Walking through the lower tier concourse immediately following Saturday night's game, I notice a guy wearing a #72 Bender jersey. I laughed a little at the guy's decision to spend $200+ on an authentic jersey immortalizing our yet-to-be-proven reserve lineman. Then I notice him to talking to another guy...also wearing a #72 Bender jersey...What tha? Moments later a woman walks up to them, with another guy and both of them are sporting Benders of Hempstead as well. Finally, the light goes on in this genius' head and I realize, this must be family. I step up to the first guy and ask if he's related to Bender. He answers proudly but defensively that Jacob is his brother. Now he's looking me over to see if I'm some drunk about to rip the guy. He's a fairly big boy himself. I say, "What's up with him? We expected him to make the field last year, and they don't ever seem to play him." Brother Bender answers that he doesn't understand it either. According to Jake, the CS is very happy with him, but so far, it hasn't translated to PT. "But," his brother said, "He's going to get a bigger role very shortly." I said I hope so, and wished them all good luck. After that, I realized it was very cool seeing all these family members come out, wearing the jerseys and supporting the guy like it was a Friday night HS game. Here's hoping the Jets go on a Bender this year, and that Bender goes on a tear once he gets in there.
Cool story. Last year in TC we heard that Bender might be the starter at LG. And he proceeded to sit the bench for most of the season. So I'll believe Bender is a significant part of the Jets future when I see it. That being said Bender is one big boy. I love the size of him and Garner - both are 6-6 and over 315 lbs. Even among the giant players of the NFL these two stand out for their size when they are on the field. The FO seems to be making a concerted effort to get some bigger guys on the O line.
I hope it works out for the gut too, but from what I've seen this summer, he's looked pretty shaky at RT.
HAHA I saw those guys walking into the stadium. I saw one guy had a jersey that said Bender's Pop lol.
When I first read this thread title I got this image in my mind of a platoon of Bender(s) the robot from "Futurama" fighting in WWII, ala Band of Brothers.
I have to believe that the coaching staff believes Bender can contribute in the future. Otherwise I'm sure they would have cut him a long time ago. It would be great if he could be the third tackle but who knows.
The mother and father ride their Harleys up from Delaware (or Maryland I forget) for every home game. They always ride by my tailgate and I've talked with dad in the concession lines.
