From the Jets Bears Game 11/19/2006

A Tradition Like Many Others’

This article reminds me of what my father and I do every Jets game as well. Ok, we haven't been doing this since the Shea Days like them, but we have been pretty consistent since 1998. I think we missed ONE game (Buffalo 2004).

I drive from PA (1:45min one way) to sit in a parking lot for three hours thinking about the yard work I didn't finish the day before. You see, it doesn't matter... I've learned that the JETS take priority. It will be 1-2 more years when my son will be old enough to join us, and that in itself will start a new tradition. I like the quote about getting his ashes spread in 4E. So what do you think Dad, put ours in 13C?

A Tradition Like Many Others’
By VINCENT M. MALLOZZI
East Rutherford, N.J.
New York Times

ON a crisp Sunday morning last month, Kevin Carpenter and a dozen friends and relatives gathered in the parking lot at Giants Stadium to prepare themselves for a Jets game, just as they have done for the last 22 years.

Mr. Carpenter, 50, had made the chili the night before, then left that morning at 8:30 — four and a half hours before kickoff — for the 90-minute drive from his home in Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y. Traveling with him were his wife, Deirdre, and the youngest of their four children, 7-year-old Devin, whose face they had painted green and white.

The Carpenters parked in Section 4E, beneath darkening clouds and spiraling footballs. They set up a table and chairs and fired up the grill a few feet in back of the family S.U.V., the one with the plates that read OVRDUE. But these are not vanity plates; they’re more like humility plates. For Jets fans, it has been a long time since 1969, the year their team went to, and won, its only Super Bowl.

“A lot of years, a lot of crazy games and crazy weather,” said Jeremiah Suppes, 65, a retired New York City police detective who drove in from Seaford, N.Y., with the youngest of his three sons, Michael, 36, to join the Carpenter tailgate party. “I have some great memories.”

And the ticket stubs to prove it.

“Take a look at these,” Mr. Suppes said, reaching into the pocket of a bright-green down vest with a fading Jets logo on the chest and pulling out a stack of yellowing stubs that went as far back as 1970, the year he became a Jets season ticket holder.

Mr. Carpenter got his season ticket in the late ’70s. He met Mr. Suppes through mutual friends who all agreed there was really only one proper way to spend an early Sunday: eating, drinking and talking football in parking lots.

“Tailgating at Jet games is a priority,” said Mr. Carpenter, an administrator for the Commack School District, who wore a Jets safari hat and a No. 79 jersey with “M. Powell” across the back (Marvin Powell was an All-Pro offensive tackle in the early ’80s).

Mr. Carpenter’s wife knows all about priorities.

“We cut short our honeymoon in Cancún to make it to a Jets game on time,” she said. “We took the six-day package instead of the full week.”

The Carpenters and the Suppeses are part of a Long Island group whose numbers can swell to 100 or more on any given Sunday and who have been tailgating at Jets games since 1984, the year the team left Shea Stadium for the Meadowlands.

Through rain and snow and heartbreaking losses, Carpenter and company have not lost their enthusiasm for tailgating or for football, which one member of the group, Barry Chapman, a 61-year-old hospital administrator from Bethpage, described as “two separate events.”

“We come out here for this,” said Mr. Chapman, who is Mr. Suppes’s cousin, pointing to the hot dogs and hamburgers sizzling on the grill (he has been known to bring venison in hunting season) and to his fellow tailgaters, who were sipping wine, beer or something stronger while sitting in beach chairs.

“But we go in there for that,” he continued, pointing to the Jets banners hanging from Giants Stadium, where his favorite team was a few hours away from a stirring victory over the Detroit Lions.

Michael Suppes, who followed his father into the New York Police Department, said that Jet-setting at the Meadowlands had led him to miss a number of family functions over the years and often prevented him from making significant Sunday contributions to his other home team.

After a late afternoon game, the return ride to Seaford can be roughly three hours — twice as long as the ride in — leaving Mr. Suppes just enough time to kiss his wife, Deanna, and their 4-year-old daughter, Ciara, goodnight. Then it’s time to crawl into bed, pray for the Jets and go to sleep.

