By Tom Rock
A big day for Mangini. Rain. And lots of it. The Penguin loves the precipitation. And if the Jets somehow win their game on Sunday in equally wet conditions, you can bet your soggy wrinkled fingers that the players will point to today’s practice as a big reason.
Of course, if no one is able to play next Thursday because they all have pneumonia … the sword cuts both ways.
Yes, a week from today we’ll be in Dallas. Not much for Jets fans to be thankful for in a football sense. I’ll give you a week to brainstorm and come up with a few things.
Walked out to watch practice today and the audio portion of the presentation – meaning the music that accompanies practices – was playing a crowd chanting “De-Fense! De-Fense!” Then they piped in some awful song about Steelers Country. It sounded like the Jets were getting ready for a road game. Maybe, in a way, they are.
I’ve spoken to a lot of Jets season ticket holders who are dumping their tickets for this game. In fact, I had a chance to speak with Willie Colon, the Steelers’ right tackle, who played at Hofstra and is from the Bronx. He said he told his friends and family that they should get their own tickets because they’ll probably be able to find better seats than he would be able to provide for them. Jets CB Darrelle Revis, a Pittsburgh native, said he’s only filled about a half dozen ticket requests. The rest of the people coming will find their own tickets. And yesterday, Curtis Martin talked about his guest list of about 50 people, most of them who will be wearing black and gold and waving Terrible Towels.
Stacy Tutt appeared to injure his right leg early in practice today, but he returned after a little while.
In the locker room, some people were flocking around Joe Kowalewski to chronicle his inspiring story of tryout-turned-NFL touchdown receiver. He’s fitting into his stardom rather well, considering he actually blew off the crowd at one point and ducked into the trainer’s room.