12/19 — The postpractice report today is that the Jets had some fun and did some hard work in the snow and it was a real team effort to get the players ready in their last practice before flying out to Seattle to play the Seahawks on Sunday.

The fun was evident during the half-hour media period as a number of players balled up the good-packing snow falling steadily on their outdoor turf field and let them fly at their teammates. Some fingered LB Eric Barton as being the most exuberant — no surprise there.

But G Brandon Moore also was caught winding up. "I tossed about six," Moore said. "I was trying to get Shaun [Ellis]."

The award-winning exchange, though, may have been fullback Tony Richardson sneaking up behind the back of Brett Favre, not with a Gatorade jug but with a shovelful of snow, which T-Rich dumped on Favre's helmet. His red No. 4 jersey may mean no contact, but it certainly didn't mean no contact with the white stuff today.

But this wasn't just a day of play. The Jets needed one more good day of hard work for the Seahawks, and they got it.

The footing was a bit treacherous because good snowball snow is also bad cleat snow. It packs in around the spikes and creates a new smooth and slippery bottom for each shoe that has to be removed. Those orange cleat cleaners that are usually used on muddy days poked out of the snow at a number of spots on the field.

"Yeah, it was different," Moore said of this practice. "And it was not as enjoyable."

Especially for a West Coast guy like rookie cornerback Dwight Lowery.

"This is the first time I've been in anything like that," Lowery said. "It's fun if your feet aren't freezing. If you can keep your feet warm, or at least your toes, it's cool, but if you can't, you have a lot of problems."

And Lowery couldn't. "My feet were freezing," he said.

Nevertheless, the work got done. Head coach Eric Mangini, who said earlier that the Jets had "two really sharp days" of practice, especially offensively, in the fieldhouse, even kept the players outside longer than scheduled for today's practice.

One reason the practice went relatively smoothly if freezingly is because many support staff pitched in to keep the field clear. The snow was falling so rapidly that the fields and grounds staff, with director Blake Hoerr operating the white pickup truck and plow, couldn't keep all areas clear for long. So the call went up to the second floor of the Atlantic Health Training Center for shoveling help.

Many pitched in. Media relations people Bruce Speight, David Tratner and Jared Winley worked the yardlines and hashmarks in and around punt returns and offensive and defensive periods on either side of the field. The first person I saw wielding a broom on the yardlines was operations coordinator Montelle Sanders, who might want to consider curling as a second career. Game operations guys Brian Mulligan and Mike Alperstein, who usually are the music coordinators at practices, both wielded leaf blowers to clear the powder from key areas. I even took a few passes with a snow shovel, getting a couple hundred yards of snow cardio in.

We'll all have pride of ownership if the Jets maneuver the snows of Seattle better than the Seahawks in two days.