11/03 – It's that time of year again. Time to start thinking about ... the Pro Bowl. Specifically, the polls are open for Jets fans and for all NFL fans to begin casting their ballots for their favorite players to participate in the 2010 Pro Bowl. Balloting for the Pro Bowl will conclude on Monday, Dec. 21, following the conclusion of the Monday night Green Bay–Chicago game, and the AFC and NFC teams will be announced on Tuesday, Dec. 29, at 4 p.m. on a special "NFL Total Access 2010 Pro Bowl Selection Show" on NFL Network. This season's game is different from any other in NFL history. For one thing, for the first time since 1979, the Pro Bowl won't be played at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii. The game this year will be played at Land Shark Stadium. For another, the Pro Bowl will be played the week before the Super Bowl, not the week after. That means that one week after the conference championship games, on Sunday, Jan. 31, 2010, football fans can begin a pigskin orgy in South Florida, checking out the best players from all but two NFL teams, the teams that will be involved the following Sunday, Feb. 7, in the Super Bowl XLIV. Last year's Pro Bowl was a distinctive game for Jets fans, since a franchise-record seven players were selected to play in the game. Brett Favre, one of the three top fan vote-getters last year, bowed out due to injury, but six Jets played in the game: RBs Thomas Jones and Leon Washington, G Alan Faneca, C Nick Mangold, NT Kris Jenkins and CB Darrelle Revis. The season-ending injuries suffered by Washington and Jenkins have kept them off this year's ballot, but the other four participants are ready, willing and able to return to the all-star game. And a few other Jets, such as linebacker David Harris, tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson and safety Kerry Rhodes, are eager to break through with their first Pro Bowl nomination. The AFC and NFC all-star squads are based on the consensus votes of fans, players and coaches. Each group’s vote counts one-third toward determining the 43-man rosters that represent the American Football Conference and National Football Conference in the Pro Bowl. NFL players and coaches will cast their votes on December 22-23. The NFL is the only sports league that combines voting by fans, coaches and players to determine its all-star teams. It was the first professional sports league to offer online all-star voting in 1995. So if you want to have a say in who plays in this season's NFL all-star game, vote here. And if you want to attend the 2010 Pro Bowl, you can buy tickets here or at ticketmaster.com or by calling 800-745-3000.

The Pro Bowl Polls Are Now Open

11/06 – Heading into the midseason bye weekend, we'll be reviewing and previewing the Jets' units this week. Today: Defense.     The Jets head into this bye weekend with the No. 2 defense in the NFL, allowing only 273.4 a game at the midway point in their season. Despite their 4-4 record after a 3-0 start, there is a lot of optimism heading into the final eight games. “I think we’re figuring out a lot about ourselves,” said linebacker Bart Scott. “We’re finding out our identity and how we can be what we can be.” Defensive coordinator Mike Pettine’s unit has had several great performances against some of the most explosive offenses in the NFL. They’ve played well enough to win each game, with the one asterisk being the Monday night showdown when the Dolphins racked up 413 offensive yards. Cornerback Darrelle Revis said it was “a game that we wanted to get back” heading into the Week 8 rematch. In that second ‘Fins game, the defense excelled, allowing only 104 offensive yards, 52 on the ground to the No. 2 rushing offense coming in, while giving up only nine offensive points. That’s only 92 offensive points in eight games (11.5), with 31 of them given up in the Week 5 loss at Miami. New York’s AFC representatives did not allow an offensive touchdown in the first nine quarters of this season, the first time an NFL team had accomplished this to start a season since 2006, and the first time the Jets did it at any time in a season since November 2000. “Our bravado’s not going to change,” said S Kerry Rhodes, third on the team with 37 tackles. “I know were going to come back the same way, hungry.” The Jets have held opposing QBs to a