E-Boland & Gang Green

By Tom Rock

Mangini dropped some lingo on us today. My ears always perk up when I hear the vernacular of football. It’s always fascinated me. I’m a bit of a jargon hound. I remember during training camp Andre Dyson (remember him? Oh, wait he’s still here) was talking about a defensive technique called press bell, in which a CB comes up and pretends like he’s going to press a WR, then pulls back at the last second.

Anyway, today Mangini was talking about birds and rabbits. Yes, birds and rabbits. And how to defend them. Any guess on what those terms mean?

Well, a bird is a pass play and a rabbit is a running play. Makes sense when you think about it. With a rookie starting quarterback for the Bills this Sunday, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of rabbits on the field.

Not sure how this came up, but a significant portion of today’s presser with Mangini had to do with tipping waiters and waitresses. Seriously, there were four questions on the subject (though one was thrown out in jest/exasperation). Apparently there’s a serious problem coursing through the NFL about players either not believing in the tipping process or under-tipping. Roy Williams apparently stiffed a pizza delivery guy recently and has led to this becoming an issue. They may say they give 110 percent on the field, but apparently they give less than 15 percent at the table. First dogfighting, now this. I have a call into NFL spokesman Greg Aiello for comment and clarification on the topic.

I asked Mangini if he learned anything from last year’s loss to the Bills. It was a 31-13 defeat that nearly derailed the Jets from the playoffs. Mangini said he looked back on his notes from that week and thought that the week of practice was not effective. “There’s always a correlation between how you practice and how you play,” he said.

By the way, this is post number 300 on the blog! Balloons and streamers and trumpets are proclaiming the significance in the press room right now. Oh, it's too bad you can't see it!