Namath ‘ashamed’ of Fitz rip
JOE NAMATH was harder on himself for calling for the benching of Ryan Fitzpatrick than the Jets were.
Namath said Tuesday on ESPN Radio that he regretted tweeting during the team’s win over the Browns on Sunday that the Jets should turn to Bryce Petty.
At the time of the tweet, the Jets were losing badly. But they stuck with Fitzpatrick, who bounced back from an awful first half to lead Gang Green to victory.
“I do regret sending that out but that was the way I felt at that time,” Namath said. “I do feel ashamed for doing it. It breaks kind of the team-player code and no good can come of it.”
After the game Brandon Marshall said he hoped Namath in the future would reserve his judgment until after the game but said he didn’t want to disagree with the former quarterback. Fitzpatrick said he understood the criticism from Namath.
Namath said he was reminded by Todd Bowles’ postgame comments that it was a team game and that the team’s failures in the first half weren’t all on Fitzpatrick’s shoulders.
“But I was just frustrated with that first half of play against the competition we were playing against, it looked like, man, where are we going from here?” Namath said.
He also admitted he may have fallen into a common fan trap of thinking the grass is always greener with a backup quarterback.
“(I’ve) gotta remind myself: I haven’t even seen Petty play, he’s played so little,” Namath said. “I don’t know where the rookie is. Fitz is the best we have to get out there and win. And so again, I lost trust, I forgot that fact.”
Namath also explained what went into thinking for his tweet from the week before questioning how hurt Geno Smith really was as he stood on the sideline. Tests the next day revealed a torn knee ligament.
Namath said in his experience when he had torn ligaments he couldn’t have stood on the sideline. “He was walking fine ... going into the locker room, there was no indication of a limp leaving the field,” Namath said.