Clemens?s Road to Starting Role With Jets Began at the End By GREG BISHOP Published: November 4, 2007 HEMPSTEAD, N.Y., Nov. 2 ? Doubt sank in on the plane ride back from Arizona, as Kellen Clemens stole glances at the boot on his left foot and wondered if his football career was finished. Three days earlier, The Oregonian had run an article with the headline ?Clemens for Heisman?? across the sports section. That morning, in the middle of his senior season at Oregon, Clemens ranked among the nation?s elite quarterbacks. It all ended so abruptly, Clemens dragged down by the collar of his shoulder pads, his body turning one way, his left leg turning opposite, the pain sharp, immediate and threatening. ?The reality hits you that your career may be over,? said Clemens, now in his second year with the Jets. ?It?s not an easy thing to hear.? Most of Clemens?s family spent the afternoon of Oct. 22, 2005, in Burns, Ore., watching two games simultaneously. The local gym was holding a volleyball tournament involving Clemens?s sisters, and the televisions in the gym were showing Burns?s favorite son on a field in Arizona. Vicky Clemens remembered the typical gym chaos deflating into silence. She saw people whispering in the stands, looking in her direction. She heard something about a broken ankle, her son?s ankle, but there he was a few plays later, relaying signals from the sideline with a boot on his left foot. He always was tough like that. The only one of her five children who had broken bones, Kellen Clemens snapped, crackled and popped his way through adolescence. He broke his arm one time in a bicycle wreck and broke his collarbone playing football. That senior season, Clemens was on pace to break several records at Oregon, a university with a prestigious lineage at his position. His ankle broke instead. His spirit nearly followed. ?Reality sets in when you?re lying in a hospital bed and your teammates are coming to visit after practice,? Vicky Clemens said in a telephone interview. Clemens wishes he had bounced right back, spirits never sagging. But that would be inaccurate. Clemens pouted. Clemens moped. His wife, Nicole, tolerated this for all of a day. ?Look, this isn?t you,? she told him. ?This isn?t the person you are. You need to buck up.? At the time of his injury, Clemens had already thrown for 2,406 yards, the 11th-best single-season total in university history, with 19 touchdown passes and only 4 interceptions. While Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti recognized the blow as ?devastating,? he never doubted Clemens?s ability to lead. Even from the sideline. ?That?s his makeup,? Bellotti said in a phone interview. ?That?s what he?s about. Kellen is one of the greatest I?ve ever met.? Andy Ludwig left Oregon before Clemens?s senior season to become the offensive coordinator at Utah. He talked to Clemens the day of the injury, and his former quarterback seemed ?shook up.? To alleviate any concern, Ludwig flashed back to his favorite Clemens story. It happened during Clemens?s redshirt freshman season, when he approached Ludwig and said, ?How do you watch film?? Never in 16 years of coaching had someone asked Ludwig that. So he put together a chart for Clemens to use in breaking down opponents, and by the time a year went by, Clemens no longer needed it. Now in his 20th season, Ludwig hands the chart to every incoming quarterback at Utah. ?He is the hardest-working quarterback I have had the pleasure of coaching,? Ludwig said in a phone interview. ?I have four guys in the N.F.L. right now. He is the most driven.? Recovery took time. Clemens spent the remainder of his senior season on crutches, coaching the other quarterbacks. He started walking without crutches on Jan. 5. He later started throwing again. Clemens did not work out at the N.F.L. combine, but he did showcase that valuable right arm during workouts at Oregon and in private workouts. Slowly, his stock rose, culminating on draft day, when the Jets took Clemens in the second round. He went behind Vince Young of Texas, Matt Leinart of Southern California and Jay Cutler of Vanderbilt, quarterbacks drafted in the first round. But Clemens went early enough to prove the broken ankle did not break the dream. ?I just put my mind to it,? Clemens said. ?And here I am.? Clemens was never the most patient child growing up in Burns. He wanted everything immediately, his personality more instant coffee than slow roasted, at least until he went to Oregon. While there, Clemens learned the art of patience. He sat behind Joey Harrington. He split time with Jason Fife. And then he watched the remainder of his senior season from the sideline, crutches resting underneath his arms, while the Ducks finished 10-2. ?He was very patient,? Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti said. ?He was as good as any quarterback we?ve had here. With the season he was having his senior year, I would have put him in that realm or better.? That patience has served Clemens well during his tenure with the Jets. He spent last season as a backup, and his only start this season came against Baltimore when Chad Pennington was injured. He never complained. He never lobbied for more playing time. This week, the Jets switched starting quarterbacks. Clemens, the popular backup, in. Pennington, the veteran who fell out of favor during the Jets? five-game losing streak, out. Funny how fate works. Clemens breaks his ankle, falls down the draft boards, lands with the Jets and becomes the starter, one of the worst moments of his life leading to the present. Receiver Jerricho Cotchery described Clemens?s ?quiet swagger.? Safety Kerry Rhodes raved about Clemens?s ?cannon.? Maybe, given his last name, the nickname Rocket is appropriate? And so a new era may begin on Sunday at Giants Stadium, when Clemens, the quarterback who worried a broken ankle would end his career, tries to repair the Jets? broken record of a season.
