JETS ARTICLES - FRI 1/5

[Sperm Edwards]

Calling all Jets fans from near and far!

By Marissa Shorenstein

http://www.newyorkjets.com/articles/calling-all-jets-fans-from-near-and-far

Calling all Jets fans from near and far!

From wherever you intend to watch your favorite team take on the Patriots this weekend, Delta Airlines will help put you in the celebratory spirit even before you reach your destination.

Show Your Green - by wearing your finest gameday garb - on a Delta flight this Saturday, January, 6th, and you will enjoy a complimentary beverage.

So, show us some team spirit and get an early start on your tailgating activities! And, once you reach your final destination, remember to tune into CBS at 1 PM on Sunday.

Go Jets!

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.nj.com/jets/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1167975485117150.xml&coll=1

Jets' Pennington named AP Comeback Player of Year

Friday, January 05, 2007

BY DAVE HUTCHINSON

Star-Ledger Staff

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- Chad Pennington wasn't going to be denied.

Two rotator cuff surgeries in two seasons.

A new no-huddle offense.

A four-way quarterback competition.

Doubters within his own organization.

A massive pay cut.

None of that mattered.

Pennington, who wasn't blessed with the strongest arm in the first place, overcame it all to lead the Jets to a 10-6 record and the playoffs this season.

Yesterday, Pennington completed his made-for-television story by earning the Associated Press Comeback Player of the Year award in a landslide vote. He received 27 votes, followed by the Saints' Drew Brees (8 1/2) and the Bengals' Carson Palmer (5 1/2).

"Understanding the journey that I've been through thus far makes it special, knowing that hard work does pay and that having the right attitude and believing in working hard, it actually matters," said Pennington, who will lead the Jets against the Patriots on Sunday in an AFC wild-card game at Gillette Stadium.

Pennington, who started an entire 16-game schedule for the first time in his seven-year career, completed 313 of 485 passes (64.5 percent) for 3,352 yards, 17 TDs and 16 INTs. His completions, attempts, yardage, and interceptions were career highs.

"In Chad's mind, there was never any doubt," Jets coach Eric Mangini said. "He was extremely committed to doing everything that he could possibly do to put himself in a position to come back from those injuries. There was no precedent."

Mangini recalled seeing Pennington on countless occasions doing his rehab and studying the playbook at the same time in the training room.

"I knew he would get it," said WR Jerricho Cotchery. "I was joking that if he didn't get it, somebody was going to have to answer some questions from me. But really, everyone on this team is proud of him."

Mangini, who is not on speaking terms with his mentor, Patriots coach Bill Belichick, said Cowboys coach Bill Parcells has been among several coaches he has called for advice this season. He added that Bears coach Lovie Smith called him recently to wish him luck.

K Mike Nugent was named AFC Special Teams Player of the Month after going 12-for-12 in December, including a game-winning 30-yarder against the Dolphins with 10 seconds left on Christmas night. He has connected on 18 field goals in a row, the second-longest streak in club history behind Pat Leahy's 22 consecutive in 1985-86.

The Jets drafted Nugent in the second round (47th overall) in 2005 after watching Doug Brien miss field goals of 43 and 47 yards in the final two minutes in an AFC divisional playoff loss in Pittsburgh.

CB Andre Dyson (sprained right knee) participated in individual drills yesterday but still isn't expected to play Sunday. He should be ready if the Jets advance.

Belichick got a bit testy with the media when asked about his confidence in rookie K Stephen Gostkowski, who replaced playoff-proven veteran Adam Vinatieri. Gostkowski has hit 20 of 26 this season.

"I have confidence in Stephen, whatever the situation we would want to kick in," Belichick said.

C Nick Mangold (knee) and G Brandon Moore (knee) remain on the injured list as questionable but both will start.... LB Matt Chatham, who was excused for personal reasons on Wednesday, returned to practice yesterday.

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.nj.com/jets/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1167975335117150.xml&coll=1

Jets: A Q & A with left guard Pete Kendall

Friday, January 05, 2007

BY DAVE HUTCHINSON

Star-Ledger Staff

Jets veteran left guard Pete Kendall has been the team's resident comic and mentor to rookies Nick Mangold and D'Brickashaw Ferguson.

He has been the glue that held together the offensive line this season. His savvy and smarts have helped him survive despite being a smallish 6-5, 292 pounds. That is one reason why his third playoff appearance in 11 seasons is particularly satisfying.

GROWING UP IN WEYMOUTH, MASS., PLAYING IN NEW YORK: I certainly see the irony in it. I didn't bleed Patriots blue growing up because a lot of times the games weren't on TV because obviously the organization isn't where it is now.

I see no conflict of interest. Things are different now that I'm in the same division. But when I played in Arizona and Seattle, I was actually happy for the area. But suddenly, the Patriots win three Super Bowls and the Red Sox win the World Series. It's been pretty good for us New Englanders.

THE PLAYOFFS: I'm excited. A lot of people play lip service to how hard it is getting to the playoffs but I certainly have a greater understanding of how different it can be.

FAVORITE COMEDIAN: I'm partial to Ron White. I really enjoy his sense of humor. I also like Lewis Black and Jon Stewart, even though they're a little bit left of where I sit politically.

REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT: I prefer Independent, but I lean right.

PRESIDENT BUSH: It's going to be an interesting last couple of years. He's in that lame-duck mode right now and he doesn't control either of the Houses of Congress.

HERM EDWARDS: I enjoyed playing for Herm. It's unfortunate the revisionist history that has been written since Herm left. I don't think it's fair. Herm had a pretty outstanding record while he was here (39-41 record, 2-3 in three playoff berths). His tenure here has been painted more negatively than it should be.

GETTING RELEASED IN ARIZONA: It was perhaps the lowest and most humbling moment of my career. I always felt like as long as you played well there would be a place for you somewhere. Apparently, there was. It just wasn't there.

ERIC MANGINI: He certainly has justified the leap that (Jets owner) Woody (Johnson) and (GM) Mike Tannenbaum and (former GM) Terry Bradway took.

NICK MANGOLD: He's going to play a long time.

D'BRICKASHAW FERGUSON: The same.

BEST MOMENT: I probably have to point back to the divisional playoff game in Pittsburgh in 2004 because it's the closest I've come to the trophy.

TOUGHEST GUY TO BLOCK: There are so many good ones. The thing that strikes me now is it seems like every team has at least a couple of stud defensive lineman. It didn't used to be that way. This whole watered-down thing, I'm not buying.

It's hard to say because I don't want to leave anybody out. But John Parrella (Chargers) and Trevor Price (Broncos, Bills) were tough. Now, Vince Wilfork and Richard Seymour (Patriots) come right up to the top.

DIRTIEST OPPONENT: Bill Romanowski, a fellow Boston College guy.

SCARIEST THING IN THE TRENCHES: It's actually kind of funny because it cost me money. We were playing the Rams when I was with Seattle and I was the second guy on a chop block on (DE) Grant Winstrom. Thankfully, he didn't get injured.

Grant beat Walter Jones on a pass rush. I was uncovered and I see Grant running and Walt almost on the ground. In the time it took me to cover 3 yards, Walt had recovered and came back to cut Grant. It was just the craziest display of athleticism I'd ever seen in there.

BEST COMPLIMENT: It would probably be being elected captain this year. That's the highest thing any coach or teammate has ever done for me.

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.nj.com/jets/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1167975410117150.xml&coll=1

Despite suiting up for Pats, Testaverde's a Jet at heart

Friday, January 05, 2007

BY KEVIN MANAHAN

Star-Ledger Staff

FOXBORO, Mass. -- The guy standing at the locker looked just like Vinny Testaverde. Tall. Broad shoulders. Wavy dark hair. A one o'clock shadow. There was some gray near the sideburns, but hey, at 43, Testaverde would have some of that, too. With a deep voice, he even sounded like him. But there was one giveaway:

He was wearing a New England Patriots sweatshirt.

Vinny from Long Island, a Jet in his heart even when he was with the Bucs or the Browns or the Ravens or the Cowboys, would never wear one of those. The clothing of the hated AFC East rival? Never. Or would he?

"A little strange?" Testaverde said as some familiar faces pushed tape recorders toward his chiseled chin. He brushed his hand over the embroidered name, proving that 20 years in the NFL without a Super Bowl ring will do crazy things to people.

"One day when I do retire, it'll be as a Jet," he said. "But I still enjoy playing, and (Patriots coach) Bill (Belichick) has given me a chance to play. My loyalties are with them now.

"I grew up a Jets fan, and that isn't going to change, but I would certainly love the experience of winning a championship."

So, if this were baseball and he were headed into the Hall of Fame, even if he had won a championship with the Patriots, Testaverde would be wearing a Jets cap into Cooperstown? He smiled.

"Well, I don't want to get into all that," he said. "I don't want to be a distraction." Translation: Tell the Jets I wear a size 7 1/2.

But to get a Super Bowl ring, he will have to go through his old franchise, the team he loved as a kid growing up on Long Island. In the 1998 season, Testaverde reached the AFC Championship Game as the Jets' starting quarterback. These days, he is Tom Brady's guidance counselor.

As a thank you, Belichick put Testaverde into last week's romp over the Titans, and he threw a 6-yard touchdown to Troy Brown, marking the 20th consecutive season Testaverde has thrown a TD pass, extending his NFL record. The Titans didn't like being used for posterity. They whined.

"To bring in a 50-year-old guy to throw a little pass, probably the last pass of his career or of his life, I don't know. Whatever," defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth said.

Meanwhile, the Patriots treated Testaverde like, well, a Patriot.

"After the TD pass, they were jumping on me," Testaverde said. "It almost felt like I won a Super Bowl last week. Believe me, it was appreciated."

Testaverde also appreciates the credit people give him for mentoring quarterbacks -- like Chad Pennington, Comeback Player of the Year, or Tony Romo, who has helped the Cowboys into the playoffs. Testaverde laughs when he is asked if he has been able to help "that Brady kid at all." He actually remembers Brady's first game -- it was against the Jets when Drew Bledsoe was injured. Though the Jets won, Testaverde said he was nervous on the sideline, thinking, "This kid can throw it."

If Testaverde won't take credit for Pennington's success, he is happy for his buddy -- as much as he can be when that friend stands between you and a shot at diamond-encrusted NFL jewelry.

Testaverde said he called Pennington earlier in the season to laud his velocity. Yesterday, though, he said zip can be overrated. Sometimes guts -- Pennington's return from two throwing-shoulder operations, for instance -- and smarts are more important.

"Where Chad is and how far he's come ... he's in the playoffs, he's having a great year," Testaverde said. "So, yeah, arm strength might be overrated.

"Being a quarterback and being a leader isn't so much dropping back and throwing the football. It's getting the best out of the guys on the field, getting the most out of them, putting your team in good situations and keeping them out of bad situations and getting your team into the end zone."

Of course, mop-up time or injuries are the only ways Testaverde, the No. 3 quarterback, will play against the Jets. And when the season ends, he will think about retiring ... again. He would love to play next year, but he has a short list of teams he'd consider as employers. How short?

"Less than three," he said.

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index.cfm?section=7&screen=news&news_id=53951

New York Jets (10-6) at New England Patriots (12-4)

Sunday, noon, CBS (Ch. 5)

The pupil faces a big test from the teacher this week when Eric Mangini’s Jets travel to Foxboro to take on Bill Belichick and the Patriots. The two AFC East rivals split a pair of meetings in the regular season with each winning on the road.

Mangini deserves consideration for Coach of the Year for dragging a team that went 4-12 a year ago into the postseason and doing so with a roster not exactly stocked full of Pro Bowl talent.

The Jets aren’t particularly dazzling in any area on offense or defense, and despite dramatic improvement in wins, might be more a product of a soft schedule than anything else. That’s because their Nov. 12 win in Foxboro was the team’s lone victory over a win over a team that finished with a winning record all season.

The Patriots have been solid despite an ever-changing nucleus, thanks to defections and injuries. The one constant, however, is Tom Brady, who has engineered three Super Bowl runs already.

Prediction: It’s hard to imagine the Patriots losing twice at home to the upstart Jets in one season. Patriots 31, Jets 14

[Sperm Edwards]

http://patriots.bostonherald.com/patriots/view.bg?articleid=175475

No Harrison? WRs still don’t feel safe

By Karen Guregian/ Jets Notebook

Boston Herald General Sports Reporter and Columnist

Friday, January 5, 2007 - Updated: 06:16 AM EST

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. - Laveranues Coles [stats] and Jerricho Cotchery weren’t about to openly celebrate the news they don’t have to face Rodney Harrison [stats] in the Patriots [team stats] secondary Sunday. But the Jets wide receivers aren’t going to knock a break when they see one.

NFL playoffs

Wild Card weekend

The hard-hitting Pats safety was officially listed as out with a knee injury on Wednesday. Still, the Jets were careful to give the proper due to the replacements.

“I’m never comfortable going across the middle of the field, I don’t care who’s out there,” Coles said with a laugh when asked if he felt better venturing into the middle of the field without No. 37 on the opposing side. “That’s just the way the game goes. It is what it is . . . I think it’s pretty much the same. But (Harrison) has a lot of leadership skills. He gets guys pointed in the right direction, but each time we’ve played against them, the secondary has done an excellent job.”

Said Cotchery: “Obviously, you lose a player of his caliber, it’s going to hurt somewhere. But they do a good job of plugging guys in and out. It’s a credit to the guys stepping in, and doing their job, executing, and not making mistakes.

Nugent kicks in

Jets kicker Mike Nugent, who missed two field goals (34 and 30 yards) and a PAT in the season opener at Tennessee, was named AFC Special Teams Player of the Month on the strength of having made his last 18 field goals.

“A lot of times we go through different struggles, whether it is a bad call, a bad decision or a bad play. It is how you respond to those things. Mike responded the right way,” Jets coach Eric Mangini said. “He went back to work and he evaluated the things that he didn’t do as well as he could have. His approach was to fix those mistakes and move forward.”

Mangini claimed there was no correlation to the fact he brought in several kickers for tryouts following the Titans game. The former Ohio State kicker certainly responded.

Said Nugent: “I really didn’t change anything too much . . . it was just one of those days where I had to do a lot of learning from things I did wrong.” . . .

The quote of the day comes from former BC standout Pete Kendall. When asked if he thought the Jets had to convince themselves they could go to Foxboro and beat the Patriots in a playoff game, the left guard replied: “Yeah, in fact, we all had group hypnosis right after practice today. I don’t think there has to be any psyche job to trick us into thinking we can go up there and play with those guys. I don’t know what’s going to happen on Sunday. But there’s enough film in the can to show we should probably go ahead and take the leap and get on the bus (tomorrow).”

Chatham returns

Matt Chatham was back with the team yesterday. It was learned he had been excused from the team earlier in the week to attend the funeral of his father-in-law, William Nagel, a 57-year-old switchman/conductor who was killed in a Union Pacific rail yard accident last Thursday. The former Patriot, who has the most playoff experience of any Jet, played against the Raiders in the season finale, but then flew home to Sioux City, Iowa.

day

Mangini spoke yesterday about his later father Carmine, who died of a heart attack when Eric was 16.

“He was such a huge influence in my life as your parents often are. He was very determined at everything he did. He believed in finishing things,” Mangini said. “I had two brothers, so he was good at conflict resolution. Whenver we would get into beefs, we would be sent down to the cellar to clean it up and you couldn’t come up until it was done. Usually, you’d spend the first half fighting . . . then it’s just get this done and get out of here and you came up feeling really good about each other because you had worked together. There are so many things (about him). His kindness, his compassion for people who were less fortunate. I could go on and on. He was a very special man and I hope I can be the same type of father to my kids.”

