E-Boland & Gang Green

By Tom Rock

It was hot. It was sticky. It was the longest practice of training camp. And they loved it.

At least two in particular did. I’m speaking of Michael Haynes and Andre Wadsworth, two guys who thought their football careers were through. Now they’re drenched in sweat, hurting from two-a-days, and thrilled to pieces. They’re the character guys the Jets are always talking about wanting to keep around. Now all they have to do is prove their worth on the field.

Speaking of character, the Jets allowed both TE Chris Baker and WR Justin McCareins to take the day off. It was a reward for winning an offseason contest which went unspecified by Mangini. Baker gladly stood on the sidelines and watched the proceedings, but McCareins was on the field in full pads. According to the Jets PR staff, he wanted to “save his freebie.” I guess he thinks it’s going to get hotter before it gets cooler. Quite a transformation for McCareins, from a wanted poster last year to Mangini poster boy this season.

Brad Smith made three remarkable catches as a WR today, one of them one-handed while spinning around to keep his feet in bounds. Maybe he should stop making those grabs, he’s starting to make his competition at QB look a little too good! Stacy Tutt also made a nice leaping catch over the middle in 1-on-1 route-running drills.

Bobby Hamilton had to leave practice after it appeared that the big guy had his leg rolled. He was able to walk off the field and stuck around for a little while, but eventually he walked into the training room and missed the last, oh, third or so of practice. It looked like his left hip was the problem.

The Jets offense scored I a hurry-up situation when Pennington hit McCareins for a 10-yard pass on fourth down with eight seconds remaining. Nugent hit the PAT to give the Jets the lead (24-23 over the Jets), but not until after a delay of game penalty was called. The team was a little too busy celebrating it’s victory, even when it was only a tie.

Not much from Pete Kendall today, other than the fact that he was on the field practicing and off the field signing autographs. Each day certain players are selected to sign at different locations around the field after practice, and today was Pete’s turn to work the rope line by the VIP tent. He signed a few hats and shirts, but no contract offers.

By the way, in contrast to Wadsworth and Haynes, Pete’s take on training camp was “It’s too hot and it’s too long.”

Finally, don't plan on coming out to watch practice on Sunday. The Jets are moving the workout to a top-secret, Dick Cheney-like, undisclosed location and it will not be open to the public. It'll be just like last year, when the team practiced travelling to Gi@#&$ Stadium. Only this time, the Jets had a run in with the Police. That's right, Sting and the boys will be Syncronicity-ing at the Meadowlands so the Jets had to look elsewhere.