Even worse, there is an even number of people. What if half choose heads, and the other half choose tails? Does the call come in from the sideline, and the players simply execute the act of speaking the word? So many important questions, but as with anything else, Mangini is being mum on the process. How can the fantasy betters place their bets if they don't know what the Jets will pick? That's leaving it totally to random! Mangini's silence is growing harder and harder to deal with. :sad: :up: :lol:
From SI via NYPost JOVIAL JETS NAME CAPTAINS By MARK CANNIZZARO September 7, 2006 -- Ben Graham had his head down and eyes focused on the pad of paper on which he was taking down notes yesterday morning when he heard his name called at a very unlikely time. Jets coach Eric Mangini was announcing to the players who the team captains were - as voted on by the players. "Man, I was busy writing down the captains of the offense and defense and when he read my name out I looked up - it was the shock of my life," Graham said yesterday. Indeed, after Chad Pennington and Pete Kendall on offense and Jonathan Vilma and Shaun Ellis on defense were named, Graham and Matt Chatham were named special teams captains. Those six players will now be expected to help this team set a positive tone for the season when the Jets play their season opener against the Titans Sunday in Nashville. A year ago, you might remember, a rather ominous tone was set in the opener at Kansas City, where the Jets had more botched snaps and fumbles than they did points. They, of course, never recovered. This, of course, is a new group with a punter (Graham) as one of its captains. Herman Edwards anointed different captains every week during his tenure. "It means a lot to be voted by your peers," Graham said. "That's the first time that's happened for me. In Australia (where he played Australian Rules Football and was captain of his team there), it's a selection process by coaches and a committee and then it has to be approved by the board of directors. "But here it means a lot more to be voted by your peers. It's something very special. I'm honored. I've sort of come to learn while kickers and punters are an integral part of special teams, it's generally the offensive and defensive players that hold the esteem in the locker room. So to be named team captain means a lot." Just a year ago, Graham, at age 31, was a foreigner trying to make it in a new sport, truly finding his way. Now, he's deemed an integral enough part of the team to be voted a team captain. "It's all happened so quickly," he said. "I'm still coming to terms with it, really." Interestingly, Ellis hoped to be voted in as a captain. "[Mangini] called my name out and I was thrilled," Ellis said. "Regardless of whether I was elected as captain, I was still going to be a main leader on defense for this team. But this means a lot. Any time you get voted captain by your peers shows they have a lot of confidence in you and they respect you as a player and a person." Ellis called being a captain "something you grow into" adding he's "learned from players who were captains before like Curtis [Martin]." For Pennington, this is just another significant notch in his belt en route to his remarkable comeback from a second shoulder surgery to win the starting job again. Kendall, as is his way, used humor to describe his feelings, saying, "I would like some physical acknowledgement of my new status - a salute, a tip of the cap." He added that there was probably an investigation going on to scout out possible "allegations of electoral impropriety." Turning serious, Kendall added, "I'm honored and flattered, but I'm not trying to be someone else. I don't know that I've ever been elected captain since I've been in the NFL. I'm honored that the guys would do that and look to me like that, but I can't change my behavior because of that. The way I was, probably had something to do with the recognition." Vilma, a born leader who was probably captain of his nursery school, took his election in stride, saying, "I'm used to that. I've been that way since high school. It's not a new role, just a title." Vilma said his first order of business as captain was to help set a better tone to the 2006 season than the tone that was set in 2005. "You don't want to go down that road again," he said. "It's very important for us to go out and play well. In Kansas City, we just didn't play well. That was the most frustrating part about it." mark.cannizzaro@nypost.com
