Our Secret Weapon has been deployed

MANGINI'S APPROACH IS OUTSIDE THE BOX

BY BOB GLAUBER
Newsday Staff Writer

January 4, 2007

It was a few minutes after the Jets had beaten the Dolphins on Christmas night with a dramatic last-second field goal, 13-10, and running back Leon Washington was finally alone with a chance to think about his pivotal role in the game.

Washington had just delivered the decisive blow -- a 64-yard gain on a screen pass that set up Mike Nugent's winning field goal in the final seconds -- and he thought back to the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier fight that coach Eric Mangini had showed the team the night before. And about Frazier's taped message to the Jets to hang in there for as long as it took. Just like he did in beating Ali in a bruising 15-round fight on March 8, 1971 at Madison Square Garden.

Frazier's victory was punctuated with a stunning knockdown of Ali late in the final round, when he unloaded with a left hook just as Ali was about to throw a right uppercut.

"That game was a lot like that fight when I started to think about it," Washington said. "A long fight, a 15-round fight, we're playing the 15th game of the season, they threw punches, we threw punches, and we were able to throw the last punch to knock them down. In that instance, it really did come true."

Yet another example of Mangini's uncanny ability to meld the lessons of boxing onto the football field. The Jets' rookie coach has shown his players several memorable boxing matches the night before games, hoping his players see the symbolism of a particular fight and match it with the following day's opponent. By showing Ali-Frazier I, he wanted his players to understand that it would be a fight to the end, and that every punch mattered, especially at the end.

The night before the opening game against the Titans, he showed them a 2005 bout between Diego Corrales and Luis Castillo for the WBC lightweight championship. Corrales was knocked down twice in the 10th round but came back to knock out Castillo. The lesson: Hang in, even if things go badly early on. The Jets beat the Titans, 23-16.

And before a Week 9 meeting against the Patriots -- the Jets' opponent in Sunday's AFC wild-card game -- Mangini showed his players a replay of Cassius Clay's stunning upset of Sonny Liston in 1964, when Clay was crowned the heavyweight champion in one of the biggest upsets in boxing history.

Why that fight? Because no one gave the Jets a chance against the Pats, who had beaten them seven straight times. The result: The Jets won, 17-14.

And why boxing? "I think you can learn a lot from other sports and other athletes that you can apply to football," Mangini said. "Growing up, I was exposed to boxing through my dad with Friday night fights. He controlled the TV, so that's what we watched. I probably should have had more dates, but that's what we watched."

Good thing for the Jets, because Mangini's love of the "sweet science" has helped his players master the psychology of football. In fact, the players absolutely adore Mangini's pre-game boxing presentations, and readily soak up the lessons from some of the greatest fights ever.

One of Mangini's all-time favorites: junior welterweight Aaron "The Hawk" Pryor, whose legendary fight in 1982 against Alexis Arguello is a frequent topic of conversation in the Jets' locker room. Mangini recently had T-shirts made up for players with Pryor's face on the front and the words "What time is it? Hawk time."

"It gets our attention," wide receiver Justin McCareins said. "Most of us follow boxing to a certain extent, and I think the guys enjoy watching other people get punched in the face, so that helps. But there are obvious lessons in that sport that you can learn from, whether it's the story of what a boxer goes through off the field, how he wins or loses, the underdog stories, or the guys who are overconfident. It gets you ready to play in a lot of different ways."

Said rookie left tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson: "It reminds me of the times when my father and I would watch and have fun. But there's definitely a lot to take from them. You can see there's a story behind every fight. Those fights really speak for themselves."

Mangini has even enlisted the help of renowned boxing trainer and television analyst Teddy Atlas, who once worked with Mike Tyson and Michael Moorer, as well as several other prominent amateur and pro boxers. In fact, Atlas played a role in helping the Jets beat the Patriots midway through the season, a game that in many ways cemented the Jets' belief that they could be a playoff team.

A few days before the game, Atlas addressed the players in a wide-ranging speech, telling them several stories from his past. One of them in particular struck a nerve.

Atlas trained at a gym in Catskill, N.Y., and noticed a young, skinny kid named Mane Moore who walked in one day and wanted to learn how to fight. Atlas noticed something different about him, and asked around to see why he came to the gym.

"The kid was 11 years old and weighed 85 pounds, and I found out from talking to people that a bully named 'Goo' had been taking his lunch money in school," Atlas said. "It took a couple months to get him in the ring, but then he got really scared and ran out. I asked him what was wrong, and he said, 'I'm just yellow.' I knew that wasn't it, so I told him when I was a kid some bully took my lunch money, and his eyes lit up."

Atlas then told Moore that one day, he took the kid who stole his money and dumped him in the garbage can where the lunch trays were deposited.

"I told him that I realized if I had to deal with this guy, you think it's forever, but it's really only a few seconds. That ain't a tough fight. But the feeling of doing nothing, now that's forever. That's a tough fight."

A few days later, Moore ran up to Atlas in the gym. "He was real excited, and he said, 'Goo ain't takin' my lunch money no more,'" Atlas said. "He was so excited, he hugged me."

A few days after the Jets beat the Patriots, Mangini called Atlas and asked if he'd seen the game. He had. Mangini then told Atlas of a conversation he'd overheard with one of his players while walking off the field.

"We're coming off the field," Mangini told him, "and Shaun Ellis was asked by a reporter what the difference was. He turned to him and, without hesitation, he said, 'We just got tired of having our lunch money taken.'"