This Daily News Sam Darnold Cover Is Terrible; I'm Dying

Jets rookie QB Sam Darnold was perfectly okay in his NFL debut last week, a 48-17 Jets win over the Lions more notable for the Jets defense knowing “everything” the Lions were running before they snapped the ball. But Darnold, following a first-ever-pass pick-six, got it together and looked as good as any Jets QB has looked in a decade. He absolutely showed the P-word. 

Jets fans are optimistic. Let them be! It rules to get a new QB you’re excited about, and this fan base in particular hasn’t been allowed to feel hope for a long time. (It’s been so long that some nonzero percentage of Jets fans have no doubt misidentified hope as heartburn.) So here comes the New York Daily News trying to capture the optimism ahead of Darnold’s first home game. And friends, look at this:

1. It took me way to long to actually figure out the pun. (“What is ‘Sam Milton?’”) It’s a groaner, and not in a good way. A bad-bad pun rather than a bad-good one.

2. But as eventually becomes clear, it’s a reference to that play that was popular three years ago. Not an especially involved reference either, though the photoshop is incredible. (By at least one of the multiple definitions of “incredible,” anyway.)

If you want to reference a timely bit of pop culture, why not go with “A DAR IS BORN”? (Which would also be a throwback to a pair of classics.) Or, for Broadway timelessness, “FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED LOSSES.”

3.

I take it back. The cover rules.