Jilted Pennington Has Heart Of A Champion
December 24
New York Post columnist Steve Serby
" EVEN with a rotator cuff in need of surgery, Chad Pennington would have been 60 minutes from a Super Bowl if Doug Brien hadn't missed that 43-yard field goal in Pittsburgh in that heartbreaking 2004 divisional playoff game.
This Sunday is his personal Super Bowl.
I've been around Pennington enough to know how obsessed he was with bringing the Lombardi Trophy to Weeb Ewbank Hall, before the franchise moved operations to Florham Park, N.J., this season. He dreamed of that parade down the Canyon of Heroes. He bled green and white, because that is his nature. He sacrificed NFL life and limb to win a championship for the franchise that gave him his professional start.
And then dumped him as if he were a chump. He put on a brave mask, but you better believe it was a mortal wound to his heart.
And how could it not be, even if his former team had cleared the decks for the great Brett Favre? Just about the time he was finished packing, Favre was already being offered a key to the city by Mayor Bloomberg. Don't let the door hit you on the rear on your way out indeed.
Beware Chad Pennington.
He never had Favre's big arm. Just as big a heart as there is in the game. He isn't the vengeful sort, and it is always about the team with him. Still, he is human, and one of the most prideful athletes I have ever covered. Favre took his job. Beat him on Opening Day. Beat him out for the Pro Bowl when he deserved it more.
"They aren't in a cage match on Sunday," Eric Mangini said. Good thing too. Because even more than all of that, here comes
Pennington's chance to remove the dagger from his heart and stick it in Woody Johnson's, in Mike Tannenbaum's, in Eric Mangini's, and kill their season. "
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