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Beautiful Brigham Young University is 2,186 miles from often-naughty-and-not-nice New York City. Out there far away from the Manhattan skyscrapers, you find mountains and serenity.
There’s space all around, as opposed to miles of mashed-together, dead-stopped backups at the Holland Tunnel, screaming maniacs packed close together at MetLife Stadium, and not a whole lot of sympathy or empathy – none actually — for quarterbacks who don’t win football games.
This is the transition New York Jets quarterback Zach Wilson has had to make in the past few years, from star BYU QB to psychologically abused Jets QB.
You have to wonder what’s going through this young man’s mind. He’s been vilified and benched, told he’ll never make it as an NFL QB, relegated from starter to, after underperforming, a guy many have said they never wanted to ever see play quarterback for the Jets again.
Unwanted and disrespected, he was told he was no good at his job. How does a young man process all this after being a big star on campus just a few years ago? What does he think of New York Jets fans who have attacked him personally for being incompetent even though they were never talented enough to play in the NFL? Talk about having to grow up fast and walking into a lion’s den. The world roughs people up more often than it should, and Zach Wilson is the modern-day target of this bad behavior.
New York is the wrong place for people with weak character, and Zach’s has been tested fiercely.
New Yorkers tend to be quite unforgiving, and they have not forgiven this guy for not playing up to his potential as the second pick in the NFL draft. They had high hopes for him and he let them down last season and the first few games this Fall. They’re disappointed because they thought he might be that guy, finally, to deliver a Super Bowl to the Jets who haven’t won one since Joe Namath delivered that bliss in the late 1960s.
This is on you, Zack, they bark. It’s your fault for not being good enough. You betrayed us for not being prepared, for playing badly. It’s a lot to put on a young man. Yes, he gets paid a lot but he’s still just a young guy trying to find his way in his career. I kind of feel sorry for him to be going through all this dehumanizing scrutiny. How many of us at 24 got publicly humiliated for the way we did our jobs? Not many. How many of us were bad at our jobs at 24? Most of us, probably.
But Zack has had to ensure this unfair treatment, and this will continue relentlessly if he slips up in his performances.
You have to wonder: Is he really enjoying this? Does he even like football anymore? Has he ever thought about just going back home to Draper, Utah for the rest of his life where people will be nicer to him?
How does he feel being doubted, kicked to the side, and treated like roadkill? Who likes that?
Answer: no one.
Life tests us all, but he seems to be getting a test on a scale and by more people than almost all of us ever will, at too young an age for it to be appropriate or healthy for him.
And yet, after all this torment, last night he played his best football game as a Jet. It was inspiring and a relief to see, a guy who obviously has been humbled and is trying his best to improve, to get the ball out of his hands faster, to read coverages quicker, and to make snap decisions that are more effective.
Right in front of us we saw a guy who showed he’s been, during game preparations, studying more, thinking through how to do his job better, really striving to play well. Hard work is almost always admirable.
He’s committed because he knows only a few more bad passes and games and he may never play another NFL football game.
And then what? Football is what he knows. What if the Jets decide to cut him? His reputation will be as a guy who can’t cut it as an NFL quarterback.
Would this be shattering emotionally, or maybe a relief for him compared with how things have gone so far in never-satisfied New York?
I am not sure. I can see getting out of New York and football easing a burden although his ego is tied up in being a good football player and that would be tough to overcome mentally, not doing what he’s been good at before getting to New York.
He wouldn’t be the first top prospect to flame out in the NFL quickly and then find himself updating his resume and trying to figure out some other career to pursue that won’t pay him anywhere close to as much and probably won’t be as much fun as the thrills of winning games in an NFL stadium.
Or maybe it would be more enjoyable for him to just get away from this football inferno.
He’s close to being gone. Last night we saw a guy backed into a corner with the sharks, lions, and bears (New Yorkers) circling around him, basically threatening to tear him up and spit him out if he doesn’t perform better.
We all feel the pressure he’s under. Some of us in his situation would crumble. It becomes too much, too heavy. We leave or quit, or start drinking too much, eating too much, or watching TV too much.
On TV last night we saw a guy fighting, competing, for real, for his life, for what he wants, for his dream, for his dignity. This was not some trivial thing. If he didn’t play well last night, we may never have seen him play another NFL football game or, if we did, the critics may have gotten so loud that he would not have been able to rise above it. Psychological problems would likely intensify, and those should not be wished on anyone.
Last night he rose above all of them and all the pressures of life that become too real for all of us in so many different ways constantly, it often seems.
Good for Zach for playing well last night. I root for people who get kicked around and abused yet come back and battle for their pride, dignity, and job security. And do it humbly and quietly without blaming anyone, which is so hard when you feel wronged.
He made one big mistake last night, fumbling the ball in a key situation late. At the post-game presser, he owned his blunder and said he lost the game for his team and can’t allow that to happen again.
That’s maturity. It’s classy and responsible. That’s a guy we should all look to for inspiration and hope and wish him well in his next game as the quarterback of the New York Jets.
That includes all of you in New York who think it’s fine to trash a young man because he’s not making you feel good about yourself because your team isn’t winning.
That’s on you. What’s bothering you is probably something about your life that you need to fix that has nothing to do with Zack Wilson.
Leave Zach alone. Let him live. Let him breathe. Let him grow. Growing up is hard enough without the mob piling on, suffocating him.
It’s not your right to tear the young man apart.
It’s also wrong.
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Sammy Sportface, a sports blogger, galvanizes, inspires, and amuses The Baby Boomer Brotherhood. And you can learn about his vision and join this group's Facebook page here:
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