Wacky NFL: Dolphins QB Pennington set to stun former team

Dec 25, 2008 - 9:28 PM By Carl Carchia PA SportsTicker Staff Writer

The NFL is unpredictable, there's no question about it. That is why it is the most popular league in America.

How can you explain Miami Dolphins quarterback Chad Pennington, the Pinto the New York Jets traded in for what they thought was a Ferrari (Brett Favre), potentially coming back to haunt his former team?

You can't. That's the beauty of it.

And that is the scenario that presents itself on Sunday when Pennington looks to lead the Miami Dolphins to the greatest single-season turnaround in NFL history against the Jets.

Miami (10-5), which went 1-15 last season, can clinch its first AFC East title since 2000 with a win. A stunning turnaround considering no team has won more than nine games following a one-win season.

Pennington has an explanation for the karmic scenario.

"As only fate would have it this is how sports always works out," said Pennington, who has thrown for a career-high 3,453 yards and 17 touchdowns to go along with just seven interceptions.

"So this situation doesn't surprise me and I pretty much banked on it and that's a good thing."

As the saying goes, "One man's trash is another man's treasure."

Pennington's arrival in Miami was an afterthought. A chain reaction of sorts that began with New York trading for Favre following his drawn-out saga with Green Bay this summer.

It was simple, the Dolphins needed a quarterback, Pennington needed a job.

When the two teams met in the season opener in Miami, Darrelle Revis intercepted Pennington in the end zone with five seconds to play to preserve New York's 20-14 victory.

No one would have thought after that game that Pennington and the Dolphins would be in this position. Least of all, the Jets.

While Favre has not been great, he has helped lift the team after a disastrous 4-12 season. Still, one has to wonder if the Jets wouldn't be in the same position with Pennington.

"We're happy with that decision (trading for Favre)," Jets head coach Eric Mangini said, perhaps attempting to save face. "This game won't justify or not justify that decision."

Maybe not in his eyes, but surely the New York media will have a field day if the Jets lose.

And though he won't say it publicly, Pennington - always looked upon as good, but never good enough - would love to play a part in sending the New York home for the playoffs in his return to the Meadowlands, the place he called home for eight years.

"Will there be some emotions? Sure. You're going to back to the Meadowlands where you played eight years, but I just don't think it will be to the magnitude that it was in the season opener when the situation was so fresh and so new.

"Now we're 17 weeks into it and it's a little different now."

As expected, Dolphins first-year head coach Tony Sparano is downplaying the significance as well.

"I'm sure some place in the back of his mind there's something there," Sparano said. "But right now the way this guy prepares and the way he goes about his business, it really is just about the team. I mean we have to win a game and it happens to be this game."

Two or three weeks ago, this game didn't seem like it would have much juice. But suddenly the Jets' Ferrari has broken down.

A first-ballot Hall of Famer, Favre has tossed six interceptions with just one touchdown in his last four games during a 1-3 slide - one that has seen New York (9-6) go from perhaps the top seed in the AFC, to struggling to make the postseason.

Favre has 21 touchdowns and a league-worst 19 interceptions. Meanwhile, Pennington is directing an offense that has the second fewest turnovers in the NFL (13).

"He's done a great job just leading this team and leading this offense," Miami tight end David Martin said.

"Offensively, he's kept us all on the same page and kept us all going down the same road and I think that's the biggest thing. He keeps everybody involved and we've rallied behind him. He keeps our mojo going."

New York fans hope Pennington doesn't have his mojo on Sunday, or else they face the prospects of a long winter and another inevitable Favre retirement quandary.