Before taking over at QB for Jets, Fitzpatrick bled Crimson

While at Harvard, Jets starting quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick was front and center (team photo below), leading the Crimson to a perfect 10-0 record and the the Ivy League championship in 2004.The kid quarterback arrived at Harvard in the fall of 2001, his eastbound journey taking him some 2,300 miles, from the former “hay capital of America” to a brainy bastion of the academic elite.

He was fifth or sixth on the Crimson depth chart as a freshman. He moved up fast. In the first game of the 2002 season, against Holy Cross, Harvard coach Tim Murphy watched Harvard’s star senior quarterback, Neil Rose, take a hard hit to the head late in the third quarter. The coach summoned his backup, sophomore…