A disgusted Jets season ticket-holder went on the offensive yesterday against the New England Patriots over the infamous Videogate scandal. Princeton lawyer Carl Mayer filed a class-action suit in Newark Federal Court against the New England Patriots and coach Bill Belichick because a video assistant filmed Jets coaches giving defensive signals last month. "We want to find out the truth," Mayer said.

Kellen Clemens is ready to step aside and be the Jets' backup quarterback again. "It was a lot of fun and it was a great experience being the starter for a week," Clemens said Thursday. "Hopefully that's going to pay dividends down the line." Coach Eric Mangini said Chad Pennington will be the starter when his injured right ankle is fully healed. Based on how he's looked in practice this week, it appears he'll be under center Sunday against Miami. And that's OK with Clemens.

As if an 0-2 start and an injured Chad Pennington weren't enough of a bad omen, the Jets recently learned that 'Fireman Ed' ? perhaps the NFL's most identifiable fan ? could miss the entire season with a knee injury. Ed Anzalone, who has long been attending games wearing a No. 42 jersey and a Jets fireman hat and boisterously leading the J-E-T-S chants, told Newsday yesterday he had surgery on his left knee Sept. 6 and does not expect to be attending games for at least the foreseeable future. "I hurt it at a fire in the summer and I had to get it taken care of," said Anzalone, a New York City firefighter. "I have some issues, man. I have some herniations in my back, some in my neck. So I'm taking care of myself. I'm not up to par right now. I'd love to be at the games. But I have to get myself right before I go back there."

As soon as Chad Pennington is healthy enough to start - and there's a good chance he will be this week - he will return to his old position. Eric Mangini has made it clear that Pennington still is the No. 1 quarterback. "If he can, he will," Mangini said yesterday, refusing to say if Pennington can or will. Pennington, nine days removed from his high-ankle sprain, hopes to start in Sunday's virtual must-win home game against the Dolphins. He wanted to start in Baltimore, saying after the game that he was "ready to go," but was designated the No. 2 quarterback. That he dressed for the game, which seemed a near impossibility at mid-week, means he convinced Mangini he was well enough to play in a pinch.

Chad Pennington made it perfectly clear with the look on his face and with his words after yesterday's 20-13 loss to the Ravens. He was ready to play and he badly wanted to play and Eric Mangini's decision to start Kellen Clemens was the only thing that kept him from making a rather miraculous comeback from the ankle sprain he suffered last Sunday. "I was ready to go," Pennington said in no uncertain terms or tone. "(It was) purely (Mangini's) decision there. I lived in that training room and every hour of my days were focused on getting well and getting better. I leave those decisions up to him and go from there."

With second-year pro Kellen Clemens poised to make his first NFL start on Sunday against the Ravens, coach Eric Mangini, who again refused to name a starter, said emphatically that Chad Pennington would still be the starting quarterback if he misses the game because of his injured right ankle. "Chad's the starting quarterback," Mangini said yesterday. "He's the starting quarterback."

Jets second-year quarterback Kellen Clemens will replace Chad Pennington and make his first NFL start against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, according to three people familiar with the severity of Pennington's right ankle injury and the Jets' plans. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because all official injury information must come from the team. "Chad's not going to play (against the Ravens)," one person said yesterday. "It's Kellen." The injury is the latest in a star-crossed career for Pennington, who played all 16 regular-season games last season for the first time. He suffered a severely sprained or bruised right ankle -- the team still has not classified the severity of the injury -- last Sunday against the Patriots. There was no fracture, according to someone who received a preliminary evaluation of the injury, and Pennington could be ready to play next week against the Dolphins.

Jets quarterback Chad Pennington is telling people close to him that he doesn't think he's going to play on Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens, a person with knowledge of those conversations and the condition of the QB's injured right ankle said yesterday. That person spoke on the condition of anonymity because official injury information is supposed to be released by the club. "Chad doesn't think he could play this week," the person said yesterday. "He said the ankle is really sore. He wants to play and he's going to give it a try, but he doesn't think he's going to play."

A former assistant under Bill Belichick, Eric Mangini arrived in New York last year with an insider's knowledge of the Patriots' sign-stealing surveillance tactics and he shared the secret with members of the Jets' organization, a person with knowledge of the matter informed the Daily News yesterday. It wasn't until the fifth Mangini-Belichick showdown - last Sunday - that the Jets were able to catch the Patriots. Tipped off by Jets security, an NFL security official confiscated a video camera and tape from a Patriots employee at the Meadowlands, and the evidence is believed to be incriminating. "(The Jets) knew they did it," the person with knowledge of the situation said in an e-mail to the Daily News. "They caught the guy a year ago, but couldn't do anything about it. When Eric came, he said that's what they used to do. Bill is going to be (ticked) at Eric. He kissed and told."

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has determined that the Patriots violated league rules Sunday when they videotaped defensive signals by the Jets' coaches, according to league sources. NFL security officials confiscated a camera and videotape from Patriots video assistant Matt Estrella on the New England sidelines when it was suspected he was recording the Jets' defensive signals. Sources say the visual evidence confirmed the suspicion.