This could only happen to the New York Jets

Poor Jets fans.

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New York Jets first-year head coach Adam Gase stepped to the podium at the team’s practice facility on Thursday and started going through an injury update when he got to No. 14, his QB Sam Darnold, and said he’d be out due to mononucleosis.

Then he gave a shrug as if to say that not even he could believe what he just had announced.

But it’s true. The No. 3 pick in last year’s NFL Draft is going to miss some time after coming down with an illness that you usually get on a warm summer night during your teenage years.

Now the Jets, which blew a 16-0 lead at home last week before losing to the Bills, 17-16, are without their starting quarterback for this week’s game against Baker Mayfield and the Browns. Darnold will also likely miss the Week 3 game against the Patriots (which makes things even easier for New England) and then return after their Week 4 bye.

But by then, another Jets season could be over before it ever really got started.

This type of thing could only happen to the Jets. From the butt fumble, to having Bill Belichick being their coach for one day, to the countless other painful moments in franchise history, this team is most known for head shakes instead of fist pumps.

Mono, as some of you might know, is brutal. You can barely get out of bed, you need to sleep all the time, and life basically stinks for a whole month.

So trying to play football would be really, really dangerous for the Darnold.

The Jets will now turn to Trevor Siemian as their starting quarterback. The former Northwestern QB is in his first year with the Jets and hasn’t played in an NFL game 2017 when he was with the Denver Broncos.

The Jets’ kicking game is a laughable mess, they coughed up that lead at home in Week 1, and now their starting QB is out with mono.

It must hurt to be a Jets fan.

Thursday’s biggest winner: Kobe Bryant.

A day after Kobe took some heat for seeming to call out a young AAU player on the team he coaches for missing a game because of a dance recital, the former Laker great shared a video from an old dance recital that he performed in back in the day. Oh, and he missed two weeks of basketball to dance in this thing. Well played, Kobe Bryant.

Quick hits: Top 100 NFL QBs of all time… Week 2 NFL picks… College football preview show… Cowboy Cerrone loves fighting… And more!

– In celebration of the NFL’s 100th season, our Steven Ruiz ranked the top 100 QBs of all time. Can you guess who’s No. 1?

– Steven Ruiz and Charles Curtis are back with their NFL Week 2 picks against the spread.

– Steven Ruiz also ranks all 32 NFL QBs heading into Week 2.

– Our Michelle Martinelli and Evan Thorpe get you ready for Week 3 of college football with their weekly fun college football show.

– UFC fan-favorite Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, who has a huge fight Saturday night against Justin Gaethje, beautifully explained why he loves fighting so much.

–  Alabama is tracking students’ locations to penalize them for leaving football games early. For real.

(Follow me on Twitter at @anezbitt. It might change your life. Just don’t tell me about your fantasy team.)