12/16 — We've been kicking the Pro Bowl around the Internet office for a few weeks now. And having been around this part of the NFL block for a few years, I wasn't optimistic for a bountiful Hawaiian harvest for the Jets.

Not that the Green & White don't have excellent young players and veterans who've been to Aloha Stadium a number of times and not as spectators — they do. But it never quite works out the way you think it should.

Until this year.

It's a stunning news flash that the Jets have seven players who were voted by the NFL's coaches, players and fans onto the AFC's 2009 Pro Bowl squad.

That's seven players, as in the most in franchise history. Seven as in the most for any team in the NFL this season.

"That says a lot," said Leon Washington, who will be making his first trip to Honolulu after bering voted in as the conference's kick returner. "It says we've got really good guys in this locker room. Usually the guys who get voted on take care of business on the field and off the field. Just to be around guys like Alan Faneca, Brett Favre, Kris Jenkins, seeing the older guys who've been there before, and a bunch of young guys in their first year going to the Pro Bowl, I'm very, very ecstatic."

No Jets team has ever sent more than five players to the all-star game since the franchise moved from the AFL to the NFL in 1970. Thus it can be reasonably stated that the Jets have never had the most Pro Bowl players in the league before.

But that's how the initial tally totes up, before some players have to withdraw due to injury and the alternates step up. (And the Jets even had five players voted as alternates!) Here are the four teams with the most Pro Bowlers after this year's vote was revealed this afternoon:

Jets reporters talked with three first-time Jets Pro Bowlers on a conference call early this evening. And you would have to characterize center Nick Mangold as the most stunned and amazed.

"It's awfully exciting," Mangold said. "I don't know if there's a good set of words to put with it. I'm just dealing with the aftermath. I don't think it's really sunk in, the amount of excitement that's associated with it."

Mangold said he learned of his honor on a call from head coach Eric Mangini while he was driving with his family to do some Christmas shopping. Even though he assured reporters he was street-legal with his hands-free cellphone, "I sort of swerved off the road a little bit. It probably wasn't a good idea to have to hear that news while driving."

Washington wasn't driving but rather lifting. On the players' "off" day, he had just wrapped up a workout in the Atlantic Health Training Center weightroom when he got the call from Mangini just down the hall.

"He actually told me in person. He was very, very excited," Washington said. When one of the beat wags asked how he could tell Coach was excited, Leon said, "He gave me a big hug. You don't get a hug out of Eric unless he means it."

One thing Washington stressed was that his award was for the Jets' specialists.

"When we come out before games and huddle up, the guys are always saying 'Let's score a touchdown fore Leon,' " he related. "The guys have talked all year long about how they want to get me to Hawaii. My hats off to those people. We did it."

Darrelle Revis had similar sentiments for his defensive mates. The second-year corner said people were telling him all year long he was Pro Bowl-bound, but he tuned that out and focused on the important stuff first.

"Once it came up, I just know how hard I've worked and how hard my teammates have worked," Revis said. "We have a lot of talent. We have a lot of great guys on the team. The chemistry is great. I just want to thank my coaches for being there for us, drawing up schemes for us to make plays. I've got to thank my teammates as well for making plays out there as well and for being together as a team."

We'll hear from those geezers more during the rest of the week — Thomas Jones, having perhaps the greatest season of his career, a Curtis Martinesque year, wise old redhead Alan Faneca, big, boogeyin' Kris Jenkins, and the old graybeard himself, Brett Favre.

An interesting note is that all seven of these All-Star Jets have arrived in the last three seasons. Revis, Mangold and Washington were draft choices. Favre, Jones and Jenkins were trade acquisitions. Faneca was an unrestricted free agent. They all were acquired by GM Mike Tannenbaum and his staff and coached up by Mangini and his staff. Kudos are deserved.

But Pro Bowl berths and huge contracts don't buy a team's way into the playoffs, and all three of our conference callers today noted that while Hawaii is nice, the postseason is nicer and the Jets aren't there yet.

As Washington put it: "We still have a task at hand."

Shaun Gets Recognition, Too

Shaun Ellis didn't quite get to the Pro Bowl level this year. He was named second alternate at DE. But he has something this week that none of the above players have, and that's a spot on the fan ballot for GMC Sierra Defensive Player of the Week after totaling 11 tackles and the game-winning 11-yard fumble-return TD vs. the Bills.

Interestingly, Ellis is on this week's ballot along with Atlanta's John Abraham. The Jets made Ellis the 12th pick and Abraham the 13th pick of the 2000 draft. The others in the running are Miami LB Joey Porter, Dallas LB Demarcus Ware and Jacksonville DE Reggie Hayward. You can vote for the player of your choice (subliminal message: Big Katt ... Big Katt) on NFL.com.

HAWAII HEAVEN: 7 Jets Named to Pro Bowl