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There are $8.75 million reasons why Mark Sanchez isn’t going to pay a price for the internet video that has gone viral.
The Jets are on the hook for $8.75 million for this year based on the ill-advised contract extension last off-season. All his money is guaranteed this year.
So the Jets will likely sweep this under the rug.
At a party in Napa Valley, California, a 20-second video clips of Sanchez shows him partying shirtless and dropping his pants. It has gone viral on the internet. The video was on TerezOwens.com.
For a player coming off two rough seasons, and battling for his career, in some cases, this could be a death-knell.
But because of that guaranteed money, Sanchez is likely to come out of this unscathed.
Sanchez has a bizarre history with women, including dating a 17-year-old with the Jets, and a sexual assault charge in college.
Here is a snippet from a wire story from April 27, 2006 on the sexual assault charge – “Southern California backup quarterback Mark Sanchez was released from jail early Thursday following his arrest for investigation of sexually assaulting a female student, police said.
“Sanchez, 19, was arrested around 4 p.m. at an apartment complex near campus. He was released shortly after midnight after posting $200,000 bail, sheriff’s deputy Ban Nguyen said.
“Police took DNA and hair samples from Sanchez, the Los Angeles Daily News reported, citing unnamed sources.
“Sanchez met the alleged victim the apartment complex after visiting an off-campus bar, the Daily News reported, citing unnamed witnesses. The witnesses said Sanchez appeared to be drunk, the newspaper reported.
“Sanchez’s roommate, linebacker Brian Cushing, was detained but released, the newspaper reported.
“Sanchez had been at a rape awareness workshop earlier Tuesday, the Daily News reported.
“USC officials said they will temporarily suspend Sanchez while police conduct their investigation.”
The charges were dropped two months later due to inconclusive information on “the issue of force.”
The Jets and Sanchez caught a little break with this video scandal because the Aaron Hernandez-murder story broke about the same time.
Also, most of the Jets’ writers, and many football writers in general, are on vacation right now. It’s very common for media outlets to give their writers time off before training camp starts.
So this story didn’t gain the traction you would expect.
However, expect it to pick up steam again when the Jets’ report to camp on July 25. You know the media is going to be all over this, national and local.
This video was clearly a case of bad decision-making by Sanchez. something that has plagued him on and off the field.
I would also say, in fairness, posting this video showed a lack of integrity by Alana Kari, the woman at the party who uploaded the clips to her Vine account (before deleting them a short time later).
There was a day and age when what happened at a private party, stayed at a private party.
But in time when the #1 goal of so many isn’t to be a doctor or scientist, but to be famous, internet videos are a means-to-an-end to achieve this goal. This video made Kari more of a household name (I never heard of the “model” before this).
However, with all this being said, even with the PR problems it causes the Jets, it should not hurt Sanchez’s standing in the quarterback competition.
One reason is that Geno Smith is a major project who isn’t close to being an NFL starting quarterback. If you don’t believer me, just ask the Jets’ quarterback coach David Lee. This video won’t make him more ready.
But no matter how you slice it, it’s shocking that Sanchez would allow himself to be put in his uncompromising position considering his career is at a crossroad.
Going out for a quiet dinner with friends might be the way to go right now.
However, Woody Johnson forgave Rex Ryan for his embarrassing internet video, so he will likely forgive Sanchez also.
And there are $8.75 million reasons why.
June 28, 2008
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