NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
MIKE VACCARO: A PAIR OF ROOKIES — SAM DARNOLD AND SAQUON BARKLEY — NOT ONLY CARRY THE BURDEN OF REVIVING THE JETS AND GIANTS, BUT WILL BE COMPARED WITH EACH OTHER FOR DECADES
sOMETIMES, it happens quickly. It happened quickly for Lawrence Taylor. On the second play of the second defensive series of his NFL career, on the sunny afternoon of Sunday, Sept. 6, 1981, Ron Jaworski of the Eagles (then, as now, the defending NFC champs) dropped back to throw.
Instantly, he saw a most disagreeable sight before him: No. 56 in blue, charging at him, all alone, with malice in his heart. Jaworski did the only sensible thing he could: He threw the ball away. Taylor crushed him anyway. “That’s a late hit! Where’s the flag? Where’s the flag?” Jaworski yelled through the ear hole of his helmet.
“Flag’s in the stands, man,” Taylor growled. “Get the [expletive] up.”
Taylor was all over the field that day as 71,459 people at Giants Stadium watched the Eagles dismantle the Giants 24-10. Eighteen years had passed since the Giants had last made the playoffs, but finally the faithful had someone to call their own, someone who shared their impatience.
“I want to win,” Taylor said afterward. “I want to win so bad it hurts.”
Sometimes, it takes a little time. Joe Namath didn’t play a down in his first game as a Jet, Sept. 12, 1965, watching every
second of a 27-21 loss to the Oilers at Rice Stadium, watching Mike Taliaferro complete only 4-of-21 pass attempts. Namath threw his first touchdown pass a week later, at home, late in relief of Taliaferro in a 14-10 loss to the Chiefs as cries of “WE WANT JOE!” rained down from Shea Stadium’s upper deck.
Namath’s talent was apparent, but the results were slow in coming: For two years he threw 37 touchdowns against 42 interceptions, completed only 48.8 percent of his passes, and the Jets were but 8-11-3 in his 22 starts.
“I knew coming in that playing quarterback professionally was about as difficult a job as there is,” Namath said late in the 1966 season. “But I’ll get there.”
He got there. In 1967, he threw for a pro football-record 4,007 yards. In 1968, he led the Jets to victory in Super Bowl III, and his place in eternal Jets lore was secure.
It is important to remember this, as we embark on what will be the most anticipated weekend involving both of New York’s football teams in at least 32 years (which was the last time both teams won at least one playoff game each) and, quite possibly, ever. The two most important football players in New York’s history — until now, anyway — took quite different paths to glory.
On Sunday, Saquon Barkley will trot onto the MetLife Stadium turf, and all eyes will be fastened to him and his No. 26 jersey (with occasional glances at his teammates wearing 10 and 13) the same way they were, once upon a time, 37 years and 3 days earlier, to Lawrence Taylor. Both men were No. 2 picks in the draft. Taylor showed up and changed everything, forever. That is all that Barkley must live up to.
A night later, at Ford Field in downtown Detroit, Sam Darnold will don a white jersey with a green “14” stitched on the front and a virtual bull’s-eye slapped on the back. Jets fans have been waiting since 1974 or so — Namath’s last reasonably productive year — for the skill set Darnold brings with him, and the star power he seems to possess. And that’s all Darnold must live up to. They are remarkable burdens to place upon the shoulders of Barkley, who will be exactly 21 years and 7 months old on Sunday, and Darnold, who only turned 21 in June. The NFL isn’t the NBA, where kids too young to drink legally routinely announce their arrivals with game-changing dominance. It isn’t MLB, where it is still possible to show up as a teenager, as Juan Soto did this year, and play like you’ve been in the game a decade.
Football — forgive the primal, visceral description — is a man’s game, played by grown men. The Giants and Jets are asking kids still years away from being able to rent a car on their own to lead them for now, for the foreseeable future, all the way to some distant glory that both teams hope isn’t all that far away.
They both seem mature enough to handle it, precocious enough to understand the extraordinary responsibilities that lay before them. They speak like old souls who know exactly what’s in store for them.
THEN FL ISN’ T THEN BA, WHERE KIDS TOO YOUNG TO DRINK LEGALLY ROUTINELY ANNOUNCE THEIR ARRIVALS WITH GAMECHANGING DOMINANCE. IT ISN’ T M LB, WHERE IT IS STILL POSSIBLE TO SHOW UP AS A TEENAGER, AS JUAN SO TO DID THIS YEAR, AND PLAY LIKE YOU’ VE BEEN IN THE GAME A DECADE.
“Everyone talks about the speed is different in the NFL,” Barkley said the night of his preseason debut, when he rattled off a stunning 39-yard carry the first time he touched the ball against Cleveland. “To still be able to see you got that burst, you can get to that line of scrimmage like that and create space. Got to find a way to even gain more yards on that play.”
It’s the same with Darnold, who rather than be at all intimidated by the fact that he was sharing preseason reps with a) the incumbent Jets starter in Josh McCown and b) an erstwhile Pro Bowler in Teddy Bridgewater, instead embraced the challenge from the moment the ink dried on his contract a few days into camp.
“Competition is awesome,” he said. “When I went through it [at USC], it was really cool to come out and compete every single day, because that’s what the sport’s about. I think it pushes everyone.”
It’s good Darnold likes to be pushed, because the job is his right now and if things go according to plan, for the next 15 years or so, and the praise won’t always be as unanimous as it’s been in his opening hours on the job. It’s good Barkley believes that 39-yard gem of a run was just a soft opening, because not only does he have to prove the Giants were right in taking him across the balance of his career, but that they weren’t wrong to pass on Darnold.
Starting this weekend — and, with luck, continuing for a decade and more — the most fascinating football conversation we’ve ever had around here begins in earnest. It can happen quickly. It can happen slowly. As long as it happens, this is going to be a lot of fun for a lot of years.