Former USC quarterback Mark Sanchez has been the NFL's Great Brown Hope for a Latino nation not so used to seeing Hispanic surnames on Monday Night Football.

Frankly, Latinos come in 250-pound sizes, but rarely in the 6-foot range required by the hard-hitting league. So Sanchez (6 feet, 2 inches, 225 pounds), quarterback for the New York Jets, has been a rare shining light for a demographic of, well, compact and often rotund people.

But after a lackluster, 8-8 season, Jets fans are looking for a scapegoat, and the third-year pro with the $50 million contract presents a nice target:

Retired Jets QB Boomer Esiason expressed no confidence in the kid from Long Beach, who saw a whopping 26 turnovers this season.

In an interview with WEEI Sportsradio in Boston he seemed to say Sanchez's days as a New Yorker were numbered. And he did so in not-so-flattering terms:

I'm sure that the Jets will be sniffing around. Because that's what the Jets do. They're trying to find their Tom Brady. They're trying to find their Aaron Rodgers. And I don't think in their mind they think that they feel like they've found the kid. If you watched Mark Sanchez the last month of the season, he was like a chihuahua standing on Madison Avenue and 36th Street entering the Midtown Tunnel, eyes bigger than you-know-what, and just so shaky.

Ay, dios mio. Shaky like a chihuahua? Oh no he didn't. These ethnic references are insulting, Boomer.

(Well, some of us embrace them. L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa recently said, “I'm like a Chihuahua. I don't give up.” What he really should have said was, I'm like a chihuahua. I like rich people, especially ones who hold me in their arms and donate to my favorite political causes.).

We think Sanchez is brave like a conquistador, nimble like a bullfighter, and unselfish like Latin lover.

And hey, with a $28 million guarantee, he can always come back home to L.A., live like a Kardashian, and find his true match.

We hear Paris Hilton loves chihuahuas.

Credit: famouschihuahua.com

Credit: famouschihuahua.com

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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