Wayne Chrebet One More Time

Randy's Radar

Wayne Chrebet One More Time

Published: Thu, September 27, 2007 - 6:48pm EST
Randy Lange

By Randy Lange

Lange is editor-in-chief of newyorkjets.com. He covered the Jets for 13 years for The Record of Hackensack, N.J.


File Under: video, Wayne Chrebet, Laveranues Coles, Karen Keyes, No. 80

09/27 — For all the fans and No. 80 wearers who have contacted me and others here in the Jets organization, today is your lucky day. Our Wayne Chrebet Day video is now live on newyorkjets.com.

The eight-minutes-plus video was excellently prepared by John Seiter, our senior director of multimedia production, who wanted no credit so I won't give him any. It combines the interview Wayne did with JetsTV's Karen Keyes before his halftime ceremony at Sunday's Jets-Dolphins game, the recorded tributes from Ray Lucas, Greg Buttle, Laveranues Coles and Chad Pennington, the video highlight montage prepared for the day's festivities (complete with Howard David's radio calls, which I always enjoyed), and excerpts from Chrebet's emotional halftime remarks to the fans.

Some of you no doubt wondered why (others of you know why) Coles in his tribute refers to Chrebet by letter, as in "Thanks for all the memories, Q." No, it doesn't refer to name of James Bond's gadget man, or to Chrebet's Q-factor, which still remains very high in this neck of the woods.

When Chrebet broke in with the Jets as that now legendary undrafted free agent from Hofstra in 1995, people mangled his name in many creative ways (and still do to this day). Sherbet, Shabot, Shar-pei, Tribbit — it was alternately hilarious and painful to hear people try to wrestle kra-BET to the ground.

And then there was Q*bert, the popular character of the Eighties arcade game that still had some legs into the mid-Nineties. Chrebet became known as Q*bert to his teammates and then, of course, simply "Q." Quite a story for quite a ballplayer whose career I was privileged to have observed from start to finish as a Jets beatwriter.

You can find the Chrebet video in our multimedia section or currently from our home page, and then clicking on the arrow beneath the picture of Wayne with his outstretched arms to start the tribute.

You can also find photos of Wayne in the Week 3 Jets vs Dolphins gameday photo gallery.

Enjoy.

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Fans Respond

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Francoberry Said:

Sat, October 27, 2007 - 2:16am EST

"The all time greatest underdog in NY Jet history.Martin and the Sack Dancer must go on the wall first though."

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Bruce Said:

Sat, March 22, 2008 - 6:01am EST

"The Jets ought to retire 80 in honor of Wayne Chrebet. This guy was more than the stats suggest, he was a reason to watch despite the Jets being the worst team in the league. He gave us hope - when there was none to be found. That is my 2 cents as a religious Jets fan."

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adriano Said:

Wed, April 16, 2008 - 11:33pm EST

"This JET players book "Every down,every distance" had given me an inspiration of a lifetime, i was never so confident that much then this book came along and showed me a way ,wayne is a perfect example of someone who wouldn't give up at the hardest. "

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