12/29 — I was trying to be diplomatically neutral — or was it ironically vague? — when I suggested to one of my coworkers that today's Jets developments were "interesting."

"They're not interesting," he replied with a pained smile. "This is tough."

Well, yes, it is that, too. The Jets and head coach Eric Mangini parting company today is tough indeed. Difficult on several levels.

It's tough from the personal level. Mangini is a good man, even perhaps, "a great man, period," as WR Jerricho Cotchery said.

Mangini didn't pay lip service to his belief in helping his fellow humans. He lived it, with his annual football camp for the underprivileged in his hometown of Hartford, Conn., his annual charity bowling tournament, his untiring work for the New York Jets Organization, his insistence on giving fatherhood equal footing in his life with football.

Of course, a lot of good men do good deeds without the fanfare, and Mangini's work will go on regardless of his job status. But his title of Jets head coach brought great recognition to many causes.

He even told his former players in a brief team meeting today to "embrace" their new coach, whoever he is. That's a good man.

Woody Johnson and Mike Tannenbaum are well aware of all this and that's one of the several reasons that made today's decision to not have Mangini return for his fourth year tough.

But that's not football. And when it comes to onfield production, it's a mixed bag.

On the one hand, Mangini's rushing offensive was ranked ninth, his scoring offense was ninth, his run defense was seventh. On the other hand, his pass defense was 29th, his interception rate 32nd.

On the one hand, the Jets are one of only a dozen NFL teams that have had two winning seasons in their last three. On the other, Mangini was the first NFL coach in the last dozen seasons to have his team at 8-3 and fail to make the playoffs.

With this sea change, many players had their worlds rocked.

"Coach Mangini is the only coach I've known in the NFL," WR Brad Smith said. "He brought me in. It's kind of a shock."

"Herm drafted me, and Eric gave me a chance," said Sione Pouha, the 29-year-old fourth-year man who'd be an eminence gris if his head weren't shaved. "There are landmarks in your life, and losing them is tough."

"It's a great game, a terrible business," said Kris Jenkins, the always quoteworthy veteran nose and first-year Jet.

I've been through the good, the bad and the ugly as a Jets beat reporter and now as your humble editor-in-chief. I got a glimpse of the grim struggle of the Bruce Coslet olympiad, the one (fake-)spiked year of Pete Carroll, the two lost seasons under Richie Kotite, the near nirvana under Bill Parcells, the one-and-done of Al Groh, the Herm Edwards gift of gab and now Eric Mangini.

I'm sure I'm too close to the subject, and I'm also a hopeless nostalgic. I felt a sense of loss even for Kotite, a nice man who had one of the worst two-year reigns in NFL history. I shot hoops with Pete one summer, spent a pleasurable Ruth's Chris steak dinner next to Coach Herm one night.

None of that makes them great or good coaches. Guard Brandon Moore had a great take on today's subject at hand, saying that Mangini's departure "goes along with not accomplishing things — changes will be made. ... We all have to be held accountable. We get released when we don't live up to what we're supposed to be doing. It's part of the business."

So I know these things this evening as I finish this piece. I know Woody Johnson wants to win — for himself, sure, but for Jets fans everywhere, whom he really cares about — and if he didn't, he wouldn't have made this gut-wrenching organizational move.

And I know we all here at the Jets and in Jets Nation will embrace the new boss, whoever he is, whenever he arrives. The old boss wants it that way.

Stats All, Folks

These aren't the last of my statistical notes but they are some of the outstanding items from the 24-17 loss to Miami that should be mentioned before this completed season gets too old:

■ More Leon: Washington's 10-yard touchdown run not only gave the Jets their last lead of the season but it also put them over 400 points for the season. They finished with 405, joining the 1998 team (416) and the 1968 (419) as the only teams in franchise history to clear 400. And 239 of those 405 points were scored in first halves, a franchise record.

■ Brad Smith reached a milestone when, on the last play of Sunday's game, he hit Washington for what turned into a four-lateral, 18-yard completion. It was the first pro completion for the former Missouri QB.

■ DE Phillip Merling's interception-return TD was the eighth over the last two seasons thrown by a Jets QB. Brett Favre threw four of them this season, Chad Pennington and Kellen Clemens two apiece last year. And Merling is the first D-lineman to take a Jets QB the other way since the Jets played their home games at Shea Stadium. Here is the list of the six opposing defensive linemen who have had INT-return TDs vs. the Jets (home teams in CAPS):

"Inside the Jets"

The Jets' weekly 1050 ESPN radio show wraps up its season tonight at Charlie Brown's restaurant in Chatham, N.J. Guests on the show will be G Brandon Moore and S Abram Elam, possibly a call-in from a member of the Jets front office, and another appearance by yours truly. I batted leadoff on "The Beat Report" at the top of every Jets radio broadcast in the 1998 season, and now I'm batting cleanup on "Inside the Jets" a decade later. Says something about my career, although I'm not sure what.

Also on hand for the festivities will be Jets Flight Crew members Lauren P. and Jessica.