Where Are They Now? Fitzpatrick Finishes Season on a Down Note, while Lin Falls Down ... A Lot

In our weekly feature, we at The Crimson track the successes (and potential failures) of some of Harvard’s most successful graduates not to use their Harvard degrees. While a tour through professional sports is not exactly a who’s who of Harvard alumni, a few athletes have taken their game to the next level. From Jeremy Lin to Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Crimson maintains a presence outside of the labs and law offices of the world.

In his final game of the 2011 NFL season, Buffalo Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick ’05 gave a performance that mirrored his entire year.

After jumping out to a 21-0 lead at the end of the first quarter against the New England Patriots, Fitzpatrick and the Bills spiraled out of control, giving up 49 unanswered points and ending a once-promising season in embarrassing fashion.

“Fitzmagic” seemed to lose his magic after a first quarter in which he threw 12-for-15 and two touchdown passes. In three second quarter drives, Fitzpatrick failed to put points on the board. Meanwhile, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady brought his team back into the game, pulling New England within a touchdown by halftime.

The second half was all Brady, as the Patriots scored on all five of their second half possessions. While Brady’s 300th career touchdown pass put the game out of reach, Fitzpatrick ended his season with two consecutive interceptions.

Once playoff contenders, Fitzpatrick and Buffalo jumped out to a 4-2 start, earning a new contract with $24 million in guaranteed money. But since signing his new deal, Fitzpatrick and the Bills have collapsed, finishing the remainder of the season with a 2-8 record, meaning Buffalo will miss the postseason for the 12th consecutive season.

While Fitzpatrick goes home, Matt Birk ’98 and the Baltimore Ravens clinched the AFC’s No. 2 seed with a 24-16 defeat of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Birk, an offensive lineman, and the rest of the Ravens finished atop the AFC North with a 12-4 record and will have a bye in the first round of the playoffs.

As the NFL regular season winds down, things are just getting started for Jeremy Lin ’10.

Picked up by the New York Knicks off waivers last week, the point guard has seen limited action in all of the Knicks’ games since his arrival.

Seeing the court for the final four minutes in a New Year’s Eve win against the Sacramento Kings, the former Leverett House resident struggled. Though he recorded one rebound, one assist, and one steal, Lin also turned the ball over twice, picked up four fouls, and had multiple fall-downs, three of which came during this stretch of disaster. And that performance came one night after this.

During the young season, Lin has registered -11.04 Player Efficiency Rating, a metric designed to evaluate a per-minute rating of a player’s performance. Lin is currently the only member of the team with a negative PER, and New York City has not taken kindly to its newest player. On RealGM's Knicks message board, threads were started entitled "Worst Player In Knicks History" (yes, dedicated to Jeremy) and "What should the Knicks do with Jeremy Lin?" (most suggested waive him, while one poster believes they should murder him).

Lin will have the chance to turn things around on Monday when the the Knicks take on the Toronto Raptors at Madison Square Garden.