Bollinger Named Starter of Most Meaningless of Games

Did you see the movie The Aviator? Remember when Howard Hughes (played well by Leonardo DiCaprio) just gets creepier and creepier, keeping his urine in milk bottles and not allowing anyone to see him for months on end? Now you know the levels to which Eric Mangini has made me resort.

With the naming of Brooks Bollinger as the starter for the last game of the pre-season, I can't tell what this means. After reversing course on the whole "I still want to see something from a QB" earlier this week and then naming Pennington the starter the next day, does playing Brooks mean that he getting his shot to stay on the roster and knock the unimpressive Patrick Ramsey from the team? OR is Bollinger destined for the scrap heap anyway and Mangini is trying to avoid getting a backup QB injured on the eve of the season? Rich Cimini notes on his blog that he thinks that Ramsey's cap hit for the Jets would be about $250,000, a no brainer if the overall figure the Jets have is supposed to be around $7 million.

Either way, Mangini sure has an interesting way of going about things. Mangini told the media first, and in typical NY media bloodsucker fashion, they swarmed Bollinger at his locker, who was told of his coach's decision through the media. Tom Rock of Newsday writes this on his blog:

Bollinger seemed equally surprised by the attention granted him, especially since he said he hadn't heard anything from anyone about starting on Friday.

Apparently the re-purposed OLB Bryan Thomas received some kind words from his coach by way of the media as well. Kind words are one thing, being named the starter through the press seems like another matter altogether. Paranoia is starting to set in, I've been thinking about this stuff too much, and I am ready for the games to begin. I am optimistic about this team and the coach, I just wonder about the way some things are handled.