Too many New York Jets fans never did get it right about Chad Pennington.

Not enough arm strength. Too injury-prone. Couldn't win enough in big-game situations. Just not physically gifted enough.

We've heard all the criticisms before. Especially on the night of Aug. 6, 2008, when the trade was completed for Brett Favre and the overwhelming consensus was that the Jets finally had gotten the quarterback to lead them to places Pennington never could.

No matter that Favre would turn 39 in October, hadn't played since the 2007 NFC Championship Game against the Giants, and had just completed a months-long soap opera that ended in his departure from Green Bay. It still was better than the alternative of keeping Pennington, who hadn't even been assured by coach Eric Mangini that he'd win the starting job.

Sure, there was a handful of Pennington loyalists who questioned the merits of the trade. And there was at least one — but not many more — dissenting voice in the media (you're reading him).

The consensus from fans and commentators was unequivocal: Favre over Pennington was the right move. And for a while, especially at 8-3, it sure looked that way.

But here we are, nearly five months after the trade, and things don't look quite the same.

It's Favre vs. Pennington on Sunday at the Meadowlands, with a chance for both teams to go to the playoffs. But Jets fans who had so passionately believed sweeping aside the 32-year-old Pennington was the answer surely must be re-thinking the equation.

As Favre openly wonders whether this will be the final game of his mostly brilliant 18-year career, and now acknowledges that he might have a shoulder problem, Pennington comes to his old stomping grounds having resurrected the 1-15 Dolphins; they are 10-5 and will win the AFC East title if they beat the Jets. This after overcoming his own shoulder problems. Not once, but twice.

As it turns out, the Favre trade worked out best for Pennington.

He joined an organization that believed in him and transformed that trust into one of the biggest turnaround seasons in NFL history. Dolphins football czar Bill Parcells, who drafted Pennington when he was the Jets' general manager in 2000, signed Pennington almost immediately after his release.

Parcells knew Pennington would offer the rebuilding Dolphins a chance at respectability and that with the right coaching from first-year man Tony Sparano, he could make the team competitive after the disaster of 2007. And also expose the lack of proper coaching Pennington had been getting from Mangini and his staff.

Parcells was right. With Pennington's trademark accuracy, plus a few gimmicks from the highly successful "Wildcat" formations the Dolphins have used throughout the season, they have taken the AFC East race to a place no one could have expected before his arrival.

Remember: Had Pennington stayed put in New York, the Dolphins would have gone with second-year quarterback John Beck or rookie Chad Henne. No way would they have gotten this far.

Instead, Pennington has resurrected his career again, and now has an opportunity to put an exclamation point on the season with a win over Favre's reeling Jets. At the Meadowlands, no less.

It would be a sweet moment for Pennington, even if he isn't — at least publicly — playing the revenge card.

"It's never a redemption factor," he told reporters Wednesday in South Florida. (He will not be made available to the New York media this week.) "It's always gratifying to know that the things you believe in as an athlete — the work ethic, the preparation, all of the different things you believe in as a quarterback — it works."

There has never been a more tireless worker to wear a Jets uniform. Pennington is believed to be the first NFL quarterback to recover from two rotator cuff surgeries to his throwing shoulder, and at the time of the Favre trade, he indicated he felt as strong as he ever had in his Jets career.

He had revamped his throwing motion in the offseason to apply more torque and thus increase velocity. And although he did have some inconsistent practices in training camp, he still felt confident he'd be able to lead the Jets to a playoff berth.

Mangini and general manager Mike Tannenbaum didn't share that opinion. They kept the Favre trade on their radar and pulled off the deal the night before the Jets' preseason opener. Pennington's dream of starting and ending his career as a Jet had been shattered.

In the end, though, this might have been the best thing that ever happened to him.

After a 4-12 season in which Pennington suffered a severely sprained ankle in the opener and eventually was replaced by Kellen Clemens, the perception was that he wasn't good enough to turn the Jets into a contender. Which is one reason a sizable contingent of Jets fans cheered when Pennington lay on the turf after being injured last year against the Patriots.

But after what they've seen this season, even those moronic fans have to feel differently about Pennington. Too bad for their sake they didn't appreciate him while they still had him.

Too late now.