All About Chad

IS CHAD PENNINGTON the reverse Joe Namath? His injuries so far have been wrist-oriented, unlike Namath's disastrous knees. Chad was born in Tennessee and schooled in West Virginia, instead of being from Western Pennsylvania and schooled in the deep South. Chad resembles the suburban paperboy, instead of the urban playboy posing for pantyhose commercials. And no, Chad doesn't want to kiss Suzy Kolber.

It is almost as if the Roman deity Janus has taken over as the Jets quarterback coach. Janus presides over Namath's boozy exit from stardom, and Chad's "aw shucks" arrival into New York City football stardom-until now a subset filled with shadowy personalities, purveyors of predictable vice and victims of now-cliché temptations. Pennington has shunned the New York celebrity playbook that is actually a disjointed and stained chapbook authored by Messrs Shockey, LT and Mark Gastineau. With a prologue, of course, penned on the dashboard by John Abraham.

In any case, Chad is now making serious Broadway coin. And he's done it without endorsing a "butter-up" popcorn popper or doing radio ads shilling for the new Westside stadium project.

Pennington is now signed through 2011, one year before the magic 2012 Olympic year basket that contains all of the current administration's eggs. Chad wanted a new deal with the Jets by Labor Day, and he got it: seven years for $64.197 million, including combined bonus money of $23 million. That's a lot of buttery popcorn and Johnny Walker. It looks like the long-term idea is that Chad will take the Jets to the promised land up until the stadium opens, and then Rich Gannon will step in to take the team through the new Olympic-era police state. Rumor has it the Westside stadium tailgate area-the most prized possession of the kooks that actually go to live NFL games in person-will be the oily floors of the now famous Pier 57.

Rhodes Scholar finalists usually don't come out of Marshall University, which is located along the Ohio River in Huntington, WV. Huntington is a rough town with a spartan Chinese restaurant situated on an exit ramp right along the river highway. Back in Chad's day, there was plenty of mud wrestling and pure grain alcohol flowing in the area. And much like nearby Parkersburg, many of the town's buildings are windowless "lodges" or private veteran's clubs. There is an aggressive air of mystery in places like Huntington and in that town, Chad was "Broadway Joe"-and still is. He set all kinds of college records for the Thundering Herd, helping the small program to establish itself as an NFL breeding ground.

"Down home" and "gym rat" are two descriptions that followed Chad to the bright lights of East Rutherford. But when he arrived on Planet J-E-T-S as a first-rounder in the horn of plenty that was the 2000 draft, few eyebrows were raised. Other than WFAN late-night regulars like caller Mack from Woodbridge, few New York area fans knew of Pennington's fantastic exploits at Marshall. The Pittsburgh Steelers-who could have had a local legend on their hands and forever pleased the Appalachian end of their fan base-passed on Chad in the draft, opting instead for gangly receiver Plaxico Burress, who is just now coming into form. The sale of Jets jerseys immediately skyrocketed in the lower Ohio Valley, the gang green hue clashing rudely with the standard-issue navy-and-gold West Virginia University garb favored by most of the state. In Huntington, however, the Herd wore green and white, so Chad's color therapist did not have to work overtime. Maybe that's why the lad who wears jersey number 10 is so?settled.