Good-Bye Buttfumbler! Sanchez has Surgery, Out for the Season

Get your handkerchiefs ready folks, it's the end of an era. Mark Sanchez's career as quarterback of the New York Jets is O-V-E-R, Over! Over! Over!

The bumbling signal-caller had his Jets career basically come to a close on Tuesday when he went under the knife to have shoulder surgery on a torn labrum that he suffered seven weeks ago in a preseason game against the Giants.

Sanchez had been advised for weeks to have surgery, but balked in hopes that he could return to the field and take his job back from Geno Smith. That wasn't happening, and it wouldn't have happened even if Sanchez were healthy.

Thus ends a five year nightmare (not officially, since the Jets are still on the hook for $8.25 million) for the Jets and their fans who had to suffer watching Sanchez struggle and buttfumble his way to national infamy.

It was his running into the backside of guard Brandon Moore during a humiliating 49-19 loss to the Patriots on Thanksgiving that became the trademark of his career. While most quarterbacks are remembered for the games that they won, Sanchez will forever be remembered for the buttfumble. Sad, but true.

Sanchez's career has certainly been a star-crossed one. He was a part of two Jets' squads that went to back-to-back AFC title games in 2009 and 2010, but debate has raged for years as to whether he really led the team to those championship games. Most think that he rode the coattails of a incredible defense and a sound running game to get there.

But the fact is Sanchez was a turnover machine. He never learned from his mistakes, consistently making rookie-like mistakes for four years. In his last two seasons as starter, he turned the ball over 52 times, the highest in the NFL, as he did more to lead the Jets transformation to a total joke.

While the fans endured losing with Sanchez, the Jets did everything they could to replace him, including bringing in Tim Tebow, an experiment that was a major failure.

In 2013, the Jets drafted Geno Smith with the hope that he could compete with Sanchez and beat him out for the starting job. Neither Smith nor Sanchez played well in training camp or preseason, many thought Sanchez won the job by default.

Having to keep the competition active, Rex Ryan decided to put Sanchez into the fourth quarter of a preseason game against the Giants, and the quarterback got injured. Ironically it was probably the best decision Ryan ever made, because if Sanchez didn't get injured I doubt it highly that the Jets would be 3-2, and the talk of the town right now.

So comes to an end the miserable era of Sanchez. An era of buffoonery and buttfumbles; deer in the headlights stares and interceptions by 300 pound defensive lineman. It was a tortured era for Jets fans, now it's over. All that's left to do is pay Sanchez his $8.25 million and bid him adieu.