JETS BEHAVING

Todd on team’s latest arrest: Not our fault

In what has become a tradition of sorts at One Jets Drive, rookie tight end Chris Herndon stood in front of cameras Tuesday and said he couldn’t speak about his DWI arrest from Saturday because “it’s a pending legal matter.”

That’s a phrase uttered often in Florham Park these days. Herndon’s arrest is the seventh for the Jets in the past 13 months, and the second one for DWI since February — linebacker Dylan Donahue was charged after he allegedly caused a head-on crash while driving the wrong way in the Lincoln Tunnel just more than three months ago.

Donahue, who was also arrested for drunken driving in Montana last May, addressed his latest DWI two weeks ago. Now it was Herndon’s turn. The fourth-round pick didn’t provide any details about the accident, but he did have a message for Jets fans.

“That’s not who I am,” Herndon said.

According to state police, Herndon was driving west on Route 80 in Rockaway Township, New Jersey at 4:45 a.m. Saturday when his Nissan Armada slammed into a Toyota Land Cruiser driven by 76-year-old Albert Elliot.

Elliot wore a bandage on his left arm when the Daily News approached him at his home Monday evening. “I gotta go to the doctor,” he said. “I got a big hole in my arm and my knee is killing me.”

Herndon, meanwhile, emerged from the wreck more or less unscathed. The former University of Miami standout practiced fully both Monday and Tuesday.

“I don’t feel too bad right now,” Herndon said Tuesday. “I’m just dealing with everything and trying to stay focused.” “I feel like I’m fine,” he added. Herndon said he had a conversation with head coach Todd Bowles about the arrest.

“It was personal,” Herndon said. “But we handled it.”

Bowles frequently says that discussions like these are simply part of his job as an NFL coach. He never knows what is going to come across his desk, or who will step into his office with a unique and trying problem.

But at what point does the number of arrests and off-field issues go from mere coincidence to a troubling trend?

Despite the lengthy rap sheet (see graphic), Bowles has no plans of changing his disciplinary process.

“Our disciplinary process is fine. There’s nothing wrong with the disciplinary process,” the coach said. “The arrests are going to happen, and you deal with them as they come.”

Bowles did admit he is “upset” at Herndon’s actions and in no way condone’s drunk driving. But he does not consider this a “Jet problem or a league problem.”

“It’s a nationwide problem,” Bowles said.