnell flashed last night,” said Edwards. “How about that guy? We just picked him up and all of a sudden he is breaking tackles and had some pretty nice runs.”

The next day Burnell was cut. You would think at the very least he had earned himself another week. JC asked Edwards if there was anything Burnell could have done to make the club.

“I don’t know if he could have done anything,” said Edwards.

That statement speaks volumes about the fact that most personnel decisions are made before training camp even starts.

*

Thus the authoritative Jets Confidential on this disturbing episode. Disturbing, yes, because I don’t care it it’s Burnell, whom I never heard of before I spotted him in that game, or any other unknown. Granted that Johnathan Reese, in his second year, has looked very good. But as JC said, the man earned at least another week’s consideration.

Our devotion is what management depends on to sell out their stadium, and are we now to be told that the whole training camp exercise, which we follow so passionately, is a cynical charade, at the termination of which the pre-selected players will be anointed and the other naïve hopefuls who broke their humps dumped? Is the era over when a little guy called Chrebet could walk on, undrafted, and become one of the franchise’s most beloved stars?

As far as Coach is concerned, I read what he said to Jets Confidential as his plea to be understood: Not My Decision. But hey, Management, are you horsing us around?

The worst of it is that poor Burnell, despite his heroics, had no chance for recognition in that game, his slashing runs notwithstanding, because the hack tv director spent the fourth quarter cutting away to sideline interviews by some little cookie girl with Indianapolis Colts players, linemen, linebackers, ad nauseam, and the announcers NEVER MENTIONED the name of the man carrying the ball. That’s why I had to ask about “Number 40.”