Coles glad he's back with Jets

[Smizzy]

Coles glad he's back with Jets

Sunday, July 31, 2005

BY DAVE HUTCHINSON

Star-Ledger Staff

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- It all started on the other side of the world, at the Pro Bowl in Hawaii last February. There, Laveranues Coles mentioned to then-former teammate John Abraham that there was a chance he wouldn't return to the Redskins.

Coles, who spent his first three seasons with the Jets, never wanted to leave New York. He signed with the Redskins when the Jets wouldn't come close to the $13 million guaranteed him by Washington as a restricted free agent.

But with the Redskins, Coles soon found that money alone couldn't make him happy. After two seasons, he wanted out because he didn't like his role in the offense and he clashed with coach Joe Gibbs.

Abraham quickly phoned Jets head coach Herman Edwards to tell him about Coles. About a week later, Coles called Jets quarterback Chad Pennington with the news of his impending availability.

"After everything went down in D.C., I called Chad and I was like, 'There's a possibility that I could be leaving,'" Coles said yesterday on the second day of training camp at Hofstra. "He was like, 'Are you kidding?' I told him that I was for real. So he told me, 'I'll call you back.'

"From there I don't know who he called or what he did, but that's when it all took off."

Turns out, Pennington immediately called Edwards.

"My wife told me Chad was on the phone, and I said, 'What's wrong now,'" Edwards joked. "We had a conversation that escalated into another conversation and the wheels got rolling and now he's here."

On March 9, after an intense, two-week negotiating period, Coles was dealt back to the Jets in exchange for wide receiver Santana Moss and a new contract that included a $5 million signing bonus. Coles wouldn't approve the trade without a new deal, and Pennington offered some of his own money to make it happen.

"Anytime somebody does that, it shows the amount of respect that they have for me as a player." Coles said. "He's very unselfish. Anytime you get in any type of situation and he (Pennington) throws it over the middle and he needs something to happen, you're going to be the guy to make that happen for him. I'm willing to stick my neck out for him like he stuck his neck out for me."

In 2002, the Pennington-Coles connection was all the rage. Coles, fast and tough, caught 89 passes for 1,264 yards and five touchdowns as Pennington burst on the scene as a first-year starter.

"Anytime you develop that type of relationship with guys like I had when I was here, there's always going to be a part of you that misses those guys," said Coles, who is close friends with wide receiver Wayne Chrebet, Abraham and Pennington, among others.

"We stayed in contact. We always joked about the fact that I would come back even before it seemed possible. It came sooner than we thought it would."

In Washington, Coles, who caught 172 passes for 2,154 yards and seven touchdowns in two seasons, wore No. 80 in honor of Chrebet, perhaps his closest friend on the team. Both came up the hard way and play with a chip on their shoulder.

Coles joked yesterday that when he was drafted by the Jets and first laid eyes on the unassuming Chrebet, he called home and said, 'Mom, I'll be starting in a week.'"

Said Chrebet: "We just have a lot of respect for each other. It's a great relationship. He's a super, super guy. ... And he's a very funny guy."

When Coles signed with Washington, he took a few parting shots at Edwards, saying the coach broke a promise to him that he would remain a Jet.

"I told Laveranues that as long as I was here, I would always try to keep him here," Edwards said. "He's my type of player. We tried as hard as we could to do that. It was a business decision. I have to answer to people: the ownership, the general manager and the football team. It just didn't work out.

"I didn't have any hard feelings. I don't want to speak for Laveranues, but he was upset. He didn't want to leave, and I didn't want him to leave. We're fortunate enough to have him back."