‘W’ for McCown is proof positive
SOMETIMES in sports, you never know — not when you’re going to win again, but you’re ever going to win again.
Yo u cannot blame Jo s h McCown if these dark thoughts seeped their way into his otherwise relentlessly positive soul. Because you undoubtedly had seen the numbers attached to his name like an incurable disease: He was 2-22 in his previous 24 starts dating to the 2014 season.
The last time McCown was the winning quarterback of record in was Oct. 11, 2015 — a 33-30 Browns overtime win over the Ravens.
Including his first two games with the Jets, McCown had lost his last 11 starts since that win in Baltimore … until Sunday at MetLife Stadium in the Jets home opener, a resounding, if surprising, 20-6 victory over the Dolphins in which he completed 18-of-23 passes for 249 yards, one touchdown, no turnovers and a 126.3 rating.
In a quiet moment in front of his locker, McCown was asked if there were any moments when he wondered if he’d ever win again.
“No, you can’t blink,’’ he said. “It was disappointing [to lose], but I understood the circumstances surrounding some of those situations. It was just a part of my career where I found myself in some tough situations with teams that were building and rebuilding. It gets hard sometimes, but you’ve got to have confidence in your abilities.’’
McCown’s backup, Bryce Petty, was dressing in the locker adjacent to McCown’s and he called attention to the one attribute McCown possesses that he’s trying to emulate.
“Resilience,’’ Petty said. “Resilience is a word just keeps coming back over and over again with him. The guy just battles. He keeps coming back.’’
When Petty’s praise was relayed to McCown, the 15-year veteran who’s playing for his eighth team said, “It’s the only way I know how to live life. There’s a power in that. Things are going to happen. Adversity is inevitable in life. You just bounce back.’’
McCown’s resilience can be directly traced to his father, Pat, whose family lumber and palate business in Jacksonville, Texas, burned to the ground on July 31, 1981, forcing him to rebuild.
“He worked around the clock for three years to build it back,’’ McCown recalled .“He just reloaded. So that was the tone set in our household a long time ago. I remember asking him later about it and he said, ‘ We just went back to work, started building it back. We just moved forward.’
“That’s something that’s stuck with me forever. No matter what happens you just go back to work.’’
Pat McCown, who’s 62 now, and his wife, Robin, were in the stands Sunday to see their son finally win a game after a twoyear drought. They were at the airport Sunday night to fly back to Dallas when The Post reached Pat by phone and asked him what it means to him that his son still lives by the lesson he learned all those years back.
“That he was playing attention even as a little kid,’’ Pat McCown said with a laugh.
“The whole plant burned to the ground and we had no insurance,’’ Pat McCown said. “It was one of them deals where you cry, you get up and you go to work and you work 18 hours a day for three years and build it back. That’s just how it works. We built it back in three years and it’s four times bigger today than it was.’’
The parallel to what his son has been doing for a living the last 15 years is as obvious as the Texas drawl in Pat McCown’s voice.
“Well, you’ve just got to persevere,’’ he said. “The hardest position in all of sports is quarterback, because 10 other guys have to do their job before you can even think about doing yours.’’
Josh McCown has more than done his job through his f irst three games as a Jet, completing 60-of-86 (69.8 percent) for 602 yards, 3 TDs and 2 INTs. It’s more than most Jets fans could possibly have expected.
“I’ve known Josh since I f irst came into the league at 20 years old and he was my quarterback [with Tampa Bay] … and I don’t know anybody that cares that much about the game,’’ Jets tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins said. “I mean, he loves it; he lives it.’’
That’s why t here wasn’t a player wearing a Jets uniform Sunday at MetLife who deserved a “W’’ attached next to his name more than Josh McCown.