On one floor of the Good Morning America studio, Laurence Fishburne sat on Thursday with the anchor Robin Roberts and promoted his new movie, Akeelah and the Bee, the story of an 11-year-old inner-city girl's pursuit of a national spelling bee title. Elsewhere on the set, people were spelling out their ambitions for another guest, Matt Leinart, the former Southern California quarterback.
Everyone from the police manning the building's side entrance to the anchor Charles Gibson expressed variations of the same theme, namely the desire to see Leinart drafted by the J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets.
After watching the team that Joe Namath sanctified struggle to win four games with five quarterbacks last season, many of New York's armchair general managers seem to favor using the Jets' pick, the fourth overall, on the 22-year-old Leinart, the 2004 Heisman Trophy winner, who was 37-2 as a starter at USC.
PHOTO: AP
Mike Tannenbaum, who was promoted to general manager in February when Terry Bradway stepped down, has not given any indication of what he plans to do. The Jets have pressing needs at left offensive tackle and defensive end, and there are NFL-ready players at each position, D'Brickashaw Ferguson and Mario Williams, who may be there for the taking at No. 4.
But the Jets also have a charisma deficiency, and a lack of star power is no small shortcoming for a team in the No. 1 news media market. When Herman Edwards left to become the coach of the Kansas City Chiefs in January, the Jets lost their public face. Enter stage left Leinart, who is expected to be the first quarterback taken in the draft.
His left arm is only part of his charm to Jets fans. Here is someone who could conceivably challenge Chad Pennington and Patrick Ramsey for the starting quarterback job and Derek Jeter, Pedro Martinez and Eli Manning for the New York sports fan's heart.
"Matt would be fantastic for New York if the Jets were lucky enough to get him," said Donald Trump, who was introduced to Leinart on Thursday afternoon. The meeting was arranged after Leinart expressed an interest in shaking the hand of the entrepreneur whose business savvy he said he greatly admired.
"He has great star quality," said Trump, who carved out 45 minutes for Leinart at his Trump Tower office on Fifth Avenue. "More importantly, he's a very good football player."
Leinart, 22, was the highest-profile player on the highest-profile football team in Los Angeles, the No. 2 news media market, for three years, and he appears no worse for the exposure. In fact, he was afforded a full-page spread in People magazine's "Most Beautiful" issue, a copy of which was thrust into Leinart's hands Wednesday night after dinner as he stood in the lobby of a Manhattan hotel with his mother, Linda.
He took one look at the photograph, in which he is posing for the camera wearing one towel draped around his neck, another draped around his waist and nothing else, and groaned. "I am going to get a lot of grief from my teammates," he said.
Linda Leinart was asked what she thought of the photograph. "Oh," she said, without taking her eyes off it, "it's gorgeous."
Leinart did not feel attractive Thursday when he woke up after a fitful first night's sleep in New York that he attributed to the three-hour time change from Los Angeles and a sinus infection. Pre-draft anxiety might also have had something to do with it.
He has heard the New Orleans Saints will select him with the second pick or, barring that, the Titans at No. 3 will reunite him with his former offensive coordinator, Norm Chow. He has also heard he will be there for the Arizona Cardinals at No. 10.
On Wednesday night, after he heard a talking head on TV say the Jets are more interested in him than they are letting on, Leinart said he changed the channel.
"I can't listen to any more of it," he said.
Leinart was on the "Good Morning America" set waiting for his close-up when he absently picked the Jets baseball cap out of a decorative line of headgear representing the 32 NFL teams.
He turned it around in his hands, as if he was eager to try it on for size.
"I love New York," Leinart said earlier. "I love the energy of the city."
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