“I remember my dad taking me to Jets games at Shea Stadium when I was a kid, and now we’re together again in New Jersey,” he said. “Anywhere the Jets are, we are.”

Though the team has only once rewarded the Suppeses’ loyalty with a National Football League championship, Michael said that huddling with friends and family — his two brothers, Stephen, 45, and Jeremiah Jr., 38, had to miss the game against the Lions — was motivation enough to keep crossing the Hudson.

“Getting together with everyone is just a lot of fun, a lot of laughs,” he said. “There’s so much work to do at home, but when I come here, I forget about all of that.”

As he spoke, Michael Suppes spotted young Devin Carpenter, who was wearing a No. 87 Laveranues Coles jersey and tossing a football around. Mr. Suppes raised his hands to show that he was open, then hauled in a pass that was on the money.

“You know what?” he said, smiling. “I can always clean the yard next week.”

As game time approached, the tailgaters agreed that if the food tasted good on Sunday afternoons, it tasted even better on those rare Monday nights when the Jets played at home.

“Ahh,” Mr. Chapman said, toasting a lamppost. “There’s nothing so romantic as to be eating lobster under the sodium lights.”

Although members of the group have tailgated together on the road — before Jets games in Miami, Indianapolis and New Orleans, for instance — they have one city they still hope to visit.

“I want to tailgate in the city that hosts the Super Bowl that the Jets are in,” Mr. Carpenter said. “I was 13 years old when we won it last, so wherever it is, whenever it is, I’m going.”

With kickoff less than a half-hour away, the winds started picking up, the sun hid behind some clouds and the temperature dropped. The group had made quite a dent in its bottle of “Jets juice” — vodka turned bright green with food dye.

One event was winding down. The other, equally important, was about to begin.

“You know, when you add it all up, this tailgating thing doesn’t make much sense,” Mr. Carpenter said. “We drive for hours just to sit in a parking lot, sometimes in the freezing cold and rain and snow. But I love doing it, because I love the Jets and I love getting together with friends.

“I told my wife that when I die, I want my ashes spread out right here — in Section 4E.”

Jets 2006 Schedule

I like the Jets Schedule. They play eight games, take a BYE, and then play eight more. The BYE is in a perfect place to cut the season in half. I was nervous at first when I saw the Monday Night game on Christmas, but then realized it is an away game.

Speaking of Monday Night, we got boned and only have one Monday night. We were a little spoiled with having two a season for a while.

Looking over the teams we play, I think Indy, Houston, and Chicago may give us trouble at home. Why are we playing Oakland again, and at Home again? Not worried about them, but thought that was interesting.

We usually play New England at the end of the season and noticed that after week 10, we are done with them.

I wonder how the FLEX scheduling is going to work out. I read that if we are a good team (which we may not be this year), they could bump us to play the Sunday Night game on NBC. How is that going to work with Season Ticket holders?

Jets' Blog Comments on the Schedule:

@ TENNESSEE Date: 09/10/06
Set up an interesting matchup versus Mawae, and possibly a battle of the highly paid clipboard holders?

NEW ENGLAND Date: 09/17/06 -
This team is getting more and more ragged, the Warfield signing helps, but they still won't give up the crown.

@ BUFFALO Date: 09/24/06
Although it was rumored that Losman was on the block, Levy has denied this. Even so, this isn't the kid to lead the team into the future.

INDIANAPOLIS Date: 10/01/06
This won't be pretty.

@ JACKSONVILLE Date: 10/08/06
Hopefully their lineman won't knock out our top two QBs this year.

MIAMI Date: 10/15/06
Jason Taylor hates New York, expect to hear him mouth off leading up to this game.

DETROIT Date: 10/22/06
Fire Millen!

@ CLEVELAND Date: 10/29/06
Mangini versus Crennel... interesting...

BYE Date: 11/05/06
No disappointments this week.

@ NEW ENGLAND Date: 11/12/06
The team will be coming together by this point, hopefully they lose well.

CHICAGO Date: 11/19/06
Stifling D, stinking O ... sound familiar? Well, except for the stifling part...