[Sperm Edwards]

http://patriots.bostonherald.com/patriots/view.bg?articleid=175467

Hobbs has no excuses: Corner won’t take easy way out

By John Tomase/ Patriots Notebook

Boston Herald Sports Writer

Friday, January 5, 2007 - Updated: 06:11 AM EST

FOXBORO - Ellis Hobbs [stats] is not in the excuse business.

He was beaten for the winning touchdown the last time the Patriots [team stats] played the Jets on a fade to Jerricho Cotchery, and it would be easy for him to blame the broken left wrist that turned his hand into a club. But Hobbs didn’t go that route after the game and he’s not doing it now.

Instead he has taken the trials and tribulations of this season as they’ve come, including a brief benching in favor of Chad Scott [stats].

“You want to throw in the towel, but mental toughness is a big part of this game,” Hobbs said. “Lots of guys are naturally talented, but it’s about how tough you are when things aren’t going your way.”

Hobbs has come a long way from this time last year, when he was a rookie preparing for his first playoff game. Now he considers himself a veteran with some postseason experience.

“We’ve been here before and I can say that of myself now,” he said. “I know the atmosphere. I also know if you go in uptight, you won’t play as well. We can use that to our advantage, although the Jets have experience as well. Personally, I enjoy being on the other side of it because now I do know what to expect.”

The Patriots allowed only 10 touchdown passes all year, but three came against the Jets, including Cotchery’s 22-yarder. Hobbs believes he and his mates can make the minor corrections necessary to keep from getting beaten deep.

“Even though they did beat us over the top, if you look at the plays, there was nothing special going on,” Hobbs said. “They made the catches, they made the plays. If we play better technique and communicate better, those plays can be stopped.”

If Hobbs has learned one thing this season, it’s how to deal with adversity.

“Appreciate each day,” he said. “The bottom line is, this isn’t even a league of what have you done for me lately. It’s what are you doing for me now. If you’re not doing it now, you’re going to have to take a backseat.”

Inside man

While the Jets are stocked with players and coaches intimately familiar with the inner workings of the Patriots, the converse is barely true, with the exception of defensive back Ray Mickens [stats].

Mickens played with the Jets from 1996-2003 and spent training camp with them this year before being let go during final cuts.

“Going through camp with them for a number of years, I’ll know the personnel a lot faster than I would with another opponent,” Mickens said. “In studying film, I kind of know what their receivers like and don’t like to do. But that’s really about it.”

Mickens noted that presence of first-year offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer means the Jets are playing a new system. But that doesn’t change the fact that he knows their receivers extremely well.

“I’ve known Laveranues (Coles) for a long time,” he said. “I’ve known Jerricho since he came into the league. Just really, I know all the receivers. I’ve been there. It’s not any kind of secret.

“I’m just doing my job and my role. If it’s personnel analysis or something like that, obviously, I have some insight on the personnel. But it’s all on film. You just watch film every week and it’s just like you prepare for every opponent. You watch enough film and if there are some questions, they’ll come out and ask me.”

[Sperm Edwards]

http://patriots.bostonherald.com/patriots/view.bg?articleid=175490

Pats-Jets: Going head-to-head

By Michael Felger

Boston Herald Patriots Beat Columnist

Friday, January 5, 2007 - Updated: 06:42 AM EST

FOXBORO - We keep wanting to make it about the coaches, and the coaches keep wanting to make it about the players and the matchups.

Fine. We give in. In the following breakdown you will not hear anything about Bill Belichick’s hatred for the Jets, disdain for Eric Mangini or feelings on former team president Steve Gutman.

There will be no mention of tampering, grievances or federal anti-trust litigation.

There will be no draft pick compensation.

This is about the Patriots [team stats] and the Jets, longtime rivals going back to the first days of the AFL, who have engaged in more than one border war. This is just the latest skirmish.

A position-by-position breakdown:

QUARTERBACK

Tom Brady [stats] vs. Chad Pennington [stats]

This would seem to be a slam dunk for the Patriots, right? Well, yes and no. If given the choice, no one would take Pennington over Brady, the latter of whom has proven to be the best big-game quarterback in the NFL. Brady has also rounded into form with the rest of his offense of late and has started to take care of the ball (no interceptions or fumbles in his final three games). Clearly, Brady earns the checkmark. But don’t underestimate Pennington. He’s got a noodle arm but a winner’s mentality, as he takes a 31-22 (.585) career record as a starter into the game. He gets the ball out on time and makes good decisions (64.5 completion percentage, fourth in the league). He’s deceptively good. It’s just that Brady (10-1 career postseason record) is great.

Edge: Pats

RUNNING BACKS

RBs Laurence Maroney [stats], Corey Dillon [stats] and Kevin Faulk [stats]; FB Heath Evans [stats] vs. RBs Leon Washington [stats] and Cedric Houston; FB B.J. Askew.

The Jets make do with what they have, kind of like what the Pats used to do prior to the arrival of Corey Dillon in 2004. Washington plays an enhanced scat-back role, getting the ball on straight running plays as well as a bevy of screens and draws. He’s dangerous in the open field, averaging 10.8 yards per catch. Houston is a compliment. Kevan Barlow, thought to be the starter entering the year, is out of the mix. The Pats have far more talent, although Dillon and Maroney have not quite provided the dynamic “thunder and lightning” threat some fans were expecting. They’re still pretty good, as is Faulk in the two-minute offense and Evans as a lead blocker. The Jets average 3.5-yards per rush. The Pats average 3.9. That’s not a huge difference, but the Pats still have an advantage here.

Edge: Pats

RECEIVERS

WRs Reche Caldwell [stats], Troy Brown [stats], Jabar Gaffney [stats], Chad Jackson, Kelvin Kight and Bam Childress; TEs Ben Watson [stats], Dan Graham and David Thomas vs. WRs Jerricho Cotchery, Laveranues Coles [stats], Justin McCareins and Brad Smith; TEs Chris Baker, Sean Ryan and James Dearth.

This is a close one, as the Jets’ top receiving trio of Cotchery, Coles and McCareins is more dangerous than the Pats’ collection of wideouts. The Pats, on the other hand, earn the edge in the tight end department, especially with the emergence of Thomas over the last month. All things being equal, the Jets can probably expect more big plays out of their pass catchers than the Pats can from theirs. Watch out for McCareins (15.1-yards per catch).

Edge: Jets.

OFFENSIVE LINE

LT Matt Light [stats], LG Logan Mankins [stats], C Dan Koppen, RG Stephen Neal, RT Nick Kaczur vs. LT D’Brickashaw Ferguson, LG Pete Kendall, C Nick Mangold, RG Brandon Moore, RT Anthony Clement.

The Pats have more individual talent, but they didn’t always put it together on a weekly basis during the regular season. The final three weeks were much better. The strength of the Pats’ line is their ability to get out on pulls, traps and screens. They rely on athleticism over size. They’re also better in the running game than the passing game, and even though Brady was sacked only 26 times this season, Light had his share of problems. The best player up front for the Jets is rookie center Nick Mangold, as he’s out-performed fellow rookie Ferguson, who has given up 10 sacks. The key to the Jets line is cohesion, as Kendall is the only player to miss time (two games). Otherwise, all five starters played full seasons. Pennington was sacked 30 times.

Edge: Pats.

DEFENSIVE LINE

LDE Ty Warren [stats], NT Vince Wilfork [stats], RDE Richard Seymour [stats] vs. LDE Shaun Ellis, NT Dewayne Robertson, RDE Kimo von Oelhoffen.

The Jets improved against the run over the course of the year but still only finished 24th in the NFL in that category. The Jets change fronts and looks often, perhaps trying to make up for the fact they aren’t going to win many one-on-one battles up front. Robertson can be had inside, and no one should be surprised if the Pats try to run on him. Meanwhile, no one is running on the Pats (fifth in the league) and Warren has emerged as a difference-maker. The matchup to watch is Wilfork (if healthy) against Jets center Nick Mangold. Overall, this is a clear edge for the Pats.

Edge: Pats

LINEBACKERS

OLB Rosevelt Colvin, ILB Tedy Bruschi [stats], ILB Mike Vrabel, OLB Tully Banta-Cain [stats] vs. OLB Bryan Thomas, ILB Jonathan Vilma, ILB Victor Hobson, OLB Eric Barton.

The Jets’ three leading tacklers are Vilma (116), Barton (100) and Hobson (100). The Jets defense is well-schemed and these guys are the key. The Jets do a good job of disguising where the blitz is coming from (as the Pats found out back in November) and Hobson (6 sacks) and Barton (4.5 sacks) are the key. Thomas (8.5 sacks) has done the best job on the rush, although much of it has come as a down lineman. He plays the “tweener” role on the edge that every good 3-4 team seems to have. Vilma, while not a pass rusher, is probably the best of the group. The Pats linebackers aren’t chop liver, but with Banta-Cain in a starting role and Vrabel playing out of position inside, they aren’t as much of a factor as the Jets’ group. Colvin provides impact on the outside. Bruschi has slowed some in coverage.

Edge: Jets.

SECONDARY

LCB Asante Samuel, RCB Ellis Hobbs [stats], SS James Sanders, FS Artrell Hawkins vs. LCB Hank Poteat, RCB David Barrett, SS Eric Coleman, FS Kerry Rhodes.

Rhodes is probably the best among the above group, although Samuel tied for the league lead with 10 interceptions. Neither player would look out of place at the Pro Bowl. The Pats have to watch for Rhodes creeping up to the line and getting involved against the run and on the blitz. Rhodes killed them in that regard the first two games. Meanwhile, the Pats secondary certainly got the job done as a group in 2006, allowing the fewest touchdown passes in the league (10). The Jets allowed nearly twice as many (19). With regular starting corner Andre Dyson (knee) out, the Jets are ripe for the picking on the outside.

Edge: Pats.

SPECIAL TEAMS

K Stephen Gostkowski, P Todd Sauerbrun, PR Troy Brown, KR Laurence Maroney vs. K Mike Nugent, P Ben Graham, PR Leon Washington, KR Justin Miller.

A potential problem area for the Pats. Gostkowski is playing in his first postseason game and is coming off a bad performance in Tennessee. He’s also had three holders this year (Josh Miller, Ken Walter [stats] and Matt Cassel). Sauerbrun is also the Pats’ third punter and has been inconsistent. And the Pats’ coverage units are coming off their worst game of the year against the Titans’ Pacman Jones. Meanwhile, Nugent has made 18 consecutive field goal attempts entering the playoffs while Miller has been one of the best return men in the league.

Edge: Jets.

COACHING

Bill Belichick vs. Eric Mangini.

Well, well, well. This is going to be fun, isn’t it? Mangini had his team better prepared in the Nov. 12 meeting, and it showed in the way the Jets confused Tom Brady on offense and dinked and dunked the Pats to death on defense. The Pats made no substantive adjustments as the game wore on, which is what frustrated the Pats players. It’s hard to fathom that Belichick won’t have the answers this time. The Pats have more talent on the field, which means the only way the Jets can win this game is if they are smarter, tougher and better coached. That happened once, and that’s because Mangini obviously learned very well from Belichick. But the man in the hood is still the master.

Edge: Pats.

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/sports/20070105-124305-5164r.htm

NFL coaching tree

By David Elfin

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

January 5, 2007

The NFL stretches from Miami to Seattle, but the league's coaching ranks truly are a small world.

Washington Redskins Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs is the only head coach who isn't one or two degrees of separation from the Dallas Cowboys' Bill Parcells, the San Diego Chargers' Marty Schottenheimer or San Francisco 49ers' Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh.

Just look at the eight coaches whose teams will be on the field in this weekend's playoffs.

Eric Mangini of the New York Jets got his start in the NFL as a ballboy for Bill Belichick, a Parcells protege, when Belichick coached the Cleveland Browns. Mangini later worked for Belichick again on the New England Patriots.

The relationship is frosty now, at least on the part of Belichick. He tried to avoid a postgame handshake with Mangini after the Jets upset the Patriots Nov. 12.

Mangini, however, has remained respectful.

"I can't tell you how much I appreciate what Bill has done for me and my family, how kind he's been throughout our relationship and the opportunity that he's given me," said Mangini, who was a 24-year-old with only semipro coaching experience in Australia when Belichick made him an assistant in 1995. "I care about him deeply, and I respect him as a coach and as a person."

Kansas City Chiefs coach Herman Edwards got his first coaching job by succeeding Tony Dungy as the defensive backs coach for that franchise in 1992, when Schottenheimer was head coach. Dungy then hired Edwards as his assistant head coach when he took over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1996.

The second playoff duel between those coaches comes tomorrow in Indianapolis, where the Chiefs meet the Colts in a first-round matchup. The coaches also met in the 2002 playoffs, when Edwards was with the New York Jets.

"Tony has done a great job of taking teams to the playoffs," Edwards said. "Maybe I learned that mentality from Tony once I went to [the Jets]. We had a little bit of a run there. We want to start that here."

The NFC matchups pit the Philadelphia Eagles of coach Andy Reid against Tom Coughlin and the New York Giants and Mike Holmgren's Seattle Seahawks against Parcells and the Cowboys.

Too bad the matchups couldn't be the other way around: Parcells is a mentor to Coughlin, and Reid is a disciple of Holmgren -- and both of those men trace their coaching roots back to Walsh.

Record-breaker Ryans ? Houston Texans linebacker DeMeco Ryans made 156 tackles this season, the most by a rookie in the last 20 years. Ryans also led the league with 126 solo stops, and he tied the Packers' A.J. Hawk with a rookie linebacker-high 31/2 sacks.

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.newsday.com/sports/columnists/ny-spbest055040487jan05,0,4948678.column?coll=ny-sports-columnists

NFL PLAYOFFS: Place to call home for Jets fans

Neil Best

SPORTS WATCH

January 5, 2007

It wasn't quite as, umm, memorable as the Mets dousing Julie Donaldson of SNY with champagne after they clinched the NL East title, but it was strangely compelling in its own way.

An hour or so after the Jets had clinched a wild-card berth on New Year's Eve, there was SNY's Steve Overmyer, conducting interviews and sounding giddier than the players themselves.

Finally, safety Kerry Rhodes reached over, shook Overmyer's hand and gave him a hug.

On to Foxborough!

OK, so there have been times during SNY's Jets coverage that things have gotten a tad cozy, including former Jets turned analysts Ray Lucas, Greg Buttle and Joe Klecko getting emotionally involved.

We'll cut the network slack, though, for two reasons: In its first 10 months, it has had outrageous good fortune with its marquee teams - the Mets, who own the joint, and Jets, with whom it has a programming agreement - so there hasn't been much to complain about.

And secondly, the Jets shows provide a valuable service to fans.

Baseball fans are accustomed to thorough postgames on YES and SNY, but such shows serve an even greater purpose in the NFL, where there are only 16 episodes and the games themselves are called by national announcers.

So it's a no-brainer for the Jets, and it's surprising that YES or MSG/FSNY has not made a similar deal with the Giants. They do have a limited relationship with YES but their live postgame presence mostly is limited to WFAN and the team's Web site.

(Official disclaimer/plea for job security: Regardless of the TV schedule, your favorite daily newspaper and its Web site remain the best place for depth, analysis and objectivity.)

"It's been exciting for us being along for the ride," said SNY president Jon Litner, who acknowledged the network has had good luck with the Mets and Jets. "Winning makes us all look like geniuses."

Before the season, it appeared SNY's Jets coverage would be the bland leading the bland, with three live Eric Mangini news conferences a week and Thursday sit-downs with GM Mike Tannenbaum.

