Curtis Painter: The NFL's New Whipping Boy

You can already hear it. Those nerdy TV Sports hosts making quips at Curtis Painter. Comparing anything poor in sports for the next week to Curtis Painter. Saying that Curtis Painter just won Peyton Manning his 4th MVP award.

Okay, so the last one is sort of funny, and I suppose it's true; the NFL's new whipping boy is going to more than likely be Curtis Painter.

If you thought you heard champagne popping on Sunday after the Jets beat the Colts, it wasn't coming from Perfectville, it was actually coming from the homes of Eric Mangini, JaMarcus Russell, and Kerry Collins. Mangini and Russell because Painter had supplanted them (for the time being) as the joke of the NFL, Collins because, well, that's what Kerry Collins does.

Do I feel bad for Curtis Painter? A little. Does he deserve it? Yes. He looked awful. And the thing was, he was going up against Mark Sanchez, in the same week so many sub-par QB's started (Charlie Frye, Derek Anderson, Brian Brohm). He actually made Sanchez look great.

Many of us remember Curtis Painter from Purdue as the QB who was pretty good as a junior and pretty average as a senior. It looks as though Painter is going to be a pretty bad pro.