combined 68.5 passer rating, including the Week 2 home victory over the Patriots when Tom Brady's rating in his first loss at the Meadowlands was 53.1. They’ve picked off opposing QBs seven times. Revis, who leads the defense with two interceptions and 12 pass defenses, has established himself as one of the best corners in the league, especially after the numbers put up by some of the league's premier receivers in the first eight games: Andre Johnson, Houston, four catches, 35 yards. Randy Moss, New England, 4-24, Marques Colston, New Orleans, 2-33. Terrell Owens, Buffalo, 3-13. At RCB the Green & White began the season with CB Lito Sheppard, but the former Eagle has grabbed only one interception while playing in three out of the eight games due to his hamstring injury, and that has tested the secondary’s depth. Second-year CB Dwight Lowery has played well in Sheppard’s spot, recording five pass deflections, including one pick, and a fumble recovery. “There are still eight games left in the season and you think what could happen,” Lowery said. “You can never count a team out because a team could just get hot and start clicking. You want to get hot at the right time.” Early in the season the sack numbers were low, although the D applied plenty of pressure on opposing QBs. But shortly after return of LB Calvin Pace, their biggest pass rusher from last season, in Week 5, the Jets accumulated nine sacks of opposing QBs in the Oakland and Miami games leading into the bye. The breakout game for Pace, whom head coach Rex Ryan labeled a "gazelle," came in Week 7 when he had three sacks, two of them forcing fumbles that led to touchdowns as the Jets blanked the Raiders, 38-0 for the most lopsided shutout in franchise regular-season history. “There’s been talk around here about what we can’t do,” said DE Marques Douglas, who has 1.5 sacks and 5.5 tackles at or behind the line. “There were guys that were brought in here like me as pass rushers. Now 10 years later people say we can’t rush the passer. And that’s only one aspect of our game.” The Jets suffered a big blow when DT Kris Jenkins went out for the season with a torn ACL in the Week 6 loss to the Bills. The committee approach of Sione Pouha, Mike DeVito, Howard Green and Douglas has done a nice job filling Big Jenks' shoes. “It was good to see those guys step up,” said Pettine after the Raiders game. “That’s a prideful group and I think they stepped up to the challenge.” Though injuries are part of the game and nothing is guaranteed, the time off should increase the chances of getting some banged-up players back such as Sheppard. “We have a big eight-game stretch and we’re definitely going to be prepared,” said S Jim Leonhard. “We’ll get a couple guys back physically in the next couple weeks. That will really help our team as well.” One more defensive highlight for the Jets: Opponents are 0-for-8 against Pettine’s crew on fourth down, making the Green & White the only NFL team that hasn't allowed a fourth-down conversion this season. “There are a lot of good things to build on,” said Green. “We know that we can play and we know that we’re productive at times so we just have to come back and put that all together and make sure that we do it all consistently at one time.” The LB tandem of David Harris and Scott is fast becoming the best duo in the league. Harris, making a push for his first Pro Bowl, has a team-leading 76 tackles by coaches' breakdown, leads the Jets with 3.5 sacks and has a forced fumble and an interception. The “Madbacker” has become an outspoken leader in his first year since coming over from the Ravens along with Douglas and Leonhard. Scott is second on the team with 59 tackles and leads the team with 6.5 tackles for loss/no gain. “The NFL season is a roller coaster,” he said after the second ‘Fins game. “You’re going to have your ups and downs. It’s about how you prepare and how you respond to the adversity. “You can pack it in as soon as something goes bad and give up or you can help right the ship. I’ve been on teams before that won eight, nine games in a row. I go back on what I know. I know the season isn’t over.” Wednesday: Offense   Sunday: Special Teams

Big Games for the D, and It's Not Over Yet

