NY Times Article: Cotchery

For Jets and Family, Future Is in Cotchery?s Hands

By GREG BISHOP

Published: September 13, 2008

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. ? Jerricho Cotchery drove in circles around the airport last September, stealing glances at the brand-new car seat in the back, attempting to soothe his frayed nerves.

Eventually, his wife, Mercedes, came into view outside of baggage claim. She wore a shoulder harness, and as he put the car in park, she lifted a newborn girl ? their newborn girl ? with both hands.

The infant?s size struck Cotchery more than anything. Entering his fourth season as a Jets receiver, Cotchery had carved a career from hands both sure and strong. As he cradled his daughter for the first time, those hands trembled, and he worried he might crush her accidentally.

?That feeling of just, wow,? Cotchery said, trying to explain and failing. ?It was indescribable.?

Cotchery never, not in the wildest fancies of his imagination, pictured a year like the one that he had just lived through.

He never imagined the lows, like when the couple?s first attempt at adoption fell through in August 2007 or when the Jets? season fell apart in the months that followed.

He never imagined this preseason, when he became the Jets? top option at receiver, catching passes delivered from the heralded right arm of their new quarterback, Brett Favre.

Mostly, though, he never imagined that everything would fall into place so quickly, that he would become a household name and the head of the kind of household he always wanted, all in 12 months.

?From a quiet kid from Birmingham all the way to this,? Cotchery said during an extended interview last week. ?I went through a lot last year. And everything this year has gone just the exact opposite.?

Confirmation came a few weeks back when Cotchery took his family to a local fast-food restaurant. Earlier in his career, which he started as a fifth receiver used mainly on special teams, he went unnoticed by the public. Yet here came a man, midmeal, looking for a handshake.

Cotchery thanked him but wondered silently, did that just really happen?

The transformation ? from the bottom of the depth chart to the top of it, from childless to doting dad ? took time.

Cotchery never rushed. Blessed with deceptive speed and a personality so laid back that it qualifies as recliner, he returned kickoffs his rookie season in order to force his way onto the field. Never mind that he had never returned kicks before.

Slowly, surely, he rose up the depth chart, until he secured a starting receiver spot before the 2006 season. One year later, Cotchery caught more passes (82) than all but seven receivers in the American Football Conference.

Coach Eric Mangini points to Cotchery?s path as a model of career development, one marked by incremental progress. Asked to describe the key to that development, Mangini answered with one word repeated twice ? work.

Reminded that dozens of players on dozens of teams are noted for having a solid work ethic, Mangini said: ?It?s better than solid. It?s hard to get better than Jerricho Cotchery. He works every single day exactly the same way.?

Teammates have taken notice. The second-year receiver Chansi Stuckey tries to spend as much time around Cotchery as possible, mimicking his preparation and approach in hopes of replicating his career path. The best piece of advice Cotchery gave him? Nothing he ever spoke, Stuckey said, but ?the way he carries himself, the things he does on the field.?

Running back Leon Washington said: ?There are not enough things you can say about Jerricho. He?s the ultimate, ultimate teammate.?

Something was always missing, though, until September 2007.

The Cotcherys met at North Carolina State, and they married a month after the Jets selected Jerricho in the fourth round of the 2004 draft. At that point, because they knew Mercedes could not carry a child, they began looking at adoption.

Cotchery struggled with the concept at first. The second youngest of 13 children, he knew little about adoption. Something about it felt inauthentic.

?I was kind of against it,? he said. ?I was stuck on this fact of being able to have something I could call my own.?

Cotchery has made a career of changing other people?s minds. But before he could embrace adopting a newborn, he first needed to change his own mind.

It happened at a religious retreat in February 2007, when Cotchery, to the surprise of everyone, even himself, stood at a microphone and told hundreds of strangers that he wanted to adopt a child.

The process proved more difficult than expected. The Cotcherys were set to adopt a newborn in mid-August, only to have the birth mother change her mind. Cotchery found out before the Jets? second preseason game, and he played with uncharacteristic anger, making uncharacteristic mistakes.

A few weeks later, another adoption opportunity came. A few weeks after that, Cotchery was circling the airport, glancing at the car seat. When he saw his daughter for the first time, his reservations faded and he felt silly for even having them.

?It was the best decision I ever made,? he said. ?This is my daughter. She?s definitely my seed.?

The couple named the child Jacey, a play on the initials in Dad?s name. She has brown hair and big, probing eyes, just like Dad. Her smile, Cotchery swears, lights up a room, just like Mom.

?His daughter changed him,? receiver Brad Smith said. ?Every time I see him, every time he talks about her, he smiles.?

Cotchery celebrated his first Father?s Day in June and his new quarterback in August.

In between, Cotchery went to Arizona to work out with Ken Croner of Athletes? Performance, who also trains Favre. Cotchery and Favre hooked up for a 56-yard touchdown pass in the Jets? season-opening victory against the Dolphins.

Cotchery has emerged as Favre?s go-to receiver early in the season, and if the Jets are to unseat the New England Patriots as division champions, the chemistry between Cotchery and Favre will be important.

But the biggest instrument of change in Cotchery the last 12 months remains the smallest person in his life. He gravitates toward Jacey after arriving home each day, and she shows him her purse and which toys go where inside. The other day, she grabbed a banana from his hand, a 1-year-old eating like a grown-up.

?Football is a great sport, it?s my life, but you can?t get lost in it,? Cotchery said. ?You can?t get down about everything that goes along with football. You need to remember what?s important.?