12/14 — Every year the players on each NFL team vote for one among them as their Ed Block Courage Award winner. Some years, on some teams, there's no real competition.

On this year's Jets, Laveranues Coles was the easy choice.

"I've tried to fight through everything I pretty much can fight through," said Coles, who missed one game with a concussion and has played the last two on an extremely painful ankle. "The main thing is the fact that this award was given to me and voted upon by my teammates. It's good that they see me like that. That's one of the great honors about it. Anytime your peers view you in a certain manner, it's always something to be taken to heart."

One of Coles' teammates left no doubt which way he voted.

"To me Laveranues is the toughest receiver in the league," said QB Chad Pennington, who won the Jets' Block Award in 2004. "I’ve noticed that since his rookie year. He’s always been a guy who can go across the middle and take hits and pop back up. He’s been a guy who blocks hard in the run game and understands how to play through injuries.

"He’s a true football player in every sense of the word. He’s not a prima donna or anything like that. When he steps out on the football field, he has one goal and that’s to win.”

The award, named in honor of the longtime head athletic trainer of the Baltimore Colts who was a pioneer in his profession and a respected humanitarian, goes to those NFL players who exemplify commitment to the principles of sportsmanship and courage. Recipients are often players who have overcome devastating injuries or tragedies in their personal lives to return to the top level of NFL competition.

Chad Remembers Randy

Chad Pennington wanted to know if any reporters in the locker room today caught the 1997 Motor City Bowl on ESPN Classic recently.

"Marshall-Mississippi," Chad said with a smile. "First play, 80 yards, to Randy. He hasn't changed."

No, not this Randy, of course, but Randy Moss, now the New England wide-receiving terror. And Pennington was the QB who put that 80-yard pass play in motion.

Pennington, now backing up Kellen Clemens, offered some of his thoughts on why his one-time college teammate fell off the NFL radar for a few years before returning with a vengeance with the Patriots.

"I think it was a tough situation for him in Oakland," Pennington said. "Being able to go to a team that's established and has core veterans in their locker room, he was able just to be Randy, just to focus on catching footballs and helping his team win.

He said Moss' success hasn't surprised him and their Marshall coach, Bob Pruett.

"You look at any level Randy's played on, he looks the same," the QB said. "The plays he made in high school are the same as he made in college are the same he makes in the pros. That's the type of talent he is."

DeVito's Progress

Mike DeVito has run the gamut this season. The rookie free agent D-lineman has been inactive for nine of this season's 13 games. But he also saw action in the line rotation in four games and in fact got a good amount of PT in the Pittsburgh and Dallas games.

And if he were to play against the Patriots on Sunday, that would be a crowning touch to his dream season.

"That would be great," DeVito said today. "My family's not far away [in Nauset, Mass., on Cape Cod], and we've always been Jets fans. I was originally from Bay Ridge [in Brooklyn, N.Y.] and a lot of my family's still there. It's an exciting atmosphere, especially when your family has to travel only an hour or so to see a game."

DeVito hopes he can be in the game, but whatever happens for him the last three games this season will be fine.

"This season's been a great experience — I'm living out a dream," he said. "Sometimes I get down a little bit when I don't play, but then I think about where I am and it makes me work even harder to play the next weekend."

Head coach Eric Mangini gave a scouting report on how DeVito has transitioned from being a Maine Black Bear to a New York Jet.

"He's done a good job," Mangini said. "He's a stout and tough guy who plays with good hand placement. There are some things he needs to get better at with block recognition, understanding where the pressure's going to come, and where the likelihood of certain blocks are going to come, but that will get better with time and reps. I like his work ethic, his toughness and his diligence."

The Cold, Hard Facts

There's not much difference in the forecast for the game at Gillette Stadium on Sunday. The long of it is that a "wintry mix" (70 percent chance of precip) and wind in 36-degree temps will blow across the area Sunday. The short of it is the Jets and Pats could be playing in a nor'easter.

Coles, who, remember, is a Floridian despite his eight NFL seasons in the East, said no amount of practicing in the cold and snow can get him ready for what may come Sunday.

"Unless you were born an Eskimo," he said, "you don't have much of a chance of getting acclimated."

And LC scoffed at reports that Nick Mangold and other Jets linemen did feel they were getting acclimated by working in the cold the past three days.

"Ask them why they rush back in here faster than me and get in the hot tub," he countered. "Trust me, you don't get used to it."