NY Times Article: Mangold

With Jets? Mangold, a Center of Attention

By JOSHUA ROBINSON
Published: December 18, 2008

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. ? Jets center Nick Mangold wears the constellation of scabs and scars on his massive paws like a badge of courage, the occupational hazards of being the first man to touch the ball on every play and the last man to get his hands up to block. Or something like that.

?I don?t wear gloves,? he said Thursday. ?I want to believe it?s because I like feeling the ball. But I?m an idiot.?

Football wisdom would suggest otherwise. So would the Jets? videotape. Offensive linemen are often considered some of the sharpest players on the field ? acutely aware of defensive patterns, the quarterback?s play selection and a slew of blocking schemes that can change at a moment?s notice. And in just his third year as a professional, the 6-foot-4, 300-pound Mangold is the one bossing the trenches.

Mangold, 24, has started every game, making most of the line calls, as the Jets? offensive line has paved the way for running back Thomas Jones?s career season and protected one of the most precious arms in football, Brett Favre?s. This week, in the midst of the Jets? final push for the playoffs, Mangold earned his first career selection to the Pro Bowl.

The highest praise is scrawled all over his white practice jersey. As a prank during one of the team?s special events, Mangold?s teammates passed the jersey down the autograph line, prompting Favre to sign it ? alongside his No. 4 ? ?You?re the best.?

?The ceiling?s still up there for him,? said the veteran guard Alan Faneca, who plays every snap alongside him. ?There?s a lot of room for him to grow into.?

The ceiling might have been considerably lower for Mangold had he stuck to his original sport, swimming. With a coach for a mother, there was little escaping it. From when he was 7 years old, he spent his after-school hours working on his freestyle technique at his local pool in Centerville, Ohio, alongside his then and future teammate, Jets kicker Mike Nugent.

As middle school dragged on, the pool began to look much smaller and the Speedos seemed much tighter. By the time he reached his freshman year of high school, Mangold weighed about 220 pounds. But coaches at Archbishop Alter High School did not see an oversize freestyle specialist. They saw a lineman who could play both ways and a student of the game.

?He absolutely dominated the guys he played against,? said Tom Meyer, who coached the offensive and defensive lines at Alter until Mangold?s senior year.

His success was not without its secret. Because he manned both sides of the ball, running about 110 plays a game, cramps were Mangold?s greatest enemy. His remedy: a healthy dose of pickle juice before kickoff.

?The only game he didn?t have it,? Meyer said, ?he tried to substitute pickle relish for it and cramped up pretty bad. After that, I always made sure that we had it for him in the locker room.?

His football-mad sister, Holley, later went on to follow in his footsteps at Alter High and became the state?s first high school girl to play a down from scrimmage. She was a backup on Alter?s offensive line.

By his senior season, Mangold swelled to over 270 pounds and drew attention from his beloved local team, Ohio State.

That same year he was also invited to the United States Army All-American Bowl, which threw him into a momentary panic.

Alter High had always stuck to a wishbone offense, and Mangold realized he had never even tried to deliver a snap in the shotgun formation. He figured it out just well enough to sneak by without anyone thinking twice about it.

Now Mangold explains that snapping a football is an art, that consistently putting the ball in the same place for the quarterback to grip it and step away in one fluid motion is a skill to be mastered by careful observation and repetition. Mangold said he just never learned it.

?Without sounding horrible,? he said, ?I still just wing it back there.?

No one questioned his snapping when he was a three-year starter at Ohio State ? where he reconnected with Nugent for a year ? and no one was worried when the Jets selected him with the 29th overall pick in 2006.

He then made a seamless transition into the Jets? starting lineup, filling the gaping hole left by the six-time Pro Bowl center Kevin Mawae. Mangold was even a contender for offensive rookie of the year in 2006, a rarity for an offensive lineman.

Though he no longer keeps a stash of pickle juice, Mangold?s rise has not changed him. He might have traded in the buzz cut for long blond locks and grown a mountain man beard, but he is still the jumbo-size swimmer, still the immovable lineman, and still the quiet, smiling teammate that Nugent has known for 17 years.

?He?s always the same guy every day,? Nugent said. ?Sometimes you just meet those people that everyone likes.?