Wayne Chrebet Retires [J. Mark English]

New York Jets website is full of great comments from scores of NFL stars giving credence to the gritty Wayne Chrebet, and what he meant to the Jets. Here are some excerpts:

Romeo Crennel, Cleveland Browns Head Coach, New York Jets’ Assistant Coach 1997-1999: “Mr. Clutch. Small in size, big in heart, effort and toughness. If you didn’t double him, he’d make the play. He took great pride in his job and the fact that he was a Jet. He was a Hofstra free agent who walked across the street and became a star.”

Tom Coughlin, New York Giants Head Coach, 2004-: “The thing that says it all for me is that he was a guy who was told he was too small and too slow and he played 11 years in this league, and he didn’t just play. He made the key catches when his team needed them. He was extremely reliable, and he was their go-to guy. I remember that in our game in 1996 we had a very difficult time stopping him.”

Curtis Martin, New York Jets, 1998- : “He inspired me every day. I loved the way he played and how he never backed down from anything. He was an incredible teammate. He was a warrior; and I always felt you’d have to kill him to get the upper hand on him. If every player in the NFL had as much heart and desire as he had, football would be illegal.”

Bill Belichick, New England Patriots Head Coach, New York Jets’ Assistant Coach 1997-1999: “Just the whole background on him: not drafted, coming into the NFL as pretty much an unknown guy and really established a great role for himself as a slot/third down receiver, one of the best at it that I've coached for or against. He' was just a hard guy to cover. He really beat us down there in 2000 in the Monday night game. He's a very competitive guy. Good, smart player that I think every quarterback that has ever thrown to him, and there have been a lot of them, had a lot of confidence in him because of his ability to get open and catch the ball. Anytime you can do that on third down, anytime a receiver can become what you would call a really good third down receiver or a really good red area receiver, or a both, which Wayne would fall under that category, in the both category, you're talking about that's the tough as it gets. Until the end, he was still the guy, when was out there, he was still the guy that you have to get, even deep into his career. Part of that is him, but a big part of it is the confidence that the quarterbacks have in him and they continued to go to him even though he was doubled and he still got open. He was a real pain in the neck. He was simply a hard guy to cover.”