Think about what Jets fans have endured since Jan. 12, 1969, especially after Broadway Joe Namath ended his career as Hollywood Joe Namath:
All they have been asking for, pleading for, is a quarterback to believe in, a quarterback who can lead them back to the playoffs and end this oppressive 11-year drought as helpless January football spectators.
Now here stands Mike White, No. 5 in their program, No. 1 in their hearts, staring at a daunting six-game postseason quest that includes four road opponents with a combined 31-13 record, starting Sunday against the 9-2 Vikings. Minnesota may own the league’s worst pass defense, but rest assured this won’t be another home game against the Trevor Siemian Bad News Bears.
Much to the chagrin of Jets fans, Mark Sanchez was Wonder Boy until he wasn’t … it took Geno Smith to the age of 32 this season to blossom in Seattle … Christian Hackenberg, ahem … Ryan Fitzpatrick was a bearded comet in the sky … Sam Darnold never had a chance with Adam Gase … they kept waiting for Zach Wilson to play like the second-overall pick of the draft until Robert Saleh could wait no longer.
But now?
If their Jets believe they have a quarterback to believe in, Jets fans can too.
Why the Jets believe in Mike White:
He is The Executioner.
He is the point guard distributing the ball and distributing it decisively and accurately to his playmakers.
And distributing praise to both sides of the ball afterwards.
Complimentary football, and complementary football.
He and offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur were one mind in two bodies.
White acts like he’s been there before even if he has so infrequently been there before (four career starts).
The game clearly isn’t too big for him.
He has the football temperament of another pilot, one Chesley Sullenberger, who heroically landed his jet safely on the Hudson River.
“When I was in college [at Central Michigan], I played with Cooper Rush with the Cowboys now,” Tyler Conklin told The Post. “[White] was in Dallas with Cooper at one point [2018], and Cooper’s always that way. Good or bad, he never got too high, he never got too low, he was on to the next play. I think from your quarterback that’s big because football’s full of ups and downs, right? You have good plays and bad plays, we all do. And to have someone that kinda just stays even keel it helps you when you have a bad one and it helps you when you have a good one.”
His elite preparation, his football IQ and the fact that he now gets first-team reps bode well for the gargantuan challenges that await him: potential shootouts and/or fourth-quarter comeback heroics with any of the remaining opposition quarterbacks: Kirk Cousins, Josh Allen, Jared Goff, Trevor Lawrence, Geno Smith, Tua Tagovailoa.
“Anytime your number’s called, you get the opportunity to go out there and play, a lot comes to light right there, right?” Conklin said. “Were you doing the things that you should have been doing when you weren’t playing, yes or no? Obviously he was. So that stands out. That’s why you have confidence in him.”
Kirk Cousins — Conklin’s quarterback with the Vikings who leveraged a $90 million fully guaranteed offer from the Jets prior to the Darnold draft into an upgraded fully guaranteed $84 million payday — was a fourth-round draft choice in 2012 when then-Washington head coach Mike Shanahan used the second-overall pick on Robert Griffin III. Cousins supplanted an injury-prone RGIII as the starter for Washington before the 2015 season opener.
“We feel like at this time, Kirk Cousins gives us the best chance to win,” then-coach Jay Gruden said. “It’s Kirk’s team.”
It was expected to be Zach Wilson’s team from the time the Jets made him The Chosen One until he had slayed the Bill Belichick dragon and closed all the gaps in the AFC East and never looked back. Jets brass might decide that it has too much invested in him to let him rot on the sideline for the rest of the season, and Saleh reiterated Monday the plan hasn’t yet changed.
“It’s a week-to-week deal, the full intent is to get Zach ready to play football again,” he said. “I’ll make that decision when I’m ready.”
Left unsaid is that Mike White, 27, has an opportunity to make any decision moot.
He sure didn’t have anyone in the building thinking that he might be a one-hit wonder. “We’ll figure it out as we go,” Saleh said.
It wasn’t hard to figure it out on Victory Monday.
It’s Mike White’s team.