One angle I wanted to touch on with the arrival of Bart Scott was his potential influence on Vernon Gholston. I noted at the time of his signing with the Jets that Scott hails from Detroit, also the hometown of Gholston, who proudly wears the Old English D on one of his jackets. I wasn't sure if Scott was familiar with VG. Turns out he didn't know Vernon but he knew of him.
"He was a younger guy, but I followed him, I heard of him," Scott told me in our phone interview last week from his and his family's favorite Manhattan hotel. "I'm always back [to Detroit]. I'm involved with my high school. We play Cass and actually we whipped up on Cass this year. I'll make sure to inform him of that if he doesn't already know."
For anyone else who wants to know, Southeastern, Scott's alma mater, blanked Cass Tech, Gholston's old school, 40-0, in November's district final.
"We're just going to push each other, man," Scott said of the influence each will have on the other. "We have common interests and we have common goals and we have a mutual city. That's something rare. In this league, to be able to come in and make all the claims of what cities produce the best players, let's be the best we can be so our city can have an argument."
Woodhead Alert
I'm scheduled to check in with RB Danny Woodhead today. The hook for my interview is to talk to him about a little-known team award he received this season, but I also know that Woodhead, despite being off the radar all last season after his summer knee injury, is still a favorite of fans from Nebraska, the Midwest and all around the country. Check in with me later today and I'll either have a report on Woodhead or an idea of when that report will be, well, reportable.
A New Jets Blogger Heard From
I heard recently from a big fan of the Radar, Gerri Brioso. You may recall her name from her work supplying "thumbcasts" as Go2Media.com's Jets correspondent in 2007 and her new gig on JetsGab.com.
What is most interesting to me about her (besides her admiration for my work as the Jets beat writer for a certain North Jersey newspaper) is her résumé. She's an Emmy-award-winning graphic artist, animator and lyricist for "Sesame Street" who now owns an award-winning video production company, The Dovetail Group, which specializes in developing and producing children's TV shows.
But what's of interest here is her interest in the Green & White. She was a regular participant in our New York Jets Training Camp for Women, held annually through 2006, and was even chosen as "MVP 101" for the 2004 camp, for which she received an award jersey from no less than Jets alums Bobby Jackson and Dennis Bligen.
Check out "Gang Green Gerri" and her first two blogs from this past weekend, plus the fine work of editor Matt Loede and his crew on the JetsGab.com Website.