Four months later, both men officially are brilliant and Mangini has lightened up dramatically, flashing his sense of humor with the media. He even seems to like the reporters as humans. Sort of. A little.

Anyway, it beats most of the alternatives.

These are the dog days of local sports TV, with the Knicks limping along, hockey ratings microscopic and endless college basketball filling time. (At 9 p.m. Wednesday, SNY, YES, MSG, FSNY, ESPN and ESPN2 all were showing college hoops. Not even Dick Vitale cares that much.)

Last night SNY debuted a new show previewing the weekend action, and at 10 a.m. Sunday it will offer a pregame. After Jets-Patriots there will be the usual postgame, then another at 7:30 covering both teams after the Giants game.

It's all part of Litner's oft-stated goal of making the network the go-to site for local sports news, which includes thrice-daily news shows and breaking news coverage.

It also will help the Mets-centric network get through its first long (so far not so cold) winter.

"We knew our first year would be a work in progress," he said, "but we also think that we're ahead of schedule in terms of the shows we're developing."

That's fine. But the Jets' success is providing a vital bridge to the milestone that matters most in New York-area sports TV: pitchers and catchers.

Strange but true: Jets, Giants were first rate in '81

The NFL is the unrivaled ratings king, as network public relations people reminded us this week with a flurry of e-mails.

Just for fun, though, let's take the ratings time machine back a quarter century to Dec. 27, 1981, the last time the Giants and Jets had playoff games on the same day.

Cable TV was young and ratings for almost everything were higher than they are now.

That day the Jets-Bills game on NBC - a thriller the Bills held on to win - attracted 23 percent of homes and 54 percent of TVs in use. On CBS, Giants-Eagles got 27.1 and 53, respectively.

Perspective: Two years ago, the Jets' wild-card game against the Chargers did a 16.0/28. Last January's Panthers-Giants game drew a 15.1/34.

Just wondering: Will Fox fixate on Coughlin?

Yes and no. Artie Kempner, the director for Fox's No. 1 NFL team, said Tom Coughlin is an irresistible sideline character.

That will mean plenty of reaction shots of the Giants coach Sunday. But Kempner will be careful not to overdo it, as he believes he did during a Dec. 3 loss to the Cowboys.

"Even if he's ebullient and at times out of control, it's the players that are the story of the game," said Kempner, who grew up in Merrick and was a quarterback at Bellmore Kennedy in the mid-1970s.

Kempner has become an expert on Coughlin and his team; this will be the seventh Giants game he has directed this season.

"When Eli says, 'Omaha, Omaha,' I know he's going to snap it on the next sound," he said.

As for Coughlin, Kempner said, "It's interesting to me that a guy who preaches discipline the way he does reacts that way consistently on the sideline."

Not that he's complaining. It beats shots of the Eagles' Andy Reid.

"Andy stands around a lot," Kempner said. "Basically, you're just shooting a mustache."

Best's bets: Oh, my! Enberg does radio

Dick Enberg and Bob Trumpy, who last worked together on NBC's No. 1 team in 1995, will be together again tomorrow on the Chiefs-Colts game for Westwood One on WFAN.

The reunion will be part of Enberg's recent return to radio for the first time since he called Rams games in the mid-'70s. He called the Thursday games in the new NFL Network package for Westwood.

"I've always felt that radio is the art form of our profession," he said. "The canvas is clean and we get to paint it as we see it."

Enberg, who turns 72 Tuesday, said he regained his radio touch quickly. "I knew how to drive that car," he said.

Perhaps, but he has made some errors on radio and TV, leading inevitably to concern he is slipping. Such talk bothers him; he said no one is perfect on a live broadcast and suggested critics are being ageist.

"Somehow because I'm more experienced, or more mature," he said, "there's a tendency to say, 'Gosh, he's losing it, he's not as sharp.'"

Enberg's contract with CBS is up, so his future TV role is unclear.

When the network moved Greg Gumbel from the studio to the No. 2 team this season, Enberg was left out of next week's divisional round, at least on TV.

He will call the Chargers' first playoff game - on the radio.

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.newsday.com/sports/columnists/ny-spwally055040443jan05,0,5729389.column?coll=ny-sports-columnists

Emerging form deep, dark hole

Wallace Matthews

January 5, 2007

JETS PATS FACT

The Patriots have called six stadiums home in the franchise's 47-season history. They are 31-9 at Gillette Stadium, their current home, including a 3-2 record against the Jets.

It has been a year of visiting dark places for Chad Pennington. First, to the operating room, for the second time in eight months, to repair an injury from which no NFL quarterback had ever come back. Then, to a training-camp competition against a castoff, a backup and a kid, for a job that should have been rightfully his, before the eyes of a new coach with whom he had neither history nor equity.

Most recently, Pennington's dark room was the football field, in games against Jacksonville and Cleveland and less than a month ago, Buffalo, dreadful games after which even so strong-minded an individual as Pennington must have wondered if he could still play quarterback at a level necessary to survive in the NFL.

Pennington went into those dark rooms and yesterday, he emerged with the AP Comeback Player of the Year Award, but he really didn't need a trophy to remind him of how far he had come, from oblivion to the AFC playoffs, where he and the Jets will enter another dark room, Gillette Stadium, and another daunting task, facing the New England Patriots on Sunday.

But having beaten them once there already this season, and having seen Pennington's successful return to action, who is to say that anything is impossible for these Jets and their unbreakable quarterback?

It would be easy to downplay Chad Pennington's accomplishment this year, coming back from the second of two rotator cuff surgeries. After all, Pennington never had much of a fastball to begin with, and as Bob Dylan said, when you ain't got nothin', you got nothin' to lose.

But that would be missing the point of the Pennington story, which even before the injuries that nearly ended his career before it had really started was a remarkable tale of a guy believing in himself when he had been given every reason not to.

The fact that Pennington had even become a starting NFL quarterback was a remarkable story in itself, because a quarterback without a cannon is like a pitcher without a fastball or a heavyweight without a punch. He isn't particularly big or fast, either. He's not a performance artist like Peyton Manning, a cowboy like Brett Favre or a stud who commands respect simply because of the way he looks, like Ben Roethlisberger.

Rather, Pennington is a reminder that the human mind remains more powerful than any muscle. Like Tom Glavine and Ezzard Charles and a handful of others, Pennington is a triumph of mind over matter, a guy able to turn ordinary skills into extraordinary feats simply by using his head.

He may not be able to crank it 80 yards on the fly, but he generally makes the right reads and hits his receivers in stride, which allows them to turn dump-offs into 64-yard gains, as Leon Washington did to nail down the Miami game on Christmas night. For an offense without superstars or game-breakers, Pennington is the perfect quarterback, a leader who plays well within a system that emphasizes his strengths, avoids his weaknesses and tries to minimize mistakes.

Throughout his rehab, Pennington "multitasked," as coach Eric Mangini described it, by studying his playbook wherever he went - trainer's room, weight room, doctor's office.

"No matter what, he was going to be ready for training camp and ready to go," Mangini said. "There was no doubt at any point."

But, of course, there was plenty of doubt. Yesterday, Pennington spoke of the "low points" he encountered during his rehab, but there was one low he hasn't told anyone outside of the Jets' organization about.

That one came just after the loss to Buffalo at home, in which he was picked off twice, once for a touchdown, and lost a fumble that led to another score. At practice that week, Pennington was listless and lost. When his passes weren't being picked off, they were being batted down at the line. He needed a pep talk, not to be told what to do, but to be reminded of what he was capable of.

"You've been a quarterback your whole life," he was told. "Stop thinking so much about what you have to do and what can go wrong. Just go out there and be instinctive."

For a cerebral quarterback like Pennington, such advice must have seemed as alien as asking Roger Clemens to mix in a knuckleball. But Pennington listened and understood. The following Sunday, he had a career day against Minnesota that began the Jets' three-week charge to the playoffs.

"For a while, I was in the 'Twilight Zone,'" Pennington said yesterday. "Not having a goal, not having a challenge, not having a carrot out in front of you as an athlete is a bad place to be."

This week, both he and his team are out of that bad place. Once again, the Jets have a goal. And once again, Pennington has a future.

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.newsday.com/sports/columnists/ny-sphow055040455jan05,0,5460297.column?coll=ny-sports-columnists

NFL PLAYOFFS: Belichickkicks aside doubts

Johnette Howard

SPORTS COLUMNIST

January 5, 2007

JETS PATS FACT

Their only previous postseason meeting was on Dec. 28, 1985, in a wild-card playoff game. The host Jets self-destructed with four turnovers in a 26-14 loss.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass.

Sixteen games are gone and yet the regular season settled nothing. One decision by New England coach Bill Belichick still looks like the sort of judgement call that could get a guy's Genius label revoked. It doesn't matter that Belichick's 12-4 Patriots have done just fine without Adam Vinatieri, the folk-hero placekicker who Belichick allowed to walk away. It still looks like the sort of cold-blooded move that will be second-guessed from now to forever if Belichick turns out to be wrong.

The playoffs, which the Patriots start Sunday against the visiting Jets, have always been Vinatieri's time. Seeing the rival Indianapolis Colts sign Vinatieri to a $12-million, free-agent contract last March was disquieting enough. But when Belichick replaced arguably the greatest clutch kicker of all time with a rookie, a kid named Stephen Gostkowski, who wasn't even sold on becoming a kicker until his junior year at Memphis State, nervous glances were exchanged even more.

What has Memphis State ever played for in football? And what can the Patriots expect from Gostkowski now after a so-so season (20 of 26 field goals) in which Belichick often seemed to be coddling the kid, refusing to even allow him to attempt a field goal over 40 yards at home until after the midpoint of the season?

By then, Gostkowski had already missed two attempts and he had two other kicks blocked. In Week 9, with Vinatieri back in Foxborough for the first time with the Colts, Belichick elected to go for the first down on fourth-and-3 at the Colts' 19 rather than trot Gostkowski out. Though the Pats made it, bypassing Gostkowski only increased the speculation about Belichick's wobbly faith in the kid.

"I have confidence in him," Belichick insisted yesterday, scowling when the topic came up.

More follow-up questions came - one, then two, then three, then four - and suddenly what had been a perfectly civil Belichick news conference seemed about to go careening off the cliff. At first Belichick just stiffened and his answers were curt. But when pressed for more details, he grew cranky. He was asked directly if he would put Gostkowski into certain situations that he would have automatically used Vinatieri in, and Belichick slowly answered, "I would say no."

Then realizing that sounded tepid, he quickly added: "Definitely not."

By questions four and five, Belichick was downright exasperated. He fell into an irritated, rambling give-and-take with a reporter about strategy, then abruptly ended his 25-minute news conference with one last answer before clomping off the dais and exiting out a side door.

"I don't care who the kicker is - it could be Lou Groza, it could be Bert Rechichar, I don't care who it is," Belichick said just before he left, "you're trying to get the ball as close to the goal line as you can and raise the percentages for whoever you have to kick it ... I don't know, maybe I'm missing something."

Normally, right about here would be an excellent time to let you know what young Gostkowski thinks about all this. Except Belichick issued an edict this week prohibiting any of his rookies from talking to the media.

But Gostkowski is acutely aware of Vinatieri's legacy. Of all the unsentimental moves that Belichick has made in recent years - letting stars such as Ty Law and Lawyer Milloy, Willie McGinest and David Givens and Deion Branch go, giving Eric Mangini the cold shoulder - nothing has underscored the coach's spooky detachment about his Super Bowl era cohorts quite like letting Vinatieri go.

Vinatieri will always be revered around New England for his 48-yarder as time expired to beat the heavily favored Rams, 20-17, in Super Bowl XXXVI, and a 41-yarder he struck with four seconds left to defeat Carolina, 32-29, in Super Bowl XXXVIII.

But Vinatieri himself has often said the field goal he considers his best was the 45-yarder he made in a driving snowstorm with 27 seconds left in the Patriots' 2001 AFC divisional playoff game with the Raiders to send the game into overtime. Vinatieri later made another kick to win the game, and the Pats went winging off toward their first Super Bowl title. The dynasty was born.

Had Vinatieri not been around, who knows? Maybe Patriots quarterback Tom Brady never earns the comparisons to Joe Montana, and maybe Belichick finds himself presiding over the second coming of the Buffalo Bills' star-crossed Super Bowl teams, not wearing three rings.

As it is now, all it will take is one postseason miscue by Gostkowski (who is now working with his third holder of the season) to start the wailing about Vinatieri's absence all over again. Sunday's playoff opener against the Jets will mark the first time in 11 seasons the Patriots haven't had Vinatieri, the best closer in NFL history, on their sideline.

As much as Gostkowski has riding on this postseason, Belichick has even more.

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/articles/2007/01/05/renewing_hostilities/?rss_id=Boston.com%20--%20New%20England%20Patriots%20news

Renewing hostilities

Jets' surprise attack in Foxborough stunned the Patriots last time -- it likely won't happen again

By Ron Borges, Globe Staff | January 5, 2007

The postgame handshake will be the least of Eric Mangini's concerns when he brings his Jets to Foxborough to battle his mentor and tormentor, Bill Belichick.

The last time these two faced each other, the hardest thing for Mangini to do, it seemed, was to outsmart Belichick when it was time for a congratulatory greeting. His game plan had the Patriots' offense baffled by a wide assortment of blitzes and took advantage of weaknesses in New England's run defense caused by the absence of Ty Warren and the injury woes and position shift of Richard Seymour.

Mangini has none of those advantages this time, nor has he had two weeks to prepare his team, as he did in November when he escaped with a 17-14 victory that seemed to stun Belichick. Many of the Patriots believe slippery field conditions contributed to the problems Tom Brady and the run defense suffered, but the real problem was who was on that field. It will be far more difficult to run on New England this time.

New England will try to take away the middle of the field and the midrange throws from Chad Pennington and force him to throw outs and ups, which with a twice surgically-repaired arm he struggles with. The defense must avoid Pennington getting his no-huddle offense into a comfortable rhythm in which he's hurting the Patriots with short, accurate throws in which the ball gets out quickly and with runs from explosive rookie Leon Washington, who will try to attack the edges of the run defense.

The Jets' defense is better than its individual parts, having allowed only 12.8 points per game in the second half of the season because it's become more disciplined and has a better grasp of what's expected. But Mangini's defense is really Belichick's defense and the Patriots have a better grasp on it than anyone, which is why they figure to have just as solid a grasp on the Jets this time.

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01052007/sports/jets/penn_is_stellar_jets_mark_cannizzaro.htm

PENN IS STELLAR

CHAD NAMED NFL COMEBACK PLAYER OF YEAR

By MARK CANNIZZARO

January 5, 2007 -- All the tears shed in quiet moments either by himself or with his wife, Robin, all the grueling rehab and tireless studying and all the mind-numbing self-doubt and obstacles that have relentlessly placed themselves squarely before Chad Pennington have led him to Sunday at 1 p.m. against the Patriots in an AFC wild-card showdown at Gillette Stadium, where he'll play the biggest game of his life.

There isn't a place the Jets quarterback would rather be.

There isn't a place he deserves to be more.

And speaking of deserving, Pennington yesterday was named the Associated Press NFL Comeback Player of the Year for his remarkable, determined return from a second rotator cuff surgery in two years, a massive pay cut and a stressful four-way quarterback competition in training camp.

"If anyone has ever deserved that award I feel in my heart that Chad does," backup QB Patrick Ramsey, one of Pennington's training camp competitors, said.

"I would have been very mad if he didn't get it," Jerricho Cotchery said. "Somebody would have had to answer some questions from me if he hadn't gotten it."

The unenviable journey Pennington traveled en route to this fitting award and to the playoffs is not one most people in his position would have and could have endured.

