Jets’ Long redeems self as a guard

FLORHAM PARK, N. J. >> Spencer Long was frustrated, angry and thoroughly embarrassed. He had gone from being the leader of the New York Jets’ offensive line to an unexpected punchline. Long was all over the blooper reels and social media — the center who simply couldn’t snap the football. “It was a tough, challenging time that I don’t think a lot of people knew exactly what was going on,” Long told The Associated Press on Friday. “My reputation was on the line.” Long was already dealing with a lingering injury to his right hand — his snapping hand — early in the season when he hurt a tendon in his middle finger against Jacksonville in Week 4. It made for a painful combination — “kind of just a chain reaction,” he said — that produced sometimes unpredictably ugly results. There were a few wayward shotgun snaps, and Long tried to push through his misfires before sitting out one week. Then came a disastrous game at Miami in Week 9. “Any time you put your hand on the ball and it doesn’t feel right, it creates an issue, especially for a

guy that’s only been playing for so long at that position,” said the 28-year- old Long, who was a guard in his first 2½ NFL seasons in Washington. “I gave the impression that I was ready to go that week and throughout practice I was fine, all my snaps were fine. And then we go into the game and re-injury happens and then you’re in panic mode, you know? And, it was tough.

“It was a pretty (awful) time.”

The Jets ran an inside

zone play against the Dolphins when Long was hit in the back and his right hand was engaged with another player. That’s when he felt a familiar searing pain in his finger.

“There it goes again,” Long recalled, “And this is in the middle of a drive. I’m not going to pull myself out during the drive and create dysfunction in the flow.

“But obviously, it was a risky decision that didn’t pay off.”

Long had at least six errant shotgun snaps to rookie SamDarnold, including one that soared over the quarterback’s head. He was replaced by Jonotthan Har-

rison on the next series — and hasn’t snapped in a game since.

Long, who signed a fouryear, $ 27.4 million contract last offseason, became a popular target of frustrated fans, with the snaps mockingly turned into gifs and memes on social media.

“I felt bad for my teammates and coaches for putting that out there,” he said of his performance. “For the fan base, too, because they deserved more than that from me. I’m a guy that’s supposed to be an addition and not a subtraction to this line.”

Some blamed coach Todd

Bowles for not pulling Long sooner. Others thought offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates should have called for fewer shotgun plays.

“It was on me,” Long said. “It was completely on me. I made a decision that maybe wasn’t smart at the time. But I thought until it happened, I was getting through it. It was a ( lousy) situation. It was really hard for a while there. I mean, I get it. I understand. I’m a pro center. I’m not supposed to have issues like that. I understand why people would be frustrated. Nobody was more frustrated than me, I can promise you that.