Mason NYJETS best chance of a Super Bowl

[visajets]

http://www.nj.com/jets/index.ssf/2011/08/for_derrick_mason_jets_represe.html

For Derrick Mason, Jets represented best chance at an elusive Super Bowl

Published: Sunday, August 07, 2011, 5:22 PM Updated: Sunday, August 07, 2011, 5:42 PM

By Conor Orr/The Star-Ledger The Star-Ledger

William Perlman/The Star-LedgerDerrick Mason arrived toward the end of the Jets practice on Sunday afternoon.

Derrick Mason was blunt about his reasoning. As his career wanes, he wanted to play for the Jets because they provided his best chance to win the one game that's eluded him in 14 previous NFL seasons.

"I'm coming to the end of my career," Mason, who confirmed he signed a two-year deal, said. "I can still play a lot of good football, but I wanted to take every opportunity to try and win the Super Bowl and for me, this is the best place to try and do that.

"There were offers, sometimes you just have to see what outweighs, I've been going on 15 years now and funds were not No. 1 on my list so, No. 1 on my list was to win and to win quickly. There were other offers at other places but like I said, this was the best fit for me."

He arrived toward the end of practice this afternoon and hopes to join the team in workouts "ASAP."

Mason, who has been with Baltimore since 2005, said he was shocked when the Ravens released him soon after the lockout ended, but that it didn't ultimately play a factor in his decision to come to New York.

"Was I blindsided? Yeah, I was," he said. "When you're blindsided yeah, you're upset but that could be with any job where you felt you were going into a situation where you were on the cusp of something special and you never thought you would be released or fired -- you would be upset.

"I had my moment but after that I understood. It's the business of football. It's happened to me before and it happened to me again."

He said that Rex Ryan's sales pitch helped.

"I felt like I was in college again (talking to Rex)," he said, "you know when you have someone sitting across from you that understands and knows your work and knows that you can play this game and still play at a high level, that means a lot. And that's what coach Rex basically echoed to me -- 'You can still play this game, I've seen tape. You can help us.' And that's all it took, was someone else believing..."

Mason said he doesn't think it will take long to integrate himself into a receiving corps that returns just one regular starter (Santonio Holmes) from last year.

"Those guys, Tone has a report with (Mark) Sanchez already and now it's up to (Plaxico Burress), myself and Sanchez to get that going and as long as we have a common goal it can get done quickly. No one is out there for unselfish reasons."

[Plus One]

We certainly know how to elude the Superbowl.

[Plus One]

"Those guys, Tone has a report with (Mark) Sanchez already and now it's up to (Plaxico Burress), myself and Sanchez to get that going and as long as we have a common goal it can get done quickly. No one is out there for unselfish reasons."

Good to know that Holmes and Sanchez are working on some sort of report together.

And, yeah, we don't want any unselfish players.

[Larz]

take that harbaugh and ozzie and flacco, LOL

[Barcs]

Wow, they gave him a 2 year deal. I had no idea. I thought it was a 1 year. Should be an interesting year at receiver!

[JetsFanFromQueens]

It's nice to know that he came here to win a ring. Lets make it happen. I've already moved on from Jerricho Cotchery completely and can't wait to see Mason help our offense move the football. One of the most underrated players the league has ever seen. 924 career receptions, 11,891 receiving yards, 634 first downs, to go along with 66 TD's? Those are borderline hall of fame numbers. If Mason can give another season of his all, this could become a huge upgrade over Jerricho.

Now, I'm not trying to compare Mason to Randy Moss or anything, but he's only 30 catches away from passing Hines Ward and Randy Moss for 8th on the NFL's all-time receptions list. He's currently 19th all-time in receiving yards, if Mason puts up 1,000 yards this season, he'll pass Irving Fryar for 13th all-time. He's put up 1,000+ yard seasons in 3 of his last 4 seasons with the Ravens, hopefully he'll make it 4 out of his last 5 seasons here with the Jets.

The first video just goes to show how good Mason really is, the 2nd video goes to show what type of toughness, heart and will to win he's always played with. It's an amazing video. This man gives it his all with every snap of the ball.