"The lowest point was the two weeks after the initial injury, the second time around [september 2005]," Pennington said yesterday. "Not having a goal, not having a challenge, not having a carrot out in front of you as an athlete is a bad place to be. It's sort of like the Twilight Zone.

"You have no drive, you have nothing to go for. That was the lowest point, not knowing what direction I would go in, whether it was good or bad or whether it was with football or without football. I had no idea."

Nor did his new head coach, Eric Mangini, or his teammates.

Mangini and the Jets brass, in fact, were so uncertain about whether Pennington could make it all the way back that they came very close to releasing him in the offseason before he finally agreed to take a $6 million pay cut. The Jets then signed Ramsey, a former starter in Washington, as insurance. They also selected Kellen Clemens in the second round of April's NFL Draft.

Then came the most insulting part of all for Pennington, though he never uttered a whisper of complaint publicly: the four-man quarterback competition for the starting job in training camp.

There was Pennington, winner of 23 of his 39 career starts, including two playoff victories, grinding it out for the starting job with a journeyman [Ramsey], a rookie [Clemens] and a career backup [brooks Bollinger].

All four players stood on equal footing. All took equal snaps. There was no favoritism.

Another player who'd accomplished things Pennington had in the NFL might not have had the mental toughness or patience to persevere. Some might have let ego get in the way and allowed themselves to be insulted, demeaned and, ultimately, broken.

Not Pennington.

Even though the slate he'd worked so hard to build up since taking over as the starter in 2002 was wiped so clean it was if he were reduced to some undrafted free agent rookie, Pennington took it like a man.

"When you're put in difficult situations, you have to fight human nature sometimes, and human nature sometimes wants to feel sorry for itself and come up with excuses and look for ways to get out of a situation," Pennington said. "I just chose not to listen to my own human nature, and I chose to look at it as an opportunity, understand the business side of this league and this team and use it as an inspiration and as a challenge for myself and maybe as an inspiration for other people.

"What I had done in the past didn't matter anymore. In this business, the past is exactly that: It's history. It's about how you perform, how you produce, how you handle your business in the now."

Having started all 16 games for the first time in his career this season and setting personal records for most attempts (485), completions (313) and yards (3,352), the now for Pennington is Sunday's playoff game against the Patriots.

"Understanding the journey that I've been through," Pennington said, "it makes it special knowing that having the right attitude and believing in working hard and treating people right and going about your business the right way actually matters."

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01052007/sports/jets/unbecoming_in_blue_jets_jay_greenberg.htm

UNBECOMING IN BLUE

VINNY WOULD LOVE TO WEAR GREEN AGAIN

By JAY GREENBERG

January 5, 2007 -- FOXBOROUGH - Vinny Testaverde has been throwing NFL touchdown passes for 20 years. That's not as long as it will take for Bill Belichick to finally look Eric Mangini in the eye during a post-game handshake, but is plenty long regardless.

It may look as if they are going to have to tear the uniform off 'ol Vinny. Not just any uniform, though.

"Could be," replied the emergency Patriots quarterback and emergency interview after about four New England players made themselves available yesterday, confirming he would love to come back next season. Did he mean just to the Pats? Or to how many of 32 NFL cities that have clipboards?

"Maybe less than three," he smiled.

You can't take the Long Island out of Vinny. But should the Jets take out both Tom Brady and backup Matt Cassel Sunday, would Belichick have to send in a torn quarterback? Despite Testaverde's 43 years, ligaments are not what we are referring to here, actually his allegiance.

"I would hope one day as I retire, it will be as a Jet," he said. "But Bill and the Patriots have given me an opportunity and my loyalty is with them this week and the rest of the season, and I don't want to be a distraction to anybody.

"I'm loving it here because of the guys I work with. I grew up a Jets fan. I don't know that would ever change, but I certainly would love the experience of winning a championship. And we have a game to prepare for."

By "we" he meant the Patriots, we think. The Jets, who brought back Testaverde to start three games in 2005 after both Chad Pennington and Jay Fiedler went down, have moved Kellen Clemens up to No. 2 and probably will cut Patrick Ramsey after the season. So, one never knows. If Vinny were in the habit of taking his phone off the hook, he wouldn't have answered the Patriots' call on Nov. 14 for this unexpected shot at the ring that slipped through his fingers Jan. 17, 1999 in Denver.

His heart is still seeping green blood from the wound of that loss, after being everybody's NFL player of the year for the 12-4 Jets.

"From the players' point of view it's about going out and executing," he said. "The rivalry is pretty much for the media and fans."

That said, he has had a terrific view of it. Testaverde was quarterbacking the Jets Sept. 23, 2001, the day Mo Lewis knocked out Drew Bledsoe.

"I remember Tom (Brady) coming in and not really knowing who he was and saying, 'This kid can throw it,' " he said.

And what did he think when he saw Chad Pennington at his first Jets minicamp in 2000? This kid can think it?

"Where Chad is now, how far he's come, [arm strength] might be a little overrated," Testaverde said. "He reminds me of Tom in his preparation, how he inputs into the game plan.

"There's talk I helped Tony Romo achieve his success, too, but I'm just happy guys who are friends of mine are having success, especially with Chad because of what he's had to go through with his shoulder. He's a fighter."

So was Vinny, in his day. Now, at best, he is quarterback for a day, but he had one more Sunday in Tennessee. Belichick gave Testaverde a chance to throw a touchdown pass in a remarkable 20th straight season and he did, for six yards to Troy Brown.

"Guys jumping on me, being happy for me, it almost felt like I won a Super Bowl, that's the way they made me feel," he said. "It was appreciated."

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01052007/sports/jets/briens_song_fades_jets_mike_vaccaro.htm

BRIEN'S SONG FADES

By MIKE VACCARO

January 5, 2007 -- MIKE Nugent was watching the game, same as you were, and he remembers it well, same as you do. The details aren't burned into his brain the way they're burned into yours, because he was still a college kid then, hanging around his apartment near the Ohio State campus. Seeing Doug Brien miss those field goals in the haunting chill of Pittsburgh sparked a different set of emotions for him than they did for you.

For you, it was a personal trauma, the kind of distressing ordeal you've absorbed through the years if you happen to root for the New York Jets. For you, watching Brien boink one and shank another all in the space of 118 seconds at Heinz Field on Jan. 15, 2005, was the kind of memory that still invades your nightmares, same as Mark Gastineau's late hit, same as A.J. Duhe.

For Nugent, it was an empathetic kind of sympathy pain, a pang that everyone who has ever kicked field goals for pleasure or for pay was feeling that day, or whenever a fellow member of the brotherhood comes up short, wide, or wanting.

"I know I felt bad for him, because when you're a kicker you know exactly what he's feeling," Nugent said yesterday, three days before the Jets would take on New England for the franchise's first playoff game since that awful near-miss in Pittsburgh less than two years ago. "Especially at this time of the year, teams are so evenly matched that you know every kick is going to be magnified."

Nugent had no way of knowing just how significant those twin kicks would be for him, of course, had no way of knowing that they would ultimately send him soaring upward in the draft a few months later, landing in Hempstead with the 15th pick of the second round, searing testimony to how deep Brien's misses scarred the organization and how committed Jets brass was to never allowing a season to end quite so ignominiously.

That's a lot more pressure than the average kicker faces for his NFL indoctrination, since so many members of the fraternity tend to bounce around from audition to audition, tryout to tryout, like Broadway hoofers. Early this season, it seemed to overwhelm Nugent, who missed two field goals and an extra point in the opener at Nashville, single-handedly nearly sabotaging what became a 23-16 Jets win that set a distinct tone for what would follow.

"I talked to Mike afterward and what happened that week wasn't as important as how he responded to what happened," Jets coach Eric Mangini said. "And Mike responded by going right back to work, working harder. I was very impressed by that."

Not so impressed that the coach didn't invite a few straggler free-agent kickers to camp the next week, if for no other reason than to remind Nugent he wasn't on scholarship for life. Nugent got the message. He knew the Jets weren't likely to cast aside such a high draft pick after one lousy game. But he also knows life as an NFL kicker isn't an endless supply of second chances.

"I really didn't change very much," Nugent said. "In fact, one of the key things I did was I was true to my routine. I remember I had a terrible warm-up in Tennessee that day, and I let it affect what I did during the game, and that was a terrible mistake. I had to learn from that."

They have been lessons well learned. Nugent will carry a streak of 18 straight field goals with him into Gillette Stadium, and yesterday he learned that he'll take the field as the AFC's reigning special teams Player of the Month.

In the space of a season he has gone from adventure to automatic, and that's a quality especially relevant when having to play a playoff game in New England, a place that has seen what a reliable kicker can do for a football team through the years. Adam Vinatieri, exiled to Indianapolis, won't be there.

Mike Nugent, hottest kicker in the NFL, will be. And that means in a category that can either break your heart or fill it with glee, especially in January, it's advantage, Jets.

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01052007/sports/jets/belichick_aimin_to_cool_off_coles_jets_mark_cannizzaro.htm

BELICHICK AIMIN' TO COOL OFF COLES

By MARK CANNIZZARO

January 5, 2007 -- Laveranues Coles, the Jets' leading receiver, said he's a marked man almost every week and expects Patriots coach Bill Belichick to try to neutralize him Sunday, because Belichick rolled coverages toward him in the teams' last meeting.

"I guess he feels like I'm someone who can hurt them, and I guess he feels like he'll take that away," Coles said of Belichick. "But last time [the Jets' 17-14 win over the Patriots on Nov. 12], it wasn't me who hurt them, it was Jerricho [Cotchery] who hurt them. If he wants to take me away, then he still has to deal with Jerricho, Justin McCareins, Brad Smith."

Coles, who led the Jets with 91 receptions this season, had a quiet five catches for 29 yards in the last meeting with New England. Cotchery, however, had six catches for 70 yards and a TD.

*

One of Eric Mangini's favorite sights during the offseason came when he would step into the training room and see Chad Pennington undergoing rehab for his right shoulder and, while getting treatment, ardently studying his playbook to learn the new offense.

"It didn't matter when I was passing through, if Chad was getting rehabbed, he was multi-tasking with his playbook," Mangini said yesterday upon hearing Pennington was named the AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year. "It was like a mobile study center, where he was getting worked on and working at the same time."

*

Mangini delivered a humorous moment when he was asked to analyze his ballyhooed handshake with Belichick.

"We do a lot of self-scouting after the game - what we did well, what we did poorly - and I thought my handshake was strong ... firm," he said, tongue in cheek. "My dad always told me it's important to have a good handshake and I try to be consistent with that. I've experimented with a couple other different kinds that haven't worked for me."

Mangini also reasoned that perhaps the reason Belichick has been so reticent to continue his relationship with him since his move to the Jets was because they're in the same division.

"It's harder to call people in the same division, because you don't necessarily want to help someone that's trying to beat you," he said. "There are guys who are not in the same division that have been very supportive that I've talked to quite a bit.

"Bill Parcells has been outstanding in terms of offering advice or if I have a question, being able to call him. Guys like Charlie [Weis] or Kirk [Ferentz], Romeo [Crennel], also. Lovie Smith [the Bears head coach] called me the other day just to wish me luck and I thought that was extremely nice."

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.realfootball365.com/nfl/articles/2007/01/nfl-all-rookie050107.html

Bevy of first- and second-rounders on RF365's All-Rookie squad

C - Nick Mangold, New York Jets . The 29th overall pick in the draft was flawless in his first season. Mangold, who was a standout at Ohio State, started all 16 regular-season games for the playoff-bound Jets, took three penalties and gave up ½ sack. The 300-pounder should hear his name called for plenty of All-Pro lists in the future.

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxMjEmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTcwNTEwNTQmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2

Nugent special for Jets

Friday, January 5, 2007

By RANDY LANGE

STAFF WRITER

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- Mike Nugent remembers where he was the night of Jan. 15, 2005. He was in his apartment off the Ohio State campus with friends, watching the Jets-Steelers playoff game.

Nugent knew little about Doug Brien. But at about 7:30 p.m., he knew Brien's pain.

"Oh, yeah, absolutely," Nugent said. "Doug was in a difficult situation. It was a tough night, a cold night, the field was real beat up. You think of yourself in that situation and when you see the outcome, you can definitely picture what he feels like, because if not in that exact situation, you've been in something close to it."

Brien's field goal misses from 47 and 43 yards in the final two minutes of regulation enabled the Steelers to beat the Jets in overtime at Heinz Field and advance to the AFC title game.

Little did Nugent know then that three months later the Jets would draft him and discard Brien with the idea that they wouldn't be in such a kicking pickle again.

And after some twists and turns in his first two seasons as a professional kicker, on the eve of his first playoff game at New England on Sunday, the mellow young Ohioan gives off the vibe that everything's OK.

Nugent is on a roll, which was validated by his being named AFC Special Teams Player of the Month. He nailed all 12 of his December field goals, including his first game-winner from 30 yards out with 10 seconds to play at Miami.

Forgotten, almost, is the opener at Tennessee, when he had one of those "situations," missing two field goals and an extra point in the Jets' 23-16 victory. Two days later, coach Eric Mangini brought in three kickers for tryouts.

"In the end, that's part of the business," Nugent said. "I take it as I'm going to keep doing the same thing, do what I can do and just kind of start over."

"Mike went back to work and evaluated the things he didn't do as well as he could have," Mangini said. "His approach was to fix those mistakes and move forward. That's what we're always looking for. When adversity strikes, how do you handle that adversity? How do you respond? Mike responded the right way."

How is 23-for-24, with the only miss from 52 yards away, for a response? In the last 15 games, Nugent has converted easily from 54 yards out in the Meadowlands and from 52 in the Metrodome.

And he ends the regular season with a streak of 18 straight field goals. Officially, he'll resume his pursuit of Pat Leahy's 20-year-old franchise record of 22 in a row next season. Unofficially, he can continue to stalk Leahy and further purge Brien from Jets fans' memory banks with a big postseason debut at Gillette Stadium.

"Getting to the playoffs is just a culmination for the entire team," Nugent said. "You think back to the long days of camp, when you said, 'Gosh, I hope all this hard work is going to pay off.' "

It has for Nugent, but the pressure ratchets up in the NFL's second season. He'll practice today, maybe chill with his girlfriend and listen to Dave Matthews Band tunes on his iPod as he and the Jets travel to Foxboro, Mass.

He won't be the life of any parties. That's not his style.

"Mike's a lot of fun to hang out with, but he's a little bit quiet," said center Nick Mangold, who hails from the same Ohio hometown. "Being from Centerville, that's how we all are."

If he drives all his placements down Centerville at Gillette -- now carpeted by FieldTurf, not the grass and mud he kicked off of in November -- Nugent and the Jets will be very much alive and kicking.

E-mail: lange@northjersey.com

* * *

18 and counting

Highlights of Mike Nugent's streak of 18 consecutive field goals, second longest in franchise history behind Pat Leahy's 22 in a row in 1985-86:

Oct. 29 at Cleveland: Starts the streak by hitting a 47-yarder through the winds off Lake Erie.

Nov. 26 vs. Houston: Drills a 54-yarder, the first 50-plus kick of his Jets career, in going 4-for-4.

Dec. 17 at Minnesota: Converts his first dome FGs as a Jet, hitting four in all with the longest from 52.

Dec. 25 at Miami: From 30 yards out with 10 seconds left, nails his first winning kick as a pro.

Dec. 31 vs. Oakland: Hits Nos. 16, 17 and 18; also extends streaks at home (15), on turf (19) and under-50 (21).

