10/11 — Dewayne Robertson came up behind Brad Kassell in the locker room today and slammed him on the back. Kassell glowered at him and D-Rob said, "You want to fight me? Come back here." Robertson headed for the players' lounge and Kassell followed.

There was no fight, of course. It was all in fun. But it may be one more manifestation of the physical turn the Jets have taken lately.

Another was Wednesday's practice, during which early on head coach Eric Mangini called for tackling drills. It wasn't live tackling, where players go to the ground, but rather thud tackling, where they make contact and pads pop. And it was the first tackling drills since training camp broke in August.

"We practice more physical than most teams in the NFL,' Kassell said. "But Coach opened with the tackling drills and that just kind of kicked everybody in the butt and got us going. Maybe it'll jump-start a winning streak."

"I've been a part of both philosophies," Mangini said at this morning's news conference, referring to the in-season live tackling drills vs. thud drills. "I've been on teams where we did live tackling time to time over the course of the season. You may go live on the goal line. You just switch it up depending on what you want to get done."

What the Jets may want to get done this week and for the future is to reestablish the mindset of not missing tackles when it counts, during games. Mangini lit the fuse with Wednesday's practice schedule, but the players took it from there.

"A physical practice like yesterday, I don't know, it just kind of turns out that way," the inside linebacker said. "One person hits, another person hits and it just turns into a real physical practice. We got riled up."

But, Kassell said, riled up in a good way.

"Obviously, people are going to get mad out there. That's just the nature of the game," he said. "But it gets your competitive juices flowing. It was a good, sharp practice."

Mangini mentioned Kassell today for his show-teams work. I asked him if he was impersonating Takeo Spikes, the OLB that Jets fans became familiar with in their twice-a-year meetings with him when he was on the Bills.

"Naw, I think right now I'm No. 96," he said. That's Omar Gaither, the Eagles' MLB. "Spikes? He's big. I don't think we have any linebackers that big."

Besides show team, Kassell's contributions have been as a special teams captain and on the goal line defense. The Texas high school and college star has been known to let out a war whoop every once in a while, and he enjoyed mixing it up with his teammates in advance of getting physical with Philadelphia.

"I like to hit a little bit, you know," he said. "It's just kind of the way I play. I'm not as athletic or fast as some. I've got to play more to the physical."

And that's what Mangini is playing to this week. By the way, he held thud tackling drills again today.

Miller Still Around

Justin Miller is on the IR shelf for the season, but he's back smiling and joking in the locker room, and the heavy brace is off his right leg. He's limping around on the leg but also exercising it. Wearing a black compression sleeve on the leg, he did some high-stepping through the locker room followed by practice squad WR Chris Davis coaching him up: "Long strides. Long strides."

Miller looked as if he was seeking a position with the Ministry of Silly Walks. That's a comedic compliment, Justin, and a reference to John Cleese, who did the same kind of walks in full business suit for Monty Python almost 40 years ago.

Aussie vs. Aussie

Ben Graham and the Eagles' Sav Rocca will be punting against each other Sunday after competing against each other in the Australian Football League, something that Graham talks about at the top of the Thursday Player Interviews. Emailer Jamie asks whether any other athletes come to mind who have competed against each other in two different professional sports. Anyone?