Sparano Defends Tebow

Tony Sparano is very unlike his black-Irish boss, the execrable Rex Ryan, in that he's a decent human being and a stand-up guy.

As the Jets prepare to host San Diego on Sunday with former third-stringer Greg McElroy as their starter, Sparano was asked why the Tebow package hasn't worked.

"It's combination of things but I wouldn't use the words 'didn't work' at all," Sparano said.

As Tebow quietly fumes and Sanchez looks into options outside New York, Sparano might be one of the few in New York to hold that opinion. But Sparano echoed coach Rex Ryan's unwillingness to critique the team's plans as it plays out the string.

"We had a plan going into this thing," Sparano said. "But obviously the plan always, at that particular time, was that Mark was the quarterback and Tim would have a role and to what degree the role was, if I remember correctly, it was one-to-20 plays in a game. Some days it was eight, some days it was one, some days it was none. Just predicated on what we saw out there. Tim has worked really hard out here, he's done a good job, he's worked hard on the practice field, but that's where we are."

Where the Jets are is ranked 30th in the NFL in total yards and passing yards and 31st in interceptions and yards per play. The offense's point of pride, the rushing game, is 10th in the league in yards per game.

Sparano, who by many accounts could be one of several Jets looking for a new job after the season, seemed like a coach highlighting the positives in his weekly news conference Thursday. Asked about the decision to bench Sanchez and start McElroy, Sparano complimented his boss, saying Ryan asked him and others for advice "like any outstanding head coach does."

He said the Wildcat was efficient with Tebow when he could get a first down, but that there weren't many high-yardage packages built in.

Beefhead Coach Ryan was flummoxed on Monday when he tried to explain why he wasn't starting Tebow.

Smart money has it that Rex the Ridiculous was afraid Timmy would pull off a couple of wins and make Ryan look like even a bigger fool than he appears to be at the moment---admittedly a genuine feat.