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxMjEmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTcwNTEwNzcmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2

Chad's newest title: The Comeback Kid

Friday, January 5, 2007

By RANDY LANGE

STAFF WRITER

With how Chad Pennington has performed, it's easy to forget that to reach the playoffs, the Jets' quarterback had to rehab all off-season from his second right-shoulder surgery, then win the four-way QB competition in training camp.

The Associated Press remembered Thursday by naming Pennington its NFL Comeback Player of the Year.

Pennington said the worst part of the process came two weeks after his October 2005 surgery.

"Not having a goal, not having a challenge, not having a carrot out in front of you as an athlete is a bad place to be," he said. "It's sort of like 'The Twilight Zone.'

"That was the lowest point: not knowing what direction I would go in, whether it was good or bad or whether it was with football or without football. I had no idea."

Pennington thanked his doctors and trainers for laying out a plan, giving him a new challenge and helping him return to normal. All that was left after the rehab was to win back the job that used to be his.

"Human nature sometimes wants to feel sorry for itself and come up with excuses and look for ways to get out of a situation," he said. "I just chose not to listen to my own human nature. I chose to look at it as an opportunity."

HOLD THAT LINE: The Jets' run defense, inconsistent all season, has done well lately in stopping opponents from carrying the ball across the goal line.

The Jets have allowed just one rushing touchdown, Willis McGahee's 57-yard effort for Buffalo, in the last eight games. The last time they had a one-TD-in-eight-games streak was in 1993.

BRIEFS: LB Matt Chatham returned to practice. ... C Nick Mangold (thigh) and G Brandon Moore (ankle) still were listed as questionable and not participating in some team drills, but both were more active in early drills than they were Wednesday.

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.newsday.com/sports/football/jets/ny-spexpect055040425jan05,0,6639931.column?coll=ny-jets-print

Roads to playoffs had weird curves

Unexpectedly, Mangini arrived in style, but Coughlin found his path was filled with potholes

Bob Glauber

FOOTBALL

January 5, 2007

It wasn't supposed to turn out this way. Not even close.

Think back to August, and look at all the obstacles the Jets had to face, and say you were still convinced the Jets would be 10-6 and in the playoffs. Please. Chad Pennington coming off a second shoulder surgery. Eric Mangini in his first run as a head coach. Two rookie starters on the offensive line. A switch to the 3-4 defense.

Jets-Patriots in Foxborough the first week in January? No way.

Now think back to the Giants' daily doses of Super Bowl proclamations coming out of Albany, and say you knew they'd have to wait until the final regular-season weekend to sneak into the playoffs. At 8-8 no less. Coming off a playoff run from the year before. Tiki Barber still in his prime. Michael Strahan, too. LaVar Arrington in the house. A healthy Antonio Pierce. A veteran offensive line.

Giants-Eagles in Philly on wild-card Sunday? Well, maybe, but certainly not under the circumstances now faced by both teams.

Weird year. Then again, aren't they all weird in the NFL, where parity, free agency and the salary cap make preseason predictions are about as reliable as the Farmer's Almanac.

"I firmly believed we'd be better than everybody said we would," Jets guard Pete Kendall said. "What that translated to, I had no idea, but I refused to say that just because we were 4-12 last year that 5-11 would be a step forward. I don't think anybody took that approach. I never tried to put a limit on what we could do."

Good thing. Otherwise, the Jets might have been a victim of their own - and everyone else's - modest expectations. Outside their locker room, you'd have been hard pressed to find anyone who looked at the Jets as anything other than a rebuilding team. Pennington was a huge question mark after two years' worth of shoulder problems. Who knew what Mangini would be like? No Curtis Martin meant no running game . . . or so it seemed. And how was a defense that was suspect to begin with going to adapt to an entirely new system?

Credit the 35-year-old Mangini with the turnaround. From the first days of training camp, you could at least tell he was ready to work the players harder than we've seen around here in years - even harder than the Parcells years. Make a mistake in practice, and it meant a lap around the practice field. Grumbling from veterans like Laveranues Coles was actually a good sign; you don't want it the other way around.

But for anyone to think that Mangini would have gotten them this far - to a meeting on Sunday against his mentor, Bill Belichick - was asking way too much. Yet his patient, one-week-at-a-time mantra set the right tone for his players, and something as simple as his frequent use of boxing metaphors struck a nerve with his players. It's all they ask: Tell them what to do so they have a chance to win. If players believe in what a coach is telling them, then they will buy into the system. If that system is good - and Mangini's is - then they will win.

And pour Gatorade over your head when they do.

Tom Coughlin was supposed to be the New York coach who knew how to handle his players and play the tough-guy role to a "T." But his season instead turned into a nightmare, with a near-lethal combination of injuries and insurrection. Tiki Barber questioned the direction of the offense at midseason, just as he did in the wake of the playoff loss to Carolina last year. Jeremy Shockey ripped the coaches after a Week 3 loss in Seattle. Plaxico Burress called the Bears' secondary overrated and suggested the Eagles couldn't stop him in the days leading up to a Giants Stadium rematch - the Eagles did just that and beat the Giants. And Strahan, Arrington, Luke Petitgout and Amani Toomer are done because of injuries.

The locker room has been as dysfunctional as it's ever been, and Coughlin's job status is tenuous. He did the right thing by dumping offensive coordinator John Hufnagel, although the move should have been made weeks earlier. It was enough to save the Giants' season with a win over the Redskins and a rare playoff berth at .500. But it still might take a win over the Eagles to assure his return next season. And who knows? His fate might rest in the hands of his third-year quarterback, whose uneven performances leave the Giants in a precarious situation.

"Obviously, we've learned from last year and that situation [against Carolina]," Eli Manning said. "But I've also learned from every game I've played this year and how you have to play to try to win games."

The Giants need Manning to be at his best Sunday against a vastly improved Eagles defense. Another bad game from the quarterback, and the second-guessing only gets louder. And the coach might not make it.

Remember when?

TOM ROCK, JETS BEAT REPORTER

He was half right

Things might get very ugly before they show improvement. Five wins is realistic - and would be an improvement over 4-12 in 2005 - but three of those victories will come in a soft December, meaning the Jets could be 2-9 heading into the final meaningless month.

ARTHUR STAPLE, GIANTS BEAT REPORTER

Depth can be overrated

The pieces are in place and the Giants have enough depth to withstand a key injury or two. The first half will be a grind, but this will be a reverse of 2005: slow start, big finish. Prediction: 11-5 and a trip to the NFC Championship Game.

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.newsday.com/sports/football/jets/ny-spfun055040466jan05,0,6152467.story?coll=ny-jets-print

NFL PLAYOFFS: YOUR HALFTIME ENTERTAINMENT

January 5, 2007

JETS GIANTS FACTS

The Jets and Giants have played playoff games on the same day only once previously. On Dec. 27, 1981, the Jets lost to the Bills, 31-27, at Shea Stadium in an AFC wild-card game. Later that day, the Giants beat the Eagles, 27-21, at Veterans Stadium in an NFC wild-card game.

Jets banking on penguin power

The official NFL Christmas Tree ornament this season was a penguin available dressed in the uniform of all 32 teams. Several fans took it upon themselves to send the ornaments to Eric Mangini this year. Mangini has been nicknamed The Penguin by the players. At one point earlier this season, Mangini said linebacker Jonathan Vilma is "the hardest worker on the team, just like everyone else."

Following in his footsteps, sort of

Jets rookie center Nick Mangold isn't the only football player in his family. His 17-year-old sister, Holley, played for Archbishop Alter High School in Ohio this season, the same school Nick attended before heading to Ohio State and being drafted by the Jets. The 5-10, 310-pounder (whose brother, the professional football player, is listed at 300 pounds) was a second-string offensive guard for a team that went to the Ohio Division III championship game last month. But football isn't Holley Mangold's best sport. Last year she set a national weightlifting record with a squat lift of 525 pounds. She is hoping to follow in Nick's footsteps to Ohio State, but as a track and field athlete in the discus or shot put rather than on the football field.

Mr. Robertson's wild rides

Dewayne Robertson of the Jets hails from the Orange Mound section of Memphis, and his ride makes it hard to forget it.

Robertson's collection of automobiles includes new and vintage specimens, a bright red Hummer, a 2003 Cadillac Escalade and a 1984 Oldsmobile Cutlass.

But the one that makes the biggest impression is the tricked-out Ford pickup that looks like it belongs on a muddy monster truck track rather than taking up three parking spots in the Jets players' lot.

The truck used to be black, but Robertson had it painted orange before the season. Now he doesn't only come from Orange Mound, he drives one, too.

Fashion over team passion

Jets tight end Chris Baker grew up in Queens and is a lifelong Mets fan. But what about those Yankee hats he's always wearing? Well, Baker said he wears them because they match his outfits and he cannot find Mets hats in red, green, yellow and bejeweled black as readily as he can find Yankee caps. Baker is so color-coordinated he once wore a Ronnie Lott throwback Jets jersey ... just because it matched his green sneakers.

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.newsday.com/sports/football/jets/ny-spmangini055040462jan05,0,1129162.story?coll=ny-jets-print

Mangini's approach is outside the box

BY BOB GLAUBER

Newsday Staff Writer

January 5, 2007

It was a few minutes after the Jets had beaten the Dolphins on Christmas night with a dramatic last-second field goal, 13-10, and running back Leon Washington was finally alone with a chance to think about his pivotal role in the game.

Washington had just delivered the decisive blow - a 64-yard gain on a screen pass that set up Mike Nugent's winning field goal in the final seconds - and he thought back to the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier fight that coach Eric Mangini had showed the team the night before. And about Frazier's taped message to the Jets to hang in there for as long as it took. Just like he did in beating Ali in a bruising 15-round fight on March 8, 1971 at Madison Square Garden.

Frazier's victory was punctuated with a stunning knockdown of Ali late in the final round, when he unloaded with a left hook just as Ali was about to throw a right uppercut.

"That game was a lot like that fight when I started to think about it," Washington said. "A long fight, a 15-round fight, we're playing the 15th game of the season, they threw punches, we threw punches, and we were able to throw the last punch to knock them down. In that instance, it really did come true."

Yet another example of Mangini's uncanny ability to meld the lessons of boxing onto the football field. The Jets' rookie coach has shown his players several memorable boxing matches the night before games, hoping his players see the symbolism of a particular fight and match it with the following day's opponent. By showing Ali-Frazier I, he wanted his players to understand that it would be a fight to the end, and that every punch mattered, especially at the end.

The night before the opening game against the Titans, he showed them a 2005 bout between Diego Corrales and Luis Castillo for the WBC lightweight championship. Corrales was knocked down twice in the 10th round but came back to knock out Castillo. The lesson: Hang in, even if things go badly early on. The Jets beat the Titans, 23-16.

And before a Week 9 meeting against the Patriots - the Jets' opponent in Sunday's AFC wild-card game - Mangini showed his players a replay of Cassius Clay's stunning upset of Sonny Liston in 1964, when Clay was crowned the heavyweight champion in one of the biggest upsets in boxing history.

Why that fight? Because no one gave the Jets a chance against the Pats, who had beaten them seven straight times. The result: The Jets won, 17-14.

And why boxing? "I think you can learn a lot from other sports and other athletes that you can apply to football," Mangini said. "Growing up, I was exposed to boxing through my dad with Friday night fights. He controlled the TV, so that's what we watched. I probably should have had more dates, but that's what we watched."

Good thing for the Jets, because Mangini's love of the "sweet science" has helped his players master the psychology of football. In fact, the players absolutely adore Mangini's pre-game boxing presentations, and readily soak up the lessons from some of the greatest fights ever.

One of Mangini's all-time favorites: junior welterweight Aaron "The Hawk" Pryor, whose legendary fight in 1982 against Alexis Arguello is a frequent topic of conversation in the Jets' locker room. Mangini recently had T-shirts made up for players with Pryor's face on the front and the words "What time is it? Hawk time."

"It gets our attention," wide receiver Justin McCareins said. "Most of us follow boxing to a certain extent, and I think the guys enjoy watching other people get punched in the face, so that helps. But there are obvious lessons in that sport that you can learn from, whether it's the story of what a boxer goes through off the field, how he wins or loses, the underdog stories, or the guys who are overconfident. It gets you ready to play in a lot of different ways."

Said rookie left tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson: "It reminds me of the times when my father and I would watch and have fun. But there's definitely a lot to take from them. You can see there's a story behind every fight. Those fights really speak for themselves."

Mangini has even enlisted the help of renowned boxing trainer and television analyst Teddy Atlas, who once worked with Mike Tyson and Michael Moorer, as well as several other prominent amateur and pro boxers. In fact, Atlas played a role in helping the Jets beat the Patriots midway through the season, a game that in many ways cemented the Jets' belief that they could be a playoff team.

A few days before the game, Atlas addressed the players in a wide-ranging speech, telling them several stories from his past. One of them in particular struck a nerve.

Atlas trained at a gym in Catskill, N.Y., and noticed a young, skinny kid named Mane Moore who walked in one day and wanted to learn how to fight. Atlas noticed something different about him, and asked around to see why he came to the gym.

"The kid was 11 years old and weighed 85 pounds, and I found out from talking to people that a bully named 'Goo' had been taking his lunch money in school," Atlas said. "It took a couple months to get him in the ring, but then he got really scared and ran out. I asked him what was wrong, and he said, 'I'm just yellow.' I knew that wasn't it, so I told him when I was a kid some bully took my lunch money, and his eyes lit up."

Atlas then told Moore that one day, he took the kid who stole his money and dumped him in the garbage can where the lunch trays were deposited.

"I told him that I realized if I had to deal with this guy, you think it's forever, but it's really only a few seconds. That ain't a tough fight. But the feeling of doing nothing, now that's forever. That's a tough fight."

A few days later, Moore ran up to Atlas in the gym. "He was real excited, and he said, 'Goo ain't takin' my lunch money no more,'" Atlas said. "He was so excited, he hugged me."

A few days after the Jets beat the Patriots, Mangini called Atlas and asked if he'd seen the game. He had. Mangini then told Atlas of a conversation he'd overheard with one of his players while walking off the field.

"We're coming off the field," Mangini told him, "and Shaun Ellis was asked by a reporter what the difference was. He turned to him and, without hesitation, he said, 'We just got tired of having our lunch money taken.'"

JETS-PATS FACT

Three men - Mike Holovak, Bill Parcells and Pete Carroll - have coached both teams. Bill Belichick, of course, would have been No. 4, but he changed his mind about taking the Jets' coaching job in January 2000.

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.newsday.com/sports/football/jets/ny-sppats055040459jan05,0,4246200.story?coll=ny-jets-print

Passing game won't be easy

BY BOB HERZOG

Newsday Staff Correspondent

January 5, 2007

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Air travel against the Patriots in 2006 was hardly smooth. If the New England end zone were a runway, most flights would have been diverted or canceled.

The Patriots allowed the fewest touchdown passes of any team in the NFL, 10, a total that was lower than any posted by the three Super Bowl winners of the Bill Belichick era. Typically, the Patriots coach divided the praise.

"It's team defense. In order to be good in any area, it takes 11 guys," he said. "It is easier to play pass defense when it's longer yardage and you know what they're going to do. You still have to stop them, but you can do that."

Though the Patriots' defense is famously anonymous - end Richard Seymour is the only Pro Bowl selection - it is also notoriously stingy. Its total of 21 touchdowns allowed was tied for best in the league with the Ravens, so the ground game isn't that much of a better option.

"It's a thing of beauty, like an orchestra," cornerback Ellis Hobbs said of the way the secondary coordinates with the front seven. "We're all working together. If you're the quarterback, you think it's one thing, but it's another."

