Jets Manage to Get Nagle In Game on the Fly

Before the game the New York Jets announced that rookie quarterback Browning Nagle would be one of their two inactive players for the game.

However, with 4:46 remaining in the fourth quarter, Nagle got to play.

Coach Dan Henning and several reporters were under the impression that Nagle could not play unless starting quarterback Ken O’Brien and backup Troy Taylor was forced from the game because of injuries.

After the game someone suggested to Henning that maybe the Chargers would be awarded a forfeit because the Jets used an ineligible player.

“I doubt it,” Henning said. “They would review it.”

Frank Ramos, Jets public relations director, said it was not necessary for O’Brien and Taylor to suffer injuries for Nagle to play. However, once Nagle entered the game that meant that O’Brien and Taylor could no longer play.

“When I went in, the coach told me if I was hurt,” Nagle said, “I was staying in.”

Nagle, a rookie, threw his first NFL career pass to to Rob Moore, and Chargers defender Donald Frank made the late tackle.

Henning, meanwhile, was not pleased with the officiating. He took exception to the officials’ ruling both on the field and in the replay booth that H-back Craig McEwen had dropped a fourth-quarter pass.

And when informed that No. 71 on the Chargers had made an illegal block on a Jets’ return with an interception, he pointed out to the officials that the Chargers wouldn’t be blocking for a Jets’ interception return. “And we don’t have a No. 71” on our team, Henning said.

“That wasn’t the difference in the game, though,” Henning said. “The difference in the game was we didn’t make the play that was going to turn it in our favor.”