Two days after a New York newspaper depicted him as the driver of a clown car, New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan said he was tired of his team being referred to as a circus.
Of course, in the same week of Rex's circus lament, wide receiver Santonio Holmes said quarterback Mark Sanchez was rattled by the Jets' acquisition of Tim Tebow.
Sanchez disputed Holmes' account of the situation during a Friday appearance on WEPN-FM.
"I think (Holmes) made it a little more dramatic. When you read it in the paper, it sounds like a Lifetime movie script or something, (like) he's talking me off the ledge or something like that," Sanchez said, via Mike Mazzeo of ESPN New York. "Anybody in that situation would have a couple of questions about a trade like that. But as soon as I talked to the team, I really started to understand that (Tebow) is an addition, he's not changing anything. He's here to help us."
Also on Friday, Jets general manager Mike Tannenbum said that Sanchez would play "80 to 90 percent" of the snaps this season, which means Tebow's arrival has changed things. According to official playing-time documents, Sanchez played in a palindromic 97.79 percent of the Jets' offensive snaps in 2011, and was over 90 percent in 2010.
"I'm the starting quarterback," Sanchez said. "It's nice to know that for your confidence, but at the same time, nothing was going to change how I came into the season, mentally and physically. I've said it before: Whether it was Peyton Manning or Tim Tebow, it didn't really matter. I was going to play, and I plan on playing well."
Follow Brian McIntyre on Twitter _@brianmcintyre_.
