New York Jets Football Team

About an hour before the start of Saturday's NFL draft, a jet-lagged Mark Sanchez skipped down a flight of stairs at his agent's offices in Irvine. "Big day!" he exclaimed. After spending the previous 72 hours sightseeing and fulfilling endorsement obligations in New York, the former USC quarterback had just returned to Southern California to watch the draft with his family. It turned out to be a bigger day than even Sanchez imagined.

Mark Sanchez already knows the New York Jets' offense like the back of his hand. That assumes, of course, the back of his hand still looks the way it did last weekend, tattooed with ballpoint notations and reminders to help him through a morning of training camp. "Just different plays, different checks," he said, turning over his hand to show the cryptic markings. "Because I didn't have a wristband with a clear sleeve, so I just wrote it down on my hand. I just wanted to make sure I was solid with these two run checks."

Still grasping the reality of what he is -- the newest member of the New York Jets -- Brett Favre focused Thursday on what he says he isn't. "I'm not a traitor, I never will be," he said, less than 24 hours after his falling out with the Green Bay Packers led to a trade. "It's a business, that's how it works." And for the Packers, it was a smart business move.

It's important for Brett Favre to learn the language of the New York Jets' playbook, of course. But it's just as important for him to develop a trust and unspoken communication with his new receivers. That's what he had in Green Bay with receiver Donald Driver, among others, and it's what all great quarterbacks develop with their favorite targets. Joe Montana and Jerry Rice had that.

SAN DIEGO -- Their heads still spinning from consecutive fourth-quarter flurries by Carolina and Denver, the San Diego Chargers tonight play host to a quarterback whose comebacks are the stuff of legend. That laser-armed Lazarus is New York Jets quarterback Brett Favre, who has a 5-0 record in his career against the Chargers, with all of those belt notches coming when he was playing for Green Bay. If there's a comeback-minded team in this game, though, it's the Chargers.

On Brett Favre Pass, a legacy catches hell. It is a dead end street, but a sports bar there is a thoroughfare of debate. What's he doing? Where was he doing it? Who called whom? Why Brett why? On Brett Favre Pass, some folks are wishing he had thrown his last. "I just wish he had stayed retired," said Ron Enke, manager of Champion's sports bar, located a Hail Mary away from Green Bay's Lambeau Field.

New York-New York for all the marbles? Start spreadin' the news if you like, but not everyone in that city is gung-ho on the increasing chatter of the New York Giants and the New York Jets playing each other for the Lombardi Trophy. Giants great Harry Carson would love to hear talk of a so-called Subway Super Bowl go away until the championship matchup is actually determined. "It's very premature for anyone after 10, 11 games to look down that road," said Carson, a Hall of Fame linebacker.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Not long ago, when Herm Edwards was coach of the New York Jets, his team had a three-foot-tall bobblehead of him near the door of its locker room. It was a simple reminder there's still some whimsy left in the NFL, a league that often takes itself too seriously. The bobblehead is gone now. In its place is a paper shredder. The message is clear: Sensitive information simply must not, cannot, will not wind up in the wrong hands.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- The New York Jets came here looking for a miracle. In a way, they got one -- but not the type that answered their prayers. The snow fell up. With every big play by the undefeated New England Patriots on Sunday, their bundled fans scooped up handfuls of the ankle-deep white stuff and tossed them to the heavens. From high above, with the rain blowing sideways, Gillette Stadium must have looked like a fizzing caldron of carbonated drink.

The unreal odyssey of the San Diego Chargers -- from 4-12 to 12-4 in one season -- came to an abrupt end Saturday, one so jolting that many of the vanquished, rain-soaked players looked more stunned than saddened. "It hasn't hit me what really just happened, just the finality of it," linebacker Ben Leber said, minutes after the Chargers had lost in overtime to the New York Jets, 20-17, at Qualcomm Stadium. "I can't believe that the season's over. We were so geeked up for this game ...