Those disguised fronts baffled most opponents, as the Patriots limited quarterbacks to the second-lowest passer rating in the league. Chad Pennington penetrated their aerial defense for 306 yards and two touchdowns in a 24-17 loss on Sept. 17 and was an efficient 22-for-33 with another touchdown pass in a 17-14 win at New England on Nov. 12. That bothers the star of the secondary, cornerback Asante Samuel.

"This is the NFL. Being competitors, we're disappointed about those touchdowns being caught on us," said Samuel, who tied the Broncos' Champ Bailey for the league lead in interceptions with 10. "We've got to go out and prevent that from happening again. I like what we did in the regular season, but it's a different season now. If you don't step it up even more, you'll be home early."

Samuel began his dominance early with two picks during the preseason. "Starting off good definitely helped me out," said Samuel, who totaled six interceptions in his previous three seasons. "It carried over into the regular season."

Belichick agreed, calling Samuel's preseason "an important part" of his regular-season success.

"That's where a player builds his fundamentals and techniques. There's no position on the field where technique and the little things are more important than in the secondary," Belichick said. "Guys on the line, they're only lined up that far away from each other, they hit and the play is over. In the secondary, you have to cover a guy for two, three, four seconds and be in position, read the release, read the route, break on the ball, be in position to make the play on the ball or make the tackle."

A rotating cast of defensive backs demonstrated those skills throughout 2006. Last year's starting free safety, Eugene Wilson, missed the season with an injury. Hard-hitting strong safety Rodney Harrison missed six games, came back last week, and suffered another injury that will keep him out of Sunday's game. Others have missed time, too.

Still, it's a confident bunch that will try to make it a long day for Pennington. "Nothing they're doing is unstoppable," Hobbs said. "The main thing is to understand what they're trying to do. I don't want to get into how we'll defense them, but there are some things we want to change."

Hobbs, like Samuel, was tutored by Eric Mangini when the Jets' coach was on Belichick's staff. "I'm not going to get into the whole Eric thing," Samuel said. "But obviously he knows us well. He knows our strengths; he knows our weaknesses. They should be ready."

So will the Patriots.

"This is a new game, a new season. I don't want to say what Chad is going to do," Samuel said. "He might come out throwing [short] or he might come out throwing deep balls. We've got to go out and play technique and play smart."

The Patriots' secondary has done that all season. Its motto could be: You pass; you fail.

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/jets/story/485847p-409022c.html

Call Chad a comeback kid

NFL puts award on QB's shoulders

BY RICH CIMINI

DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

Jets have ridden a healthy Chad Pennington into playoffs, something that must have seemed impossible after the quarterback tore his rotator cuff a second time last year (below).

Chad Pennington goes from shoulder surgery to playoffs this year, and teammates have embraced him like old times.

Chad Pennington's public comeback began on a sunny morning in early May, when Eric Mangini conducted his first open minicamp session. A curious media throng turned out to watch the quarterback with the twice-repaired right shoulder, eager to see if he still could throw a football.

But first, a surprise:

When the first-string offense took the field, Pennington remained on the sideline as Kellen Clemens, a rookie, took control of the huddle. Mangini didn't set it up like that to embarrass Pennington in front of the cameras - the four-man rotation happened to fall that way, the coach claimed - but it let the veteran passer know exactly where he stood.

He was starting over. None of his past accomplishments mattered anymore.

Eight months after that dubious start, Pennington was honored yesterday as the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year, recognition for an unprecedented and successful recovery from two rotator-cuff tears.

Pennington overcame the injury, reclaimed his job and started every game for the first time in his career, leading the Jets to a wild-card playoff appearance Sunday against the Patriots at Gillette Stadium.

Hollywood made a movie about his alma mater - "We Are Marshall" - and it could make one about his comeback. Naturally, a playoff win or three would bolster the storyline.

"Everything we've done this year," wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery said, "is based on what he's done this year."

Mangini announced the award in the morning team meeting, and the players broke out in applause. Pennington didn't show much emotion, according to players, but he seemed genuinely humbled.

Reflecting on his improbable journey, Pennington remembered the darkest days, the aftermath of the second injury. It occurred in September of 2005, requiring arthroscopic surgery. For two weeks, he was in a funk.

"Not having a goal, not having a challenge, not having a carrot out in front of you ... as an athlete, that's a bad place to be, sort of like 'The Twilight Zone,'" Pennington said. "You have no drive, you have nothing to go for. That was the lowest point, not knowing what direction I would go in.

"Whether it was good or bad, whether it was with football or without football, I had no idea."

Once the scope was performed, Pennington's attitude improved. The medical staff prepared a rehab program, and off he went, chasing a new carrot. By the spring, he was throwing again.

Former Packers quarterback Don Majkowski, who made the Pro Bowl in 1989 but was never the same after tearing a rotator cuff, was thrilled that Pennington was voted the Comeback Player of the Year by a panel of 50 media members.

"Unless you've been in that position as a throwing professional athlete, you can't understand the rigors of the rehab and how grueling it is," Majkowski said in a phone interview. "He should be proud of himself. He did a great job. But it's an ongoing process. You can't say you're healed because you have to continue the rehab as preventative maintenance."

Former Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde, a member of the Patriots, said of his former teammate: "I'm happy for Chad. I just felt that, hey, if anybody can do it, it's Chad. He's so positive."

Despite what it says now, the organization had its doubts about Pennington. It forced him to swallow a $6 million pay cut (he eventually recouped the money with playing-time incentives) and it brought in competition, veteran Patrick Ramsey and Clemens. There was a four-way competition, along with Brooks Bollinger.

No matter. Pennington prevailed.

"When you're put in difficult situations," he said, "you have to fight human nature sometimes."

Mangini recalled days in the offseason when he saw Pennington in the trainer's room, rehabbing his shoulder while studying the new offense.

"He was multitasking with his playbook," Mangini said. "It was like a mobile study center, where he was getting worked on and working at the same time. That's impressive."

Originally published on January 5, 2007

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/jets/story/485848p-409024c.html

When your mentor is a Groucho

By Filip Bondy

His late father knew what to do about these trifling border wars, the Jets' coach was saying yesterday. Carmine Mangini would send Eric and his older brother, Kyle, down into the basement whenever they fought, and he would not let them up again until they had resolved their conflict.

The brothers would work together reluctantly, cobble a fragile truce, just to escape the cellar. A great lesson was learned by all.

Which brings us again to the handshake. There is no getting around the handshake, no matter how hard we try this week. Here is Mangini, extending an earnest palm of friendship, hoping to clamber out of the basement. And here is Bill Belichick, basically saying he would rather spend a lifetime in the cellar with the mustiness and the molds than repair this broken familial bond.

Global wars have been fought over exactly such a snub. At least one war, anyway, when Rufus T. Firefly's outstretched hand was spurned in a Marx Brothers movie called "Duck Soup."

Depending on your viewpoint, on your Middle Atlantic geography, the cold-fish handshake is either the result of unforgivable betrayal or of stubborn pettiness. It is a matter of only slight exaggeration to say that the postgame greeting on Sunday in Foxborough between Mangini and Bill Belichick is now anticipated with the same eagerness as the playoff game itself.

To appease the masses, Mangini broke down his Belichick handshake yesterday, finally, the way he might analyze a busted play or botched safety coverage.

"I thought my handshake was strong, firm," Mangini said, with a straight face. "My dad always told me it was important to have a good handshake. I try to be consistent with that. I've experimented with a couple other different kinds that didn't work for me. So I feel good about what I brought in."

Mangini was having fun with the whole matter, trying to trivialize the feud by speaking in that most maddening of languages, Football-Coach-ese. But of course we know that deep down this has to hurt, because Belichick was once very much a father figure to a young man who had lost his own dad as a teenager.

And now, here is Belichick, who hired Mangini out of nowhere, who taught that young man everything he knew, and the hand is no longer extended. Or the hand is extended, but the head and eyes are already turned away in disgust.

Mangini was asked yesterday how he felt, exactly, after the first snub back at Giants Stadium, when he realized that Belichick no longer was his soul buddy.

"I've never experienced that moment," he said. "The way I feel about Bill is the way I felt about Bill the first moment I got to know him. My feelings have not changed one iota."

Belichick's disdain is unrequited hate, which only makes the grudge more compelling.

It is important to note here the ways in which Mangini and Belichick are still very much alike. Both men are quiet innovators, not altogether comfortable expressing themselves with words. Both coaches have the gall, the imagination and the dedication to throw away the playbook each Sunday night, start writing a new one on Monday morning. They are both chameleons, reinventing their teams on the fly while trying very hard to remain invisible in the background.

"Anytime you go into a new position there are a lot of things that are borrowed," Mangini said. "I borrowed a great deal from some great people along the road."

Mangini learned an awful lot from Belichick, the surrogate dad. But now when he needs someone to help him out just a little, or simply to talk shop, he doesn't dial New England. He turns to other old pals like Bill Parcells, Charlie Weis or Romeo Crennel.

Lovie Smith called him just the other day to congratulate him on making the playoffs.

"I thought that was awfully nice," Mangini said.

The NFL is not a place for touchy-feely sentimentality, and sometimes it seems that Mangini is searching for emotional connections at the wrong family picnic. It's us against them against us against them - always more "Duck Soup" than "Terms of Endearment."

"So it's war!" Firefly decided, when his handshake was forsaken. Sometimes, there is no truce to be found in the basement.

Originally published on January 5, 2007

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/jets/story/485828p-409006c.html

Cotchery OK on receiving end

Jerricho Cotchery was a senior at North Carolina State in January 2004 when the Patriots pounded the Colts in the AFC Championship Game. He watched on TV, remembering vividly how the New England defensive backs intimidated the Colts receivers.

"They were banging them everywhere and they were dropping balls all day," Cotchery said yesterday.

If the Patriots decide to employ that strategy Sunday against the Jets in the AFC wild-card game in Foxborough, Cotchery's reaction will be this: Bring it on.

"A lot of teams have tried to do it this year, but a big part of my game is the contact game," said Cotchery, who, along with partner Laveranues Coles, are known as a physical receiving tandem. "We try to bring that aspect every Sunday. It's cool if people want to play a physical game, but that's what we do."

The Patriots will be without their enforcer, S Rodney Harrison (sprained knee), who has a reputation for leveling receivers who dare to venture across the middle. On Wednesday, Patriots DE Richard Seymour wondered if the Jets might try to attack the middle.

Both Cotchery and Coles said Harrison's absence won't affect the Jets' game plan.

"I've seen a lot of teams go across the middle when he was in there," Cotchery said. "Some pay for it, some don't."

BACK IN ACTION: RG Brandon Moore (ankle) and rookie C Nick Mangold (thigh/knee) participated in individual and positional drills and are expected to play. ... CB Andre Dyson (sprained knee) is running close to full speed, but is still expected to miss his second straight game. ... LB Matt Chatham returned to the team after missing one day for personal reasons. He went home to Sioux City, Iowa, to attend the funeral of his father-in-law, 57, a switchman/conductor who was killed in a rail accident last week.

Rich Cimini

Originally published on January 5, 2007

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http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070105/SPORTS01/701050400/1108

Mangini keeping his rings to himself

By Andrew Gross

The Journal News

(Original Publication: January 5, 2007)

HEMPSTEAD - First-year coach Eric Mangini flashed the bling long before the Jets were installed as nine-point underdogs for Sunday's AFC wild-card game at New England.

The Patriots' former defensive coordinator and defensive-backs coach subtly wore one of his three Super Bowl rings during one of his first meetings with the team.

Mangini's message was made clear without his uttering a word about the jewelry. And it was the only time he brought it out.

"Coming into a new team, you're trying to start a new program; you're trying to get guys to believe in what you're doing because what you're doing works,'' Jets wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery said yesterday. "It was one of those examples.''

Cotchery has since learned that, despite his background, Mangini should not be classified as a defensive coach. Mangini goes over teaching points on offense and special teams as well as defense during team meetings and on the practice field.

Watching film, he'll quiz players such as Cotchery as to their assignments and what they did wrong.

"You have a lot of coaches who focus on one particular area if they're good at one particular area,'' Cotchery said. "They show their face now and then at an offensive meeting.

"But it's different with him. He's a defensive guy, but he spends a lot of time in our offensive meeting and spends a lot of time with special teams. He's a rare guy.''

Nugent honored: Jets kicker Mike Nugent was named the AFC's special-teams player of the month for December. He was 12 for 12 on field-goal attempts and has made 18 straight overall, the second longest streak in franchise history behind Pat Leahy's 22 from 1985-86.

"I think I'm very lucky; James (Dearth) and Ben (Graham) are an unbelievable snapper and holder,'' said Nugent, who made 24 of 27 attempts and was 6 of 7 on kicks of 40 yards or longer, including a career-long 54-yarder. "I've never had so much confidence in my entire career in two guys.''

Nugent also has connected on 19 straight on artificial turf, dating to last season. FieldTurf was installed at Gillette Stadium after the Jets beat the Patriots there 17-14 on Nov. 12 in the mud.

"It's good that you have the FieldTurf,'' said Nugent, who made his only attempt in that game, a 34-yarder. "It's something I get to play on every day and get to practice on.''

No 'I' in team: Titans quarterback Vince Young was named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year this week, and Mangini was asked if Jets center Nick Mangold - who did not receive a vote - merited attention.

"He got center of the year for us,'' Mangini said, cracking a smile. "Any of those accolades, they are nice and you appreciate those things. But the real meaning is in what the team accomplishes. There are thousands of guys that would trade Pro Bowls and Players of the Year for team success.''

No center has ever won the award.

This and that: Patriots coach Bill Belichick was asked at his press conference if there were any tricks to keeping his players focused and avoiding distractions during the playoffs. "Not let the media in the locker room,'' Belichick said. ... Jets linebacker Matt Chatham returned to practice after being excused Wednesday due to family reasons. ... Patriots defensive end Ty Warren was named AFC defensive player of the month. ... Patriots third-string quarterback Vinny Testaverde held court in front of his locker yesterday, much as he did when he was the Jets' starter. "I think the rivalry and all that stuff is pretty much for the media and the fans," he said of switching sides.

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http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070105/SPORTS01/701050399/1108

Pennington named comeback player of year

By Andrew Gross

The Journal News

(Original Publication: January 5, 2007)

HEMPSTEAD - The goal was not to win the NFL Comeback Player of the Year award, as Jets quarterback Chad Pennington did yesterday, but just to come back.

Because Pennington desperately needed a goal as he sat home in Tennessee after tearing his right rotator cuff for the second straight season.

"The lowest point was the two weeks after the initial injury,'' Pennington said. "Not having a goal, not having a challenge, not having a carrot out in front of you as an athlete is a bad place to be. It's sort of like 'The Twilight Zone.' You have no drive. You have nothing to go for.''

But this season has marked the ultimate comeback for Pennington. The Jets (10-6), thanks to a six-game turnaround from 2005, are at New England Sunday for an AFC wild-card game against the Patriots (12-4).

The 30-year-old Pennington set career highs with 313 completions in 485 attempts for 3,352 yards after easily winning a four-man training-camp competition to regain his spot as the Jets' starter. He threw 17 touchdowns and 16 interceptions.

Pennington received 27 of the 52 votes cast in balloting by media across the country and tabulated by The Associated Press. Saints quarterback Drew Brees was next with 8 1/2 votes, and Carson Palmer was third with 5 1/2 votes.

Still, his close friend and favorite receiver, Laveranues Coles, said winning the award doesn't fully represent the depth of Pennington's comeback. The two talked nearly every day in the offseason.

"If you think about the way the media, the organization because it drafted Kellen Clemens, the sports analysts basically banged on the guy, and he fought through it,'' Coles said. "The award is cool, but it's still not enough.''

