The sun came out Sunday morning, the pads went on Jets players and the hitting began in earnest at SUNY Cortland. This was football and the 2,835 in attendance had much to cheer about as they witnessed collision after collision.
"It's a good start for the first day of pads," OLB Calvin Pace told me. "We'll be right back here before we know it, but it's a good start. I like the way everybody came out ready to work. For the most part, everybody's pretty healthy, upbeat and ready to go."
It just felt right. This team prides itself on its physicality, so you only can get so much accomplished in shorts.
"This one just seemed like it took forever to get here, to get those pads on," said Coach Ryan. "Once we got out here, it was fantastic."
The defense got the better of the play as both Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow didn't find many open targets in team drills. Linebackers Bart Scott and Aaron Maybin savored the moment, hitting everything that moved and then chirping away afterwards.
"Bart can't help himself. He really can't. He always has to be saying something man. He's just one of the funniest people without even knowing that he's funny — him and Maybin," Pace said. "But it helps keep practice upbeat just to get somebody talking and chirping and keeping the enthusiasm up."
Darrelle Revis sat out team drills with a tight hamstring, but both Kyle Wilson and Antonio Cromartie performed very well on the outside.
"Going against Revis earlier today, we actually went against each other in 1-on-1s. He was very physical with me and also Cromartie," rookie WR Stephen Hill told me. "Those guys right after we're done with that come right in my ear and tell me what I have to do. They are always on top of me because those guys want to win and I'm right there with them."
Our Final WordPlease fill out the form on the side of the page to send Rex Ryan a question for Tuesday's installment of "Jets Talk Live". The Jets fourth-year head coach will sit with me in our Cortland studio at 8:30 AM on July 31. And I asked Stephen Hill about Jets Nation today and you all got a salute. "It's been amazing. Yesterday's crowd was even amazing out here in the rain — they stayed out here," he said. "I love the Jets fans."