HOUSTON Date: 11/26/06
See Reggie run.

@ GREEN BAY Date: 12/03/06
One of Favre's last games... will the secondary just give up like he did for Strahan?

BUFFALO Date: 12/10/06
The Jets will win this game and piss me off as we vie for another decent draft selection.

@ MINNESOTA Date: 12/17/06
Whatever you do Jets players, don't accept Smoot's invitation for a party.

@ MIAMI (Mon.) Date: 12/25/06
Ho, ho ho... Christmas Jet fans, your team stinks out loud, but due to demographics, you still get a Monday Night Game. Seeing Jason Taylor cry as people do the JETS chant in Miami would be the best Christmas present I could ask for.

OAKLAND Date: 12/31/06
LaMont Jordan gets another chance to stick it to his old team... hopefully if the Jets are in the running for a high draft pick, Davis won't sabotage the game again and start Tui.

I got my Kevin Mawae Figure

Yes, I'm a kid...

Jets Salary Cap Page: www.jetscap.com

Here is a web site showing the Jets cap:

Time for a Staredown

Time for a Staredown: "What we here at the blog have considered for months now, might actually be come true. With new management in place, the organization has little reason to be loyal to someone with a bloated contact like Pennington's.Rumors are out that Pennington will likely face a cut in salary or be cut outright. Whoever inside the Jets organization that leaked the information made a good move. In one fell swoop, any shock has been disspelled if he is later cut, but also making it clear to Pennington in a warning shot that the organization means business in considering their leader, and such an enormous cap hit, expendable all the same.What do you think the Jets should or will do?"

Article from the Patriots Insider: Mangini having trouble in NY?

Former Patriots' defensive coordinator Eric Mangini has moved on the position of head coach for the New York Jets, but he's in a bit of a bind, and he should have seen it coming. People tried to warn Mangini about the issues facing him if he decided to take the Jets up on their offer, but how many times does a 34-year old get an offer to run one of the 32 NFL franchises?

Patriots' fans have wondered how much input a guy like Mangini had in the game planning for the Patriots, and the answer is quite a bit. As the defensive coordinator, Mangini was responsible for getting the players into schemes that would make it tough for opposing offenses to gain yardage based upon down, distance and situation. He learned the technique under master defensive mind Bill Belichick. Although all game planning is a joint effort that must meet with Belichick's approval, Mangini was the guy making the calls.

One only had to look at Belichick congratulating Mangini on the sidelines after Asante Samuel intercepted a pass from Byron Leftwich during the Patriots' wildcard playoff game against Jacksonville to know that Mangini made the right call. It was the perfect illustration as to how far Belichick's protégé had come during his decade-plus experience in Belichick's system.

The thing Mangini may not have learned from Belichick is when to avoid a bad situation or how to get out of it. During their tenure together in Cleveland, Mangini saw first-hand the type of turmoil caused by ownership issues. Art Modell, then owner of the Cleveland Browns, decided to move his storied franchise to Baltimore for more money. Much to the players, coaches and staff's dismay, he announced his decision during the season. The national outcry over Modell's dealings with Baltimore's representative was harder on the team and the coaches than the owner. Publicly reviled to this day, Modell has yet to return to the city he threw under the bus for the love of the almighty dollar.

Modell's disruptions have left an imprint on Belichick that he's learned never to repeat. In a recent article by Don Banks of Sports Illustrated on the ten-year anniversary of The Move, Belichick talked about how hard it was.

"There's no situation I've been in, before or since, that even would remotely approach that one for negativity and affecting the overall focus of the team," Belichick said. "Not within 100 miles. It touched every single person in the building, every secretary, every ball boy. I felt badly for everyone involved."

The Jets had their own ownership issues during Belichick and Mangini's time as part of the Bill Parcells era in New York. (1997-99). In 1998 Jets owner Leon Hess passed away, and the team was sold. Wealthy corporate magnate Woody Johnson (of Johnson & Johnson fame) emerged as the team's new owner.