Pennington was more philosophical. While he clearly outplayed Clemens, Patrick Ramsey and the since-traded Brooks Bollinger in training camp, he never assumed he'd be the starter.

At one point, there was even a question as to whether Pennington would make it to the Jets' training camp or be a salary-cap casualty. But in March, he agreed to restructure his contract, lowering his guaranteed money to $3 million. He's already made back the other $6 million he was originally due through playing-time bonuses.

"I would say that at some times during the rehab and at some times during the competition, I think I had to look at it as if the slate was wiped clean,'' Pennington said. "What I had done in the past didn't matter anymore. In this business, the past is exactly that: It's history. It's about how you perform, how you produce, how you handle your business in the now.''

Pennington further solidified his position by throwing for 300 yards in each of the Jets' first two games, his first career back-to-back 300-yard performances.

But Pennington was challenged again following a 10-0 loss to the Bears Nov. 19, when he completed 19 of 35 passes for 162 yards with two interceptions and one on-field grilling from Coles.

Coach Eric Mangini said the next day that the job was Pennington's "right now.'' Pennington responded by completing 24 of 31 for 286 yards with a touchdown in a 26-11 win over the Texans and 25 of 35 for 263 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions in a 38-10 win at Green Bay the following week.

Pennington then threw for a career-high 339 yards in a 26-13 win at Minnesota Dec. 17, and the Jets won five of their last six games.

"When you're put in difficult situations, I think you have to fight human nature sometimes, and human nature sometimes wants to feel sorry for itself and come up with excuses and look for ways to get out of a situation,'' Pennington said. "I just chose not to listen to my own human nature.''

It's also a good thing he never checked the history books. It is believed he is the first NFL quarterback to revive his career -certainly to this level - after two rotator-cuff injuries.

The Packers' Don Majkowski and the Steelers' Jim Miller, to name two examples, had promising careers as starters curtailed by similar injuries.

But Pennington is nothing if not determined once he sets a goal.

"It didn't matter what time I was passing through; if Chad was getting rehabbed, he was multi-tasking with his playbook,'' Mangini said. "It was like a mobile study center where he was getting worked on and working at the same time.''

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxMjEmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTcwNTEwMTkmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2

Jets blog

Friday, January 5, 2007

Get a grip

Inquiring minds still wanted to know Thursday exactly what Eric Mangini thought about Bill Belichick's poor excuse of a postgame handshake after the Jets' 17-14 win at New England in November. So Mangini told them.

"We do a lot of self-scout after the game, what we did well, what we did poorly, and I really didn't evaluate those things," the Jets' coach said.

"I thought my handshake was strong, firm.

"My dad always told me it's important to have a good handshake and I try to be consistent with that.

"I've experimented with a couple of other different kinds that haven't worked for me."

So Mangini's humor deflated the subject -- until Sunday at about 4 p.m., when the quality of the pressing of the flesh at midfield will be scrutinized all over again.

-- Randy Lange

[Sperm Edwards]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-jets-patriots&prov=ap&type=lgns

Jets hoping to shut down Brady -- again

By DENNIS WASZAK Jr., AP Sports Writer

January 5, 2007

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (AP) -- Victor Hobson saw something special in Tom Brady when they were teammates at Michigan.

"He's definitely one of the best pressure players in the game," the New York Jets' linebacker said. "Even going back to when I played with him in college, we always felt confident that he would be able to deal with adversity."

Hobson and the Jets (10-6) hope to cause all kinds of problems for the New England Patriots' quarterback during their first-round playoff game Sunday at Gillette Stadium.

"The main thing is trying to present different looks and not allowing him to feel comfortable," Hobson said. "If we allow him to feel comfortable, it will be a long day."

The Jets know all about Brady's penchant for thriving in the playoffs, where he's 10-1 in his career with 15 touchdowns and five interceptions.

"I think his record speaks for itself," said Hobson, who played with Brady at Michigan in 1999. "There aren't too many with winning records like that in the playoffs, especially when it's a tournament. If you lose, you go home and he's been able to move on."

Brady is 9-2 against the Jets as a starter, but his last game was one to forget. In Week 10, New York constantly pressured Brady and repeatedly forced him to rush his throws in a 17-14 win at Foxborough.

"They are very difficult to prepare for because they present so many different scheme-type things and it's one of the toughest teams we prepare for all year," Brady said.

The lasting image from that game was a muddied Brady sitting on the turf as the Jets celebrated around him following a sack by Shaun Ellis, who forced a fumble to seal the win. New York also snapped a seven-game losing streak against New England (12-4).

"It was a big confidence booster, but that was just one game," Ellis said. "This is a totally different game, there is a lot more at stake. They'll be more prepared than the last game."

The Jets can count on it. Brady rarely struggles against opponents in consecutive games, and the Patriots have almost certainly closely examined the various looks and shifts New York used in disrupting Brady and the passing game.

"Besides all his physical tools, everybody knows he's one of the smartest quarterbacks as well," safety Kerry Rhodes said. "If you're giving them clues to what's going on, he's going to find them and he's going to know how to exploit you."

In the teams' first meeting this season, a 24-17 victory by the Patriots at the Meadowlands, Brady was far from spectacular but made big plays at the end -- as usual. He finished 15-of-29 for 220 yards with one TD and an interception, but led an efficient drive that lasted more than 8 minutes and gave the Jets little time to muster a final unsuccessful drive.

"Everybody knows Brady is very poised in the pocket," Ellis said. "He could stay there, take the hit and throw the ball. He has a lot of confidence in his guys getting open and in his line and he does a great job of getting the ball off and making big plays."

For that reason, the Jets might be more likely to blitz more and disguise looks on defense -- as they did in the last matchup.

"They change it up a bunch," Brady said. "They are a multiple-front team, multiple blitzers, safeties. Everyone's involved: corners, safeties, linebackers. They create a bunch of negative plays. That's really what they've done the last six or seven weeks since they played us. They have obviously been one of the best defensive teams the second half of the year, so I wouldn't expect that to change."

Then again, the Jets might just throw some completely new looks at Brady and the Patriots.

"We know each other so well that I'm sure we're both trying to do something that the other hasn't seen, so it will be a little unexpected," Rhodes said. "The team that handles it well, gets hit first and bounces back will be the team that can pull it out."

If the game is close or if the Patriots trail late, it's a good bet Brady will put them in position to pull out a victory. He has led 23 game-winning drives in his career, including two this season.

"There's no quarterback I'd rather have," New England coach Bill Belichick said.

Brady has thrived since the teams last played, going 6-1 with nine touchdowns and three interceptions -- and gaining the type of confidence that led the Patriots to three of the last five Super Bowl titles.

"We know what type of game we're going into with Tom Brady," said Jets defensive end Bobby Hamilton, who played for the Patriots from 2000-03. "Tom Brady is going to be pumped and he's going to get his guys in the right direction."

[Sperm Edwards]

http://jets.lohudblogs.com/2007/01/04/tv-timeout/

Jets Journal

Beat writer Andrew Gross’ blog for the Lower Hudson fan.

Remarkably, given how overcrowded with the media the Jets locker room was today, I found Laveranues Coles sitting alone at his locker after a large horde of cameras left him.

Rather than whip out my notebook and ask him the same old questions, we had a chat that started with his love of gaming – he’s been called the best video game player in the room – and then moved to sports commentators. Without getting into names, Coles is amazed that some former NFL players who get on TV are so eager to rip current players for their performances. Coles said he’d like to get a hold of those commentator’s statistics, flash them and tell the guy to shut up because his career was certainly not without fault.

I then asked Coles if he’d ever consider a TV career once he’s done playing. I thought he’d say no right off the bat but, instead, Coles said he probably couldn’t get hired because he would refuse to say negative things about players. Coles said he could never forget the fact that he’d played in the NFL.

Sometimes, the most interesting conversations are the unscripted ones.

By now, you’ve seen that Chad Pennington is the NFL’s comeback player of the year which shouldn’t surprise anybody. Here are the final voting results as supplied by the Associated Press:

Chad Pennington, NY Jets �27

Drew Brees, New Orleans 8 1/2

Carson Palmer, Cincinnati �5 1/2

Kellen Winslow, Cleveland �5

Jeff Garcia, Philadelphia �2

Correll Buckhalter, Philadelphia �1

Javon Walker, Denver �1

Deuce McAllister, New Orleans �1

Travis Henry, Tennessee �1

From practice today, CB Andre Dyson looks better and better each day but still isn’t running at full speed so I can’t see him playing Sunday. But during one-on-one drills, he showed some juke moves so he’s able to move his injured right knee with some giddy-up. C Nick Mangold is still limited but at least able to participate in some drills. LB Matt Chatham was also back on the field.

[Sperm Edwards]

http://jets.lohudblogs.com/2007/01/04/mangold-for-president/

Jets Journal

Beat writer Andrew Gross’ blog for the Lower Hudson fan.

Mangold for President

Just a couple of quick thoughts as we await the start of Eric Mangini’s press conference.

...With Nick Saban gone from Miami (and what a farce the last month was with his meaningless denials and harsh treatment of the media for reporting what he didn’t want reported), a couple of interesting names have surfaced as possible replacements. If Bill Cowher joined the Dolphins, it would make a competitive division that much crazier.

...Vince Young was named the NFL’s offensive rookie of the year and while he’s a worthy candidate, I’ll go oon record as saying not only should center Nick Mangold be the Jets’ rookie of the year, he’s had a better season than Young. Only problem is, he’s a center and a center will never be selected for that award. Which is a crock because without the offensive line, you don’t have a football team.

...The press room here at Hofstra is again absolutely packed. Either the Jets need a bigger room for the playoffs or, well, that’s about it, the Jets need a bigger room for the playoffs. Beat reporters who have been here day in and day out throughout the season can’t get a seat. (Yours truly, however, is in the front row, ready to grill Mangini, who, one of these years, will open up and bare his soul to the New York media. OK, maybe not.)

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Mangini: He was very determined at everything he did

http://www.newyorkjets.com/articles/mangini-he-was-very-determined-at-everything-he-did

Eric Mangini grew up in Hartford, Connecticut approximately 100 miles away from Gillette Stadium. On Sunday afternoon, the first-year head coach will lead the Jets in postseason action against the Patriots up in Foxborough, Massachusetts. During Thursday's presser, Mangini recalled his childhood when asked about his beloved father, Carmine Mangini.

“He was such a huge influence in my life as your parents often are. He was very determined at everything he did. He believed in finishing things,” Mangini said. “I had two brothers, so he was good at conflict resolution. Whenever we would get into beefs, we would be sent down to the cellar to clean it up and you couldn't come up until it was done. Usually you'd spend the first half hour fighting: ‘you get that side, I'll get that side.’ Then it's just get this done and get out of here, and you came up feeling really good about each other because now you had worked together.

“There are so many things: his kindness, his compassion for people who were less fortunate, I could go on and on. He was a very special man, and I hope that I can be the same type of father to my kids.”

Read below for Coach Mangini's complete press conference transcript

New York Jets’ Head Coach Eric Mangini, 1.4

Opening Statement…

We placed Jaime Thompson on IR. We moved Ed Blanton up to the active roster and we signed Charles Missant, an offensive lineman that we had during training camp, to the practice squad.

Mike Nugent will be named AFC Special Teams Player of the Month. We are happy for him. He has done an excellent job. Chad (Pennington) was named the AP Comeback Player of the Year. It is a testament to how hard he has worked and all of the things that he does not just professionally, but personally to put himself in the best possible situation to succeed. We are very happy with that as well.

In terms of practice yesterday, overall we are off to a good start. There are some things that we need to address and fix. As you know, it is a very game-specific team, so there are a lot of things that we have to get ready for. Today will be a regular Thursday. We will be focusing on third down and reviewing some of the blitzes both offensively and defensively. We will also review and introduce some new things based on the first and second down packages.

On penalties…

It is a significant emphasis. We have the officials here every day and they call practice like they would call a game. We monitor that and when they do call a penalty we find out who it was on and what the reason was. With Mike Westhoff’s understanding of rules, and not just he rules but also the interpretation, that gives us some insight into how the game is going to be called, how things are going to be looked at by the league and by the officials. We try to look at things that way.

On if there are ever good penalties…

One that saves an interception could be a good penalty. You could make that argument if it avoids a turnover.

On Pennington making a comeback…

Each injury is different and I don’t know what others have had, but in Chad’s mind there was never any doubt. He was extremely committed to doing everything that he could possibly do to put himself in a position to come back from those injuries. There was no precedent, so there was no formula to look at to say, ‘this is what he needs to do to come back from the injury.’ He consistently worked at it. Knowing Chad and his approach, that is what really drove him.

On Pennington’s rehab…

The medical staff did an excellent job. The trainers, the doctors and Chad all worked together to put together a plan. It was a situation where everyone was open minded, trying to explore as many different options as we possibly could as to what was the best path would be. It worked so it was a good path in terms of what the formula was.

On Pennington’s arm strength…

He has hit some deep balls. He threw a couple of nice deep balls last game that didn’t quite hit. It is like anything else with Chad Pennington; if you underestimate him, he is going to end up hurting you.

On being impressed by Pennington…

Some of the best examples are him coming down to the training room. We had a new system in place. It didn’t matter what time I was passing through, if Chad was getting rehabbed, he was multi tasking with his playbook. It was like a mobile-study-center where he was getting worked on and working at the same time. That is always impressive, where a guy is getting things done while achieving things. He was studying that playbook so that he would be ready for training camp. There was no doubt at any point.

On Mike Nugent…

We talked about it (Nugent’s missed field goals at Tennessee) after that week. About his approach and his professionalism. A lot of times we go through different struggles, whether it is a bad call, a bad decision or a bad play. It is how you respond to those things. Mike responded the right way. He went back to work and he evaluated the things that he didn’t do as well as he could have. His approach was to fix those mistakes and move forward. That’s what we are always looking for. When adversity strikes, how do you handle that adversity? How do you respond? Are you able to put it out of your mind and look at it as an opportunity for growth and learning or do you let it linger and effect your next opportunity to be successful?

On bringing players in for workouts…

We bring guys in all the time. Sometimes they are not particularly guys that we need, but guys that we want to get to know. We want to meet and work out and have a good sense of where they are at in case something does come out. You can see week-in and week-out that has been part of the program.

The case with all of these workouts is you need to have an answer in case the question comes up, and you always want to be proactive with that answer instead of responding to the situation after the fact and not having that information. Mike (Tannebaum) and JoJo Wooden (assistant director of player personnel) do a good job of bringing those guys through, keeping a list current, keeping the list detailed so that when a decision does come up, we can address it.

On if a kicker would have been looked at if Mike Nugent had not missed the field goals in Tennessee…

I'm sure there would have been a kicker, that's how Mike (Tannebaum) is. He always wants to stay ahead of the curve.

On the origin of Mangini’s coaching methods…

Any time that you go into a new position, there are a lot of things that are borrowed and I borrowed a lot of information from great people along the road. I've been fortunate with the guys that I have been able to work with, and you're always going to draw on experiences to handle situations that you've never had to handle before. The important thing was taking what I liked from those experiences and then pulling it all together and trying to put together the best program for the Jets. As well as make decisions based off of the way that I viewed things, not necessarily the way that those people at that time viewed things.

On what Mangini has learned about Pennington…

It was more reinforcing what I had seen on tape. When you watch a player like Chad and his huddle presence, the respect that he gets from the guys on this team, the way that he's able to attack defenses, the way that he understands his offense so thoroughly. Immediately you see that he details everything and he's hard‑working, because those things don't happen by accident. It's too complicated for it to be an accident. That was the impression I got from playing against him. As I came here and got to know him and got to learn more about him, it just confirmed all of the things that I thought prior to getting here.

