"As only fate would have it, this is how sports always works out, so this situation doesn't surprise me," Dolphins quarterback Chad Pennington said Wednesday when he met with the Miami-area media. "I pretty much banked on it."

Few did, foremost the Jets, who cut Pennington loose Aug. 7, the day after completing the trade for Brett Favre. But Pennington has the Dolphins 10-5, one victory from clinching an unexpected AFC East title and putting the finishing touches on the Jets' December collapse.

Pennington, however, insisted that's not part of his motivation for Sunday, even after being discarded last summer.

He was in a neck-and-neck battle with Kellen Clemens at the time of the Favre trade, and most observers thought Pennington was ahead in that race. But it was no secret that within the organization, there was the feeling that Pennington's time as a successful starter had passed.

That, more than the way he was released, is what has driven Pennington this season.

"If you don't have those expectations for yourself as an individual, especially as a quarterback, you don't believe you can help change a team, help a team and lead a team to victory, you really don't have business being behind a center," Pennington said.

"I didn't know exactly what to expect; I think our whole team, we really didn't know what to expect from ourselves. At the same time, we expected ourselves to play well, we expected a lot out of ourselves and we expected ourselves to be successful."

The last statement is only partially true. The Dolphins went 1-15 last season and brought in Bill Parcells to lead their Football operations. His first major move was hiring former Cowboys assistant Tony Sparano as coach.

The two of them began a roster overhaul, but two weeks into training camp, Sparano still was searching for a starting quarterback. When the Jets sent Pennington away, it took the Dolphins less than 24 hours to sign him. They've been repaid in ways no one, other than maybe Pennington, could have imagined. He is the league's second-rated passer (96.4), having completed 67 percent of his passes in throwing for 3,453 yards with 17 touchdowns and only seven interceptions.

"Me personally, I hadn't had history with Chad other than playing against him," Sparano told New York reporters Wednesday. "I was pretty excited about the opportunity at that time to possibly get him. We had three young quarterbacks that were all battling, and none really separating himself at that particular point.

"We just knew that the piece that might've been missing would be this veteran quarterback that can provide the leadership that we would hope he would provide. When Chad became available, it just worked out for us. We got lucky."

What the Dolphins got, linebacker Joey Porter said Wednesday, was a player who saved their season before it started.

"That was our savior because we were searching for answers at the quarterback position," Porter said. "We got it when we got Chad. However it happened, we're happy that we got him. We'll live and die with that decision on our end. We're happy with what we got."

Porter said from "day one," Pennington asserted himself as a leader.

"He was doing stuff that the [players] weren't doing before," Porter said. "He was meeting with the offensive linemen and the receivers, [things] that leaders and captains are supposed to do. He passed that on to our young guys, so he has them working harder. Everything he brought to the team is what we needed. That's what you have when you have a veteran leader quarterback like Chad."

And so this season, Pennington said, hasn't been so much redemption as it has been validation. Despite what others said, he never believed he "lost it."

"It's never a redemption factor. 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," Pennington said.

"Sometimes it's hard to believe that when things aren't going your way, and it's really easy to start second-guessing your work ethic and how you prepare and things like that. When you do experience some success, that kind of solidifies exactly what you believe in."

WE HAVE SEEN THIS MATCHUP BEFORE

To make the playoffs, the Jets need to win Sunday and get some help from the Bills or Jaguars.

Impossible? No way. They've been down this road before, and it can happen.

On Dec. 29, 2002, to reach the postseason, the Jets needed to win and get some help. Sound familiar?

The help came when the Patriots' Adam Vinatieri kicked a 35-yard field goal in overtime to beat the Dolphins just after 4:30 p.m. At the time, the Jets were in a scoreless tie with the Packers midway through the first quarter.

Suddenly, the 8-7 Jets - who had lost four of their first five games and gotten outscored 74-10 by the Dolphins and Patriots in September - could win the AFC East title by defeating 12-3 Green Bay.

Led by Chad Pennington's four touchdown passes, they did just that, thrashing the Packers, 42-17, and shutting down a quarterback by the name of Brett Favre.

The loss ultimately cost the Packers a bye. "We got our -- kicked," Favre, pulled at the start of the fourth quarter, said at the time.

He said of Pennington after that game, "He has more poise than I do. I get to running around out there like a chicken with my head cut off sometimes ... He has a great amount of poise and confidence, and he's a good guy on top of it. You can't help but pull for a guy like that."

Now, to have a shot at making the playoffs, the Jets must beat Chad Pennington - led by a guy by the name of Brett Favre.

- Greg Gutes

Sunday

Dolphins at Jets

4:15 p.m.

TV: Ch. 2

Radio: WEPN (1050), WABC (770), WRCN (103.9)