11/06 – Excerpt from Steve Serby's book, "No Substitute for Sundays: Brett Favre and His Year in the Huddle with the New York Jets." By STEVE SERBY Now it was a Monday night in the first week of August — three nights before the preseason opener in Cleveland — and GM Mike Tannenbaum, in his office at Weeb Ewbank Hall, was on the telephone giving Favre, at home in Hattiesburg, the sales pitch of a lifetime. It lasted twenty minutes. Tannenbaum: "Look, you won't be practicing in Times Square. The only time you'll see a big building, Brett, is when you want to see one, I promise you. It's not what you think it is. In terms of where we're gonna be is rural New Jersey. There are a lot of good people here ... we have four first-round picks on the offensive line ... You can make your own judgment, I think Green Bay has good skill players, but so do we. I feel like we have a good team ... you give us an opportunity to make it better. You don't know me, I don't know you, but from everything I understand about you, we have a lot of things in common in terms of how we see building teams, and people, and things like that." Did Favre, a notorious hunter, have any specific concern at that point? "I think the area, the media, the traffic," Tannenbaum recalled. Finally, Favre told Tannenbaum: "We'll talk soon." Indeed, in a November 1997 Playboy magazine interview, Favre had expressed reservations about playing in New York. Playboy: When Atlanta drafted you in 1991, the Jets were poised to take you on the next pick. Would you have liked being Broadway Brett? Favre: I didn't want to be. You can own New York if you do great, but if you screw up the media and fans will disown you. Atlanta was closer to home. I was relieved to hear, "Atlanta takes Favre with the 33rd pick." Woody Johnson, no stranger to hunting himself, delivered his pitch the next day from his Manhattan office. Johnson was a supporter of President Bush, and in 1998, he impressed pro-Bush business leaders in Texas by showing up for a bird-hunting trip with a powerful elephant gun he had used to hunt game in Africa. And it just so happened that Johnson had an invaluable bargaining chip in his hip pocket — his six hundred acre farm compound in Bedminster Township, some ten minutes from Jets headquarters. A veritable Hattiesburg North. "There's a lot of rural qualities in New Jersey that people just don't know about, or in New York," Johnson would say. "They just don't think it's here." For Favre, Johnson's compound would indeed serve as Hattiesburg North. It was the perfect escape on Mondays or Tuesdays, the players' day off, and was welcome to all Jets. "He did bow and muskets," Johnson would recall about Favre. "He liked to go by himself. It's great for bird watching — we've had bear there, there's coyotes, all kinds of wildlife ... turkey ... deer." Eric Mangini's pitch came later that night, after 8 p.m., in Tannenbaum's office. "It was really funny," Tannenbaum remembered. "Eric had done a lot of work on hunting ... he had all sorts of statistics about the state of New Jersey and hunting. He was like a chamber of commerce guy. He had like a script ready. He just ripped it out of his shorts pocket." Tannenbaum was fairly certain that Mangini didn't know the difference between a buck and a lamb. "And here he is, enumerating all these seasons, and licenses, and what you can kill, and where you can kill 'em. He was really on his game." Mangini talked about the team he would be coaching, of course. "We have a lot of good people in the lockerroom," he told Favre. "We have a lot of people that really care about football. You'll be very comfortable in our lockerroom." His pitch lasted an hour. Tannenbaum chimed in with a second pitch that lasted another thirty minutes. It only helped change the course of NFL, Jets and Packers history. It was a two-horse race, but speculation was mounting that the Packers were on the verge of trading Favre to the Bucs. Tampa Bay head coach Jon Gruden, a notorious collector of quarterbacks, wasn't enthralled with incumbent starter Jeff Garcia. Grant Goetsch, vice president of Wisconsin Aviation, was the pilot on the Wednesday noon flight that took Favre, his wife and agent from Green Bay back to Hattiesburg–Laurel Regional Airport. "He didn't want to really go to the Jets ... The comment was made that he wasn't as interested in the Jets ... It was a somber trip," Goetsch told the Watertown Daily Times. The Jets were