On how Pennington handled the four-way quarterback competition during training camp…

It just reinforced his character. Throughout that competition, I thought all those guys handled it extremely well. They were competing with each other, but at the same time they were helping each other. They were being good teammates while the competition was going on, and that's what you look for in any position, but you look for it, especially, in the quarterback position. That character to go with the competitiveness that all of those guys showed.

On Pennington believing the quarterback job should be his…

Whenever you enter into a competition, you should always go into the competition with a mind‑set of, ‘I'm going to win this and this should be mine.’ That's why you're competing, and if at any point you're willing to concede a position or a contest to someone else, then really, the competition's over before it ever starts. Part of that whole process was a process that everybody went through and it's a process that's ongoing. I believe that competition is extremely valuable and I believe that it helps get everybody better. It helps make everybody that much sharper. I was really proud of the way those guys all handled it in such a professional and team way.

On experiencing a moment where he didn’t feel close with Belichick anymore…

I've never experienced that moment. The way I feel about Bill is the way I've felt about Bill since I first got to know him and it's not going to change. Really, it's the same as what we talked about in the first two games. My feelings have not changed one iota.

On Mangini and Belichick’s handshake after the first game…

We do a lot of self‑scout after the game, what we did well, what we did poorly, and I didn't really evaluate those things. I thought my handshake was strong. (Laughter) Firm. My dad always told me it's important to have a good handshake and I try to be consistent with that. I've experimented with a couple other different kinds that haven't worked for me.

On Mangini not being able to confide in Belichick…

We're in the same division, so it's harder to call people in the same division because you don't necessarily want to help someone that's trying to beat you. There are guys who are not in the same division that have been very supportive that I've talked to quite a bit. Bill Parcells has been outstanding in terms of offering advice or if I have a question, being able to call him. Guys like Charlie (Weis) or Kirk (Ferentz), Romeo (Crennel), also. Different guys throughout the years have been great. Lovie Smith called me the other day just to wish me luck and I thought that was extremely nice. Other coaches have done the same thing and I just think that sometimes in the division, it's tougher and there are a lot of people that are not in the division that are extremely good resources and have been able to bounce ideas off of them.

On lessons from his father…

He was such a huge influence in my life as your parents often are. He was very determined at everything he did. He believed in finishing things. I had two brothers, so he was good at conflict resolution. Whenever we would get into beefs, we would be sent down to the cellar to clean it up and you couldn't come up until it was done. Usually you'd spend the first half hour fighting; ‘you get that side, I'll get that side.’ Then it's just get this done and get out of here and you came up feeling really good about each other because now you had worked together. There are so many things: His kindness, his compassion for people who were less fortunate, I could go on and on. He was a very special man, and I hope that I can be the same type of father to my kids.

On if Belichick was a father-figure to Mangini…

Any time you have a mentor, there are elements of that. My high school coach after my father died, Graham Martin was very supportive. My Uncle Frank was like that. There are a lot of people that fill a void when the void is created at such a young age.

On Belichick mentioning Mangini by name on a conference call…

It didn't really change anything. We're still going to be competing on Sunday and they are still going to be trying to beat us and we are still going to be trying to beat them and somebody is going home. That's really where we are. So what I want to do is get our team as ready to go as we possibly can. That's the important thing.

On if Nick Mangold should have received Rookie of the Year…

I don't really vote on that stuff. He got center of the year for us. (Laughter) I was happy with his progress and things that he's done. Any of those accolades that come out, any of these things that happen after the season, they are nice and you appreciate those things, but the real meaning is in what the team accomplishes. There are thousands of guys that would trade Pro Bowls and Players of the Year or whatever the case may be for team success because that's what's special.

On Nick Mangold…

He got a little bit of work yesterday and he'll get a little more work today. It will be like everything else, we'll just gauge it and be smart with the injury so that we don't reaggravate it, but make sure that he's getting the preparation he needs to be as effective as possible.

On Andre Dyson…

He made a lot of progress last week and he's making a lot of progress this week. It's the same thing. You're monitoring it and making sure that you're building as you go and being smart to not reaggravate it and make sure that he's at his peak level for Sunday.

On some coaches being better suited for college…

I've never coached in college. I don't know what that experience is like. I could tell you about the Kew Colts and the Australian Football League. I would do that again. That was a great experience. Not looking to go to the Kew Colts. I'm happy to be with the New York Jets. (Laughter). I'm just telling you how I feel. It was a great experience at 22 years old, I couldn't have asked for a better introduction to football and a better group of guys. I don't really have a basis in terms of what the college experience is like, and I've really enjoyed being a professional football coach. So it's hard for me to give you a comparison.

On Tom Brady…

You can't say enough about Tom Brady. He's just an incredible person to go with the fact that he's an incredible player and he's another guy that came in, not very highly drafted, but he just worked and worked. After practice, he worked in the meetings; he's a great example of the combination of ability and hard work translating into great success. I'd group David Givens into that, as well. Those two guys would work every day after practice and sometimes it didn't look very good. But it looks pretty good right now.

On talking to Brady…

He called me when I got the job here. He did call to congratulate me. We had a good relationship and we have a good relationship. During the season, you don't talk to the players that are on other teams, but he's always been very supportive and nice. I really like Tom a lot as a person.

On Curtis Martin’s situation going into the season…

We were always very hopeful that it could work out. It was one of those things where you wanted to give him the most time possible and keep all of the windows open.

We really liked Leon (Washington) in the draft and felt that he had the potential to do a lot of positive things, which he has done, and it was something that we had addressed in the draft and through the trade for Kevan (Barlow). The guys we had here, we understood that things may not be a traditional package but a package that we could definitely be successful with.

On if Dyson will play…

How we have him listed on the injury report is how he is.

[Sperm Edwards]

http://www.newyorkjets.com/news/articles/show_permalink/it-s-a-new-ballgame

New York Jets’ QB Chad Pennington, 1.4

On being named the AP Comeback Player of the Year…

Understanding the process that I’ve gone through, understanding the journey that I’ve been through thus far makes it special knowing that hard work does pay and that having the right attitude and believing in working hard and treating people right and going about doing your business the right way, it actually matters. There are so many people who have been involved in this process, that have been selfless and provided me the resources and opportunities to get healthy it’s definitely special.

On the quarterback competition in training camp…

When you’re put in difficult situations, you have to fight human nature sometimes. Human nature sometimes, wants us to feel sorry for ourselves and come up with excuses and look for ways to get out of a situation. I just choose not to listen to my own human nature. I choose to look at it as an opportunity; I understand the business side of this league and of this team and I used it as an inspiration and as a challenge for myself and maybe as an inspiration to other people to say, ‘Hey, take a situation, whatever that situations is, work very hard at it, have a very good attitude and make the best out of it and let things fall where they may.’

On having to prove himself again…

Sometimes during the rehab and sometimes during the competition, I think I had to look at it as if the slate was wiped clean and what I had done in the past did not matter anymore. In this business, the past is exactly that, it’s history. It’s about how you perform, how you produce, how you handle your business in the now. In this business, being an athlete, you have to learn from the past, you can’t worry about the future and you have to really concentrate on the now. If this situation did anything for me, it showed me how important staying in the present and staying in the now is. That’s the only part of your life that you can control at that moment. You can’t control the past, you have no idea what the future holds, the present is what you can take control of; it’s the part that you can affect.

On if he ever had any doubts that he could make it back…

The lowest point was the two weeks after the initial injury, the second time around, not having a goal, not having a challenge, not having a carrot out in front of you. As an athlete, that’s a bad place to be, sort of like the Twilight Zone. You have no drive; you have nothing to go for. That was the lowest point, not knowing what direction I would go in. Whether it was good or bad, whether it was with football or without football, I had no idea. Once we had the surgery and the medical staff laid out a plan, then I had a challenge ahead of me, I had a goal, I had something to go after with my total mindset and my attitude changed and I was starting to get back to normal.

New York Jets’ WR Jerricho Cotchery, 1.4

On what Chad Pennington has brought to this team…

Everything we’ve done this year is based on what he has done this year. He has come back from what no one thought he would come back from and to be able to go out there and perform and lead the team the way he’s led it to get us in the position that we are in right now is unbelievable.

On the inspiration Chad Pennington has been…

Everything he has accomplished this year, he’s earned it. He won the job [as quarterback], it was a difficult road ahead for him in the off-season to be able to fight through what he was going through. He’s led this team in an incredible way this year and everyone on the team has fed off of him, not just the offense, everyone on the team has fed off that.

On New England’s defense…

It’s very tough and it’s tougher in the playoffs, because those guys play well as a team. You have great guys here and there on defense, but these guys play well collectively. All of those guys can make plays, but you’ve never seen a team that’s on one page like their defense is.

On New England’s defense without Rodney Harrison…

The good thing about their defense is they can plug guys in and out. Obviously, if you loose a player of his caliber, it’s going to hurt somewhat, but they do a good job of plugging guys in and I give credit to the guys that are stepping in and doing their job. We’re going to have to go out, execute and not make any mistakes to put them in a position where they can run us out of the stadium.

New York Jets’ RB Leon Washington, 1.4

On the confidence of the Jets…

We’re confident, but at the same time we do realize the task that we have at hand. We’re dealing with Super Bowl Champions in three of the last four years. We’re dealing with team a that is very capable of beating us and we understand that, so we have to go out there and try to execute the practices throughout the week. Hopefully, executing practice will give us confidence going into the game.

On all the talk about coach Mangini and coach Belichick…

That’s between the coaches. As players, we’re going out there and trying to prepare ourselves during the week and leave all that to them [the coaches].

New York Jets’ LB Victor Hobson, 1.4

On when he thought Tom Brady might be something special…

He was always one of those quarterbacks that no matter what the score was, if we were down, as a defensive unit and as a team, we felt confident that he would be the guy to bring us back. That was a feeling that we always had through college and obviously, it translated through his play in the NFL.

On Tom Brady being the best playoff quarterback…

I think his record speaks for itself. There aren’t too many with winning records like that in the playoffs, especially when it’s a tournament. If you loose, you go home and he’s been able to move on.

On New England’s running game…

Like you said, their running game does present a lot of problems. Corey Dillon and Laurence Maroney, those are two physical backs and they have a solid offensive line who has been together, who play together and work very well together. We’re going to have to go out there, we’re going to have to be able to execute and we’re going to have to do different things to try and slow that down as much as possible.

New York Jets’ WR Laveranues Coles, 1.4

On other people finally recognizing what Chad Pennington has been through…

I don’t think it’s enough, especially with everything he went through this off-season. For him, it’s just scratching the surface, nobody can say what he’s went through off the field as well as on the field to get to this point. I think he’s well-deserving and there should be more to come along with that.

On being an underdog…

It doesn’t bother me at all, it’s just people making speculations about a game. Again, they didn’t expect us to be here, they said we wouldn’t be here in the beginning of the season, so how much weight can you put on any body that’s putting anything on us now?

On whether Pennington and Coles thought the Jets would be successful this year…

Deep down inside I think him and I both knew that he would be here at this point. We talked all during last season and during the off-season, so personally we knew. It’s just the people outside this locker room that don’t know us personally that thought he wouldn’t be here.

On New England’s defense without Rodney Harrison…

I think it’s pretty much the same. He has a lot of leadership skills and he gets guys pointed in the right direction, but each time we’ve played against them their secondary has done an excellent job with us.

On being comfortable going across the middle of the field without Rodney Harrison…

I’m never comfortable going across the middle of the field I don’t care who’s out there. That’s just the way the game goes. It is what it is, it’s a playoff game, if you can’t get excited for this then what can you get excited for?

On the way New England covers him…

Most teams pretty much do the same thing, they try to role their coverage towards me basically to take away the reads. If you know an offensive game plan, there are different reads based on which way a defensive player rotates and if a defensive player rotates my way or the coverage predicates my way, it basically takes Chad off me and puts him on another progression. That’s what a lot of teams try to do, not only them. It just gives other guys opportunities to make plays, Jerricho Cotchery is making plays, Justin McCareins is making plays and Brad Smith is making plays, so it’s one of those things where you decide who’s going to make the play against you and I think other guys are stepping up and taking over that role just fine.

New York Jets’ LB Jonathan Vilma, 1.4

On the insight coach Mangini has given as far as New England’s game plan…

He hasn’t given us much insight into their game plan, he’s just made mention of what they’ve done in the past as far as how they’ve prepared for the playoffs. Aside from that, he probably knows a little bit more than most, because he’s been there, but they can come out with anything. Especially with Brady back there, he’s very capable of adjusting to new things and executing a new offense.

On why the defense began to click in the last New England matchup…

We knew what to do, it was really more that we wanted to take it to the offense instead of the offense taking it to us. We were at the point where as a team, we decided as a team or as a defense that we wanted to take it to the offense. We wanted to dictate to the offense how the game was going to be played. If they’re going to hit a big play, fine, they hit a big play against us in New England, but for the most part, we want to put pressure on them and get after them. That’s what we did last time. I don’t know what Bob [sutton] has in store for this coming Sunday, he might switch it around and he might not, but that was the big thing— that we wanted to dictate the offense.

On the confidence level of the Jets…

We’re taking it as another game. Obviously, it’s the playoffs and we’re excited, but right now we’re not in the Super Bowl and we’re not down in Miami practicing. There’s nothing to be, one, oh so nervous about and two, oh so confident about. We have to be even-keeled and be ready for whatever happens Sunday.

New York Jets’ DE Bobby Hamilton, 1.4

On setting the blueprint for other teams to get at Tom Brady…

We know what type of quarterback he is. Tom is a great quarterback, he’s going to see that and he’s going to evaluate himself, but we can’t worry about that the only thing we can worry about is what we’re going to have to do to go out there and play. We have to go out there, execute and do the things we can to win the game. We know the coaches are going to give us a good game plan to go out there and play, but we know what type of game we’re going into with Tom Brady. Tom Brady is going to be pumped and he’s going to get his guys in the right direction.

On disguising looks on defense in the last matchup…

It doesn’t matter about the game plan we used in the regular season. We went up there and got a ‘W’, they won one, but that’s over with. It’s a new ballgame right now, everybody is 0-0. We just have to go out there and do what we have to do to get a ‘W’. Once again, I know Tom Brady is going to have those guys on the right road, but you have to understand they have three good backs too, so we know it’s going to be a good game plan.

New York Jets’ G Pete Kendall, 1.4

On Chad Pennington being named AP Comeback Player of the Year…

I feel good for him, that he’s made it through 16 games and has had a pretty solid season for us, regardless of whether he won this award or not.

On Chad Pennington arm-strength making a quarterback…

I think that’s part of it and clearly a lot of people think it’s the biggest part of it. I agree with Laveranues [Coles], I don’t think Chad Pennington gets enough credit. When a quarterback knows where he’s going with the ball, he can throw it earlier than some kid with a big arm. There are plenty of guys with a big arm who were flamed out, because they didn’t know how to run an offense. They don’t know where to throw the ball, they can’t diagnose the defense pre-snap and make an adjustment after the snap. A lot of the intangibles that Chad has, most quarterbacks don’t have; his ability to lead an offense and to read defenses. He’s so smart and determined that any perceived shortcoming in arm-strength, I think he’s done quite a job overcoming.

On what Chad Pennington needs to do to get the recognition he deserves…

I don’t know what it’ll take, I think he took a big step towards that this year winning the award, playing 16 games and overcoming all the adversity. I guess it is a fickle thing, support from the public. Particularly here in New York, it’s a ‘what have you done for me lately’ market, just like it is in Boston.