As the Parcell's time with the Jets down in New York, Belichick saw more instability. The new owner had plans, Bill Parcells had plans, and Belichick decided it was time to move to a more stable situation where he could make his own plans, or at least choose the people he wanted to work with. Belichick moved on to New England and Mangini joined him there. Patriots' owner Robert Kraft, hired Scott Pioli (A Belichick friend from Cleveland) and the rest of the story is well known - three Super Bowls in five seasons.

In the meantime Jets' owner Woody Johnson hired GM Terry Bradway who hired Herman Edwards. While Edwards and Bradway kept the Jets competitive using some of the players Parcells brought in, they never made it to the big game. Facing roster issues, cap troubles and front office concerns, Edwards' decision to pursue the Kansas City job was almost a given. He knew people in Kansas City, and they wanted him. All he had to do was extricate himself from New York, which he did.

Bradway, and assistant GM Mike Tannenbaum scrambled to find someone who could help pull them out of the mess they were in, and Mangini provided the solution. A mini-Bill as some have called him, Mangini represented something the Jets hadn't had since Parcells was in town - a coach with Super Bowl pedigree.

Mangini has his own set of issues now. He has inherited a Jets organization that interviewed three assistants, none of whom were offered the job, and two of whom were expected to leave. Defensive coordinator Donnie Henderson has been let go, Offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger has been told to stay, and special teams coordinator Mike Westhoff was given a raise not to bolt town.

While Heimerdinger has told the press he wants out, Mangini and the Jets brass have said they want him to remain. The obvious difference of opinions has some wondering if Mangini and the front office know what they're doing.

"I can't believe this guy [Mangini] went in there like that without a plan," a source was quoted by The New York Post.

Is it fair to be so harsh on a first-time head coach? Probably not writes Randy Lange of the Bergen Record.

Lange addresses the media crush railing against the Jets front office by describing the Heimerdinger situation as messy, but not unprecedented. He also believes Jets fans think that the Mangini situation is at least better than the Herman Edwards mess.

"Whatever the individual views of Woody Johnson, Terry Bradway and Mike Tannenbaum, Jets fans in general seem happy that the messy divorce with Herm Edwards is over and he's gone, and they approve of the Mangini hiring," Lange wrote in a column this weekend.

"Now comes the team's latest extreme makeover. And when you renovate, it gets messy."

Messy? We'd say so. At least Mangini's situation is a smaller mess.

Shortly after the Jets told Heimerdinger he was staying only to receive immediate feedback from his agent that wasn't likely, the Jets moved to plan B. The problem with plan B, was no-one knew there was a plan B until Heimerdinger sounded off about how much he wanted out of New York.

Lange cites one source that believes Mangini has every right to have Heimerdinger stay.

"There are some good coaches on the Jets' staff. Why shouldn't Mangini keep them?" a source told Lange.

The problem with making people stay, including Heimerdinger who told Mangini he wanted to leave, is that they become bitter. How do you get someone who's mad at you to give 100%? The simple answer is you don't bother trying, because you probably can't.

So the saga continues for the former Patriots' coordinator. Mangini is still looking for assistants to fill out his staff, and the only hires he's made are two holdovers from the Herm Edwards regime, Bob Sutton (defensive coordinator) and Westhoff (special teams).

Mangini's first choice for a defensive coordinator, Rob Ryan re-upped with the Oakland Raiders, which prompted the Jets to retain Sutton. Mangini's first choice for offensive coordinator appeared to be Jeff Davidson, whom the Browns just promoted to keep him with Romeo Crennel in Cleveland.

Mangini's search is expanding, but he's competing with other members of the Belichick / Parcells tree who are also looking for coaches. Parcells, who lost offensive coordinator Sean Peyton to the Saints head-coaching job, needs a new one. Nick Saban, who saw his offensive coordinator Scott Linehan take over in St. Louis, is hunting for a coordinator. The Patriots, who may have been concerned that their guy was targeted, promoted quarterbacks coach Josh McDaniels to fill their vacant offensive coordinator postition.