boarding for their Wednesday Delta charter to Cleveland. "I was standing right outside the gate; I'm like ten feet away from getting on the plane," Tannenbaum said. That's where he answered a cloak-and-dagger call informing him that Favre was leaving Green Bay and flying home to Mississippi. "But Tampa Bay is breathing down his neck," the man said. "If you fly to Cleveland, he could very well be a Buc." The caller was an anonymous NFL source. "He said Tampa Bay's really trying to put pressure on Green Bay to get a trade done," Tannenbaum recalled. "If you're out of pocket for two hours, this thing could be over." Tannenbaum knew he had to rush back to Weeb Ewbank Hall and had Casey Lane of the club's operations staff take him there. If worse came to worst, he would fly to Cleveland the next day. "I'll kill myself (if), because I'm on a team charter, we lost out on this trade," he thought. "I told (director of security Steve) Yarnell to tell Eric I wasn't going." Meghan Gilmore, the Jets media relations coordinator, noticed the empty seat in the first-class cabin. "I had an inkling of what was happening," she said, "because Mike wouldn't miss a plane unless something very important was going on ... but to know that it was Brett was a shock." Tannenbaum's office quickly transformed into a beehive of activity. "We had this great ten-page document on all things Brett," Tannenbaum said. "Age of successful quarterbacks ... his game-by-game breakdown ... his breakdown by months ... we had it all flushed out." Senior director of media relations Bruce Speight, getting ready for the CBS production meeting on the second floor of the Cleveland downtown Marriott, received an e-mail from Tannenbaum at 7:19 p.m.: "I need you to be ready at a moment's notice — be ready." Speight hadn't noticed Tannenbaum's empty seat on the plane. He thought the general manager was in his hotel suite. Speight e-mailed back, "Where do you want me positioned?" Tannenbaum's return e-mail: "I don't know. You there, I'm here." Speight e-mailed back, "I will come over and wait outside your suite." Tannenbaum's return e-mail: "Bruce, I'm in Long Island. I didn't get on the plane." It hit Speight like a Favre fastball between the eyes. "Whoa," he said to himself, "this thing is serious!" Speight instructed director of media relations David Tratner to skip the production meeting and head to his room to begin working on a press release and alerted senior manager of public and media relations Jared Winley and Gilmore that something might be going down. There was also the problematic matter of getting Pennington to the airport for the last flight to New York, if need be, at 8:40 p.m. Tannenbaum sent Speight this e-mail at 7:27: "Be on standby — I'll keep you posted," followed by a list of flight time departures from Cleveland to New York. Speight e-mailed back at 7:29: "To confirm, you want me to pull Chad and get him to the airport." Tannenbaum's 7:30 e-mail read: "If and when it's necessary be ready; nothing yet, however." At 8:30 p.m., Speight and his PR staff met in Tratner's room to brainstorm. "Let's plan as if this press conference is going to happen," Speight told them, "because if it doesn't happen, we're fine." So many questions — Could they hold a Brett Favre press conference at the hotel? How much time would the media need to get there? How would they get a big enough backdrop from New York to Cleveland? — so little time, perhaps. At least Tratner had a draft of the press release ready. "If we had to pull the trigger, we could," Speight recalled. The drama had ratcheted up considerably back inside Weeb Ewbank Hall, an ebb and flow of highs and lows that had Tannenbaum and his minions on pins and needles. At one point, Tannenbaum was getting word that Brett the Jet might very well be nothing more than a pipe dream, and he sagged. He called his wife, Michelle. "It's over," he told her. She consoled him and said, "Okay, go get a good night's sleep." Tannenbaum, however, stubbornly forged ahead, seemingly against all odds. It ain't over till it's over." A couple of hours later, I'm still trying to keep this thing alive," he recalled. "I finally got (Favre's agent) Bus Cook on the phone." Cook told him, "Right now he feels more comfortable going with Tampa Bay." "I wanted to know why," Tannenbaum recalled. "He