Former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason, who defended Jets signal caller Mark Sanchez against criticism earlier this season, has gone over to the other side.
Esiason piled on the third-year player on Wednesday, telling Boston's 850-AM that, "If you watched Mark Sanchez the last month of the season, he was like a chihuahua standing on Madison Avenue and 36th Street entering the Midtown Tunnel, eyes bigger than you-know-what, and just so shaky."
He told ESPN later that the chihuahua line wasn't a reference to Sanchez's Mexican-American heritage. "I chose a small dog that always looks shaken and has big eyes, and doesn't like big things -- a chihuahua. It's a skittish dog and he's been a skittish player," he said.
Esiason, who played for the Jets among other teams during his 14-year career, also ripped the Jets leadership for the team's disappointing 8-8 performance and locker room strife this season.
"I think that (coach) Rex Ryan's ways have come back to haunt him," Esiason said. "And (general manager) Mike Tannenbaum ... has a lot of responsibility in this regard, because they have put a lot of bad guys together in this locker room. There's a good core of players for the New York Jets. But unfortunately, all it takes is one guy. And Rex Ryan giving Santonio Holmes the captain's 'C' on the chest was an absolute embarrassment. It's a slap in the face of all the good guys in that locker room."
