Photo Source: NJ.com

When I talked to New York Jets safety James Ihedigbo a couple of months ago, he told me that one of his goals for this season was to be “more physical”. But JEEZ, he really has been showing it at Jets camp so far, getting into a physical altercation with running back Thomas Jones, a fight which made the front page of The Newark Star Ledger sports section and several other publications. As you could imagine, Jets coach Rex Ryan was not happy.

The incident was passed off as competitive tempers flaring and energy towards an exciting new season, but the sentiment is there that inter-team tensions can be present, which almost never leads to productivity on the field. Also, fighting is never a good thing for each player’s marketing and sponsorship revenue prospects.

Due to the competitive nature of Jets camp so far, the Jets’ quarterback competition is heating up as well. As the New York Post reports, although rookie QB and top Jets draft pick Mark Sanchez has been impressive, Kellen Clemens will start the Jets’ preseason opener this Friday against the St. Louis Rams. Clemens is not remembered well by Jet fans: he threw more than his share of picks while sharing QB duties with Chad Pennington in an unmemorable 4-12 2007 campaign.

Clemens, although sounding confident in his speech as any player should, has a large uphill battle to climb if he wants to get into the good graces of Jet fans and their coaching staff. The fans are looking forward to a fresh start with Sanchez, a man who the organization has spent a lot of time and money to acquire. They are certainly not in the mood for a quarterback controversy. As good as QB battles are to get a team’s competitive spirit up, they almost NEVER lead to productive results on the field. In order to produce results on the field, a quarterback has to be locked in from the get-go and ready to start every game. The Jet fans have their Sanchez #6 jerseys and season tickets in hand, and  locked in to seeing Sanchez start, and that is what, in all fairness, should happen

As you saw in 2007, quarterback controversy has never been good for the Jets, especially when Kellen Clemens is involved. So My advice to Kellen: give up your hopes of the starting job, but keep on practicing, because you never know when your prized rookie QB might pull a Tom Brady. And we all know how that situation worked out for new KC Cheifs starting QB Matt Cassel.

Clemens may have his day aswell, but it’s not today