wouldn't tell me why." But Tannenbaum, negotiations concluded, had an important ally on his side: the Green Bay Packers. "Green Bay wants to wait as long as possible," Tannenbaum recalled. "They prefer to trade him to us." Perfectly logical: the Jets are in the AFC. The Bucs, like the Packers, are in the NFC. "The reason we're still alive is because they want him to come to New York," Tannenbaum added. Tannenbaum was not about to consummate any blockbuster trade, however, if there was a good chance that Favre would be averse to coming to New York. But Team Favre favored Tampa Bay. "They have one more vote," Tannenbaum recalled. "They vote for Tampa Bay." Cook called Tannenbaum back. "Mike," he said, "he does not NOT like you guys. He feels more comfortable in Tampa because of the offense and Jon Gruden." Cook was noncommittal on the notion of Jet Favre. "I'm not saying he's not coming; I'm not saying he is," the agent said. It was ten o'clock when Tannenbaum initiated a three-way conversation with Johnson, who was in his Manhattan apartment, and Mangini in Cleveland. "Look guys," Tannenbaum said, "what do you want to do here? We could trade for him — I think he's gonna come; he's preferring Tampa Bay over us. We could take a calculated risk — but what happens if he doesn't show up? So I think he may come? Yeah, I think he may come. I can't promise you that." Johnson was satisfied that the Jets had done everything in their power to make it happen. "I do remember Eric saying he felt he had a good conversation with Brett and he felt Brett would come as well," Tannenbaum recalled. Speight was getting restless. He e-mailed Tannenbaum at 10:30: "Your wingman is still on high alert. Any update?" Seconds later, Tannenbaum e-mailed back: "Hang in there my man." Tannenbaum, the trade papers on his desk, called Thompson. It was nearing 11 o'clock. "Ted," he said, "we're gonna do it." "Sign those trade papers right now," Thompson said. Brett Favre was a Jet. But only if he wanted to be a Jet. At 11:07, Tannenbaum e-mailed Speight: "We need to speak ASAP." Speight had closed his eyes; his BlackBerry was next to him in bed. "For whatever reason, it didn't vibrate," he recalled. At 11:10, his hotel room telephone rang. It was Tannenbaum. "We're still in this thing," he told Speight. Tannenbaum called Cook. "I got some interesting news for you," he began. "We just traded for a guy named Brett Favre." Cook was flabbergasted. "You did what? I can't believe you just did that!" Tannenbaum told him, "We just had to have Brett." Cook said, "Okay, I'll call you back." Recalled Tannenbaum, "I'm thinking, 'Oh boy, it's not exactly what I wanted to hear.' I'm walking back and forth in my office: 'Come on, come on, call!' He called back six minutes later. At the time, it felt like six hours." Then, at 11:28, Tannenbaum sent out another e-mail to Speight and cc'd Johnson, Mangini and executive vice president for business operations Matt Higgins. "We have signed trade papers; the agent knows, no reaction from the player yet." At 11:46, Speight received this e-mail from Tannenbaum: "No word from the Favre camp." Until Cook called Tannenbaum and asked, "Okay, what's gonna happen now?" Tannenbaum: "I'll feel a lot better if I can talk to Brett, even if it's for thirty seconds." Cook put Tannenbaum on hold and put Favre's wife, Deanna, on the phone. "Hey, Mike," she said. Tannenbaum was tickled that he could hear happiness and relief in her voice. "Hey, Deanna," he said, "we're gonna make this work. We couldn't be more excited. It's gonna work out." Then he asked, "Can I speak to Brett?" Brett the Jet, that is. "I think you're gonna be really happy here," Tannenbaum told his new quarterback. "Do you have any concerns?" "Yeah," Favre said, "what's the dress code on away games?" "It's usually coat and tie," Tannenbaum said. "I like to wear camouflage on away games," Favre said. Tannenbaum was still in make-a-deal mode. "If you can wear camouflage," he said, "are you a Jet?" "Well, can I wear camouflage?" Favre asked. "He said yes and I said yes," Tannenbaum recalled. At 12:14 a.m., Tannenbaum sent this joyous e-mail to Speight, and cc'd Johnson, Mangini and Higgins: "I have great F------G NEWS! CALL ME! GREAT NEWS!!!!!!!!!!! There were eleven exclamation points at the end of it.

How the Jets Stole Favre from the Bucs