Wayne Chrebet joined Tiki and Tierney on Tuesday to talk Jets, and he showed up in the Zoom wearing a Mets hat…which led the hosts to wonder how someone from Jersey became a Mets fan, wondering if maybe if was a Hofstra thing?
“I was always a Yankee fan and still am, but when Willie Randolph went to coach the Mets…he’s a friend, so I started rooting for them a little more,” Chrebet said, before adding a small dig at the hosts: “Plus, I needed to hide my receding hairline, and it matches my sweatshirt!”
Don’t worry Jets fans, even though Chrebet grew up a Giants fan in Jersey, he’s a Jet through and through now, and he’s excited for the future with Zach Wilson.
“It was tough for him in the beginning, the first couple games he was running for his life back there,” Chrebet said, “but when he got hurt, he came back and was much different. I think Mike LaFleur started calling a different game for him, with higher percentage completions, and hopefully next year he takes that next step kind of like Joe Burrow did.”
Of course, wide receivers ended up being the topic of the day, and Chrebet is hopeful the Jets can re-up Braxton Berrios, who both he and BT think could become another high-volume receiver the same way Chrebet and others were in similar situations.
“He’s quick, and when you talk about guys like me, they call us “possession” receivers, we run different kinds of routes,” Chrebet said, before adding an interesting story: “I went out to eat with Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola once – I hate the Patriots but love those guys – and they told me they call me the “Godfather of Slot!” I thought that was pretty cool.”
Perhaps Berrios can become the next one in the legacy, but when BT asked about Denzel Mims’ future, Chrebet was a little more reserved, putting some of the onus on the team itself.
“When they dropped back and didn’t take him in the draft, I thought it was a missed opportunity, but they got him anyway, and I was excited seeing what he could do on deep balls and 50/50 balls,” Chrebet said. “Then he got sick, and got hurt, and sometimes, the college game doesn’t translate to the pros. But, it may just be a matter of time, and I think they have to make a point of getting him more involved.”
But, Chrebet said, despite what was a tough first year of the Robert Saleh era, Chrebet thinks the Jets are headed in the right direction – similar to when Bill Parcells took over for Rich Kotite in his day.
“I was 3-13 the first season with Kotite and my friends busted my chops, and I said it couldn’t get worse – and then we were 1-15!” Chrebet said. “But when Bill came in, this was what I wanted. He’d the kind of guy you want to run through a brick wall for, telling us we’re not the same old Jets. I think Saleh is like that, he reminds me of Herm Edwards a bit, a different kind of coach who treats veterans differently. But when you have a coach who has been there before, you believe it more.”
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And going back to that Jets-Giants rivalry deal, well, it may be a Giants town on the back pages for dubious reasons this year, the rivalry is still alive and well among the old school – as evidenced by what Chrebet said about an event he’s doing in Middletown, New York, on January 30.
“It’s called Catch the Moment, and it’s a competition between me and Laveranues Coles and two Giants, David Tyree and Mario Manningham,” Chrebet said. “We’ll be doing bowling with footballs, cornhole, axe throwing, things like that…never know if some of those axes are going to go astray!”
You can get more info on that event at BG Autographs’ website, and listen to Chrebet’s entire appearance on Tiki & Tierney above!
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