BREAKING: Justin Fields Was Just Carted Off the Practice Field With an Injury. The 2025 Jets are Off to a Great Start.

Editor's note: Jerry fell for a fake Schefter tweet saying Fields tore his achilles. He actually dislocated his toe. 

It was all going so well. The Jets had their man. They'd posted this highlight reel of the latest in a long, long, lonnnggg series of quarterbacks who were going to take them back to the Promised Land for the first time since before man walked on the moon. Justin Fields is a recent 11th overall pick who'd succeeded with two of the biggest programs in the nation in Georgia and Ohio State. He has the legs of a dual threat QB like the ones who are dominating the game. And he's just 26 years old. So the plan was to build around him and make Jets fans forget all about Aaron Rodgers, Zach Wilson, their version of Sam Darnold, Geno Smith, Mark Sanchez and the rest. And that plan was going according to plan. 

But as the saying goes, if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans:

And so the 2025 Jets are in midseason form. 

To be clear, this gives me zero joy. Count me among those who believes that rooting for opponents' injuries is bad karma. The equivalent of pretending your kid is sick to get out of something. You're tempting fate. Just asking the universe to pay you back. Even if Jets fans spent the better part of two decades rooting for my quarterback to get injured. In fact, pinned their hopes on it. And celebrated when it did happen that one time in 2008. As with all the aforementioned Jets QBs, I was looking forward to the Patriots to beat Fields the way they always have. By making him see ghosts and being generally awful at his job. 

On the other hand, I'm a student of the Jets. A huge part of my lifelong, personal journey has been exploring the various ways  this franchise can suffer. And the extent of that suffering. Which appears to be limitless. I mean, how can you read these reports and not go immediately to this?

Michael Owens. Getty Images.

That was two years ago. And one Franchise QB ago. Rodgers made it through all of four snaps before his Achilles snapped. And now history has repeated itself so soon, with some as yet undetermined injury. 

You don't have to believe in curses to recognize that some sports franchises are just cosmically doomed. Like something out of a Greek Tragedy. Damned by the gods for some display of hubris or something. But rightly or wrongly, damned to suffer in ways others are not. 

Based on the fact Rodgers came back in 2024 to the worst statistical year of his career (his lowest passer rating of his 17 seasons as a starter), there's not much hope Fields will be ready for 2026, either. Probably putting the Jets back at the top of the draft and searching for the next solution to the problem that has vexed them since about the time of Chad Pennington and his weak, but efficient, arm. And were I a betting man, I wouldn't put any money on the next Franchise QB's success, either. 

This might be a good time for Fireman Ed to retire again.