If Heimerddinger is allowed to leave, which the New York media is reporting may be the case, then Mangini will have to continue his quest for a body and a system that works for his new team. One name has surfaced, and that's former coordinator Chris Palmer, another assistant under the Parcells tree. Palmer was let go by Houston Texans early into the 2005 campaign. Unfortunately for Mangini, he may be jousting with Jerry Jones and Parcells for that hire. Its unlikely Mangini will get his man if Parcells really likes Palmer.

As we reported last week when the Jets hired Mangini, we said he would have trouble filling out the coaching staff.

The Patriots are all set with their staff, but for Mangini's Jets, it looks like more struggles ahead.

Jon Scott has been covering the NFL for over a decade and is a member of PFWA. He is also the the managing editor of PatriotsInsider.com. You can also find archives
of his columns on the Insiders by searching for "Jon
Scott" or

Nix Your Clause and Get Out of Hempstead

Nix Your Clause and Get Out of Hempstead:

"Randy Lange explains why Heimerdinger's offset clause in his contract is so important for the Jets:

Here's why Heimerdinger's offset clause is key to this scenario: The clause states that if the Jets let him go, they would owe him only the money that a new employer doesn't pay him.

Fair enough. Yet if the Broncos were to hire Heimerdinger to replace Kubiak at, say, $100,000 a year, the Jets would be on the hook for the remaining $1 million of his 2006 contract.

Heimerdinger, you're a great offensive mind, and your 'who pissed in my cornflakes?' attitude was endearing last offseason. I want to see what you can do with the Jets, but if you are so upset over getting passed over, then please just waive this clause and find a new team, I beg you."

5 Year Analysis of Jets by a Fan

This is a pretty good PDF report done by a fan of the Jets.

Gary Sparago has compiled 32 pages of PDF goodness starting with one premise: "is this organization better off than they were 5 years ago?"

Jets Cap for 2006

2006 Jets Salary Cap Page

From the Jets Blog:

Jets 2006 Salary Cap Q&A

Caveat: I'll try to answer your questions, but understand I have no inside knowledge of the organization and these are purely my opinion.

Looking at the cap for the Jets.... what players are they pretty much bound to get rid of?

I think that Fabini and Kendall are on the fence, depending on who we draft. If we take a OL, then one of them is most likely gone. Ty Law is a goner. Fiedler doesn't figure into the plans most likely, they wouldn't want 2 QB's coming off shoulder surgery. Abraham at this point may be gone. Woody is reluctant to give him a big payday after being burned by Pennington. At this point Mawae should be back but monitor his status as he recovers

Looking at the cap for the Jets... what players are they bound to keep (handcuffed to), due to their contracts?

Pennington is the big one. I would expect after the season the organization will sit down with him and try to restructure his contract. Chad is a standup guy and he may do it, but he is not bound to it. His cap hit in 2006 is already at $12 Million. If they cut him it will cost about the same, but will have to find a replacement and still pay the new QB and take the $12 Million hit. Curtis Martin is the other, he is due about $8 Million, but don't be surprised if he takes a pay cut as well. He will most likely split time with a rookie next year.It's pretty much a certainty that the Jets will cut Law...

How will the Law dump work exactly? I guess they would cut him before March, but how much will they owe him?

They owe him nothing. He is due a bonus somewhere around $11 Million, but there is no way he ever sees that. He did take a $3 Million signing bonus this year, so we will take a small hit on that. They will simply cut him before the bonus is due.Which of the season opening starters on the O-Line who can they afford keep? (Fabini, Kendall, Mawae, Moore, Jones)
They can afford to keep them all, however performance and not money willbe the deciding factor here, along with the draft.

Based on pay, who is more likely to be cut? Cedric Houston or Derrick Blaylock?

Neither they'll both be back.

If the Jets end up with a top 5 pick, about how much room on the capwill they have to slot for a pick like that?

Depends on the position. QB's are generally given more $$, however I don't believe they will draft Leinart. They don't want to put that much money in one position. The NFL uses a 'rookie pool of dollars', which basically tells each team how much they can spend on all their rookies, drafted and undrafted. It is derived from the # of picks they have, their draft position, and other factors. I have no idea how it works and neither do most club officials. The pool is generally between $2 Million and $6 Million.