With published reports that Chad Pennington might have re-injured his twice-repaired shoulder and tried to hide getting treatment Friday in Tampa, and breathless TV reports that nearly eulogized his career, both the Jets and their quarterback vehemently insisted yesterday that he’s perfectly fine.
Pennington took reps with the first unit at yesterday’s practice, wasn’t forced to miss a single snap, and proclaimed himself “full-go, baby!” Which is encouraging, because he had some doubts how his body would respond to an arm-yanking sack like the one Kalvin Pearson put on him Friday.
“I wasn’t for sure.
You really don’t know how your body is going to respond, and it responded nicely. That’s a positive step,” Pennington said. “To be honest, I didn’t know how my body was going to respond. I didn’t know what to expect.
“That hit proves my shoulder can take those type of hits. It wasn’t the same as last year but it was similar. My arm was going in motion and it was jerked back. I was pleased to see how it responded. I didn’t know what to expect, didn’t know if I’d come out and be sore, but everything worked out well. I took a step forward in being able to prove my durability.” Pennington chose to dress in the trainer’s room, away from the press. The unusually-long 45-minute lag before meeting the media prompted some to surmise that he was hiding an injury, or at least getting treatment. But Eric Mangini revealed yesterday that he had been chatting up his QB, discussing the game.
“Chad’s fine,” Mangini said. “This was my first goround.
Right after the game I wanted to talk to Chad, get feedback while it was fresh in his mind, fresh in my mind. He was late talking to (the press), and the buses left later, but I wanted to … talk through that stuff. It was important we do it at that point.” Why the clandestine cloak-and-dagger routine?
“I said I wasn’t getting treatment and I was being honest: I wasn’t getting treatment,” Pennington said, seemingly vexed by being doubted. “I didn’t mention what was going on because it was a private conversation and I was going to let coach handle that before I stepped out of my bounds. We were talking about the game, it being his first as coach and my first playing under him.” It wasn’t a spectacular game by any stretch, a 16-3 loss in which Pennington went 9-for-14, but threw for just 54 yards and missed his only downfield attempt of the night. Pennington chalked that up to the Bucs’ fast pass rush and two-deep zone, but said the important thing is he’s healthy.
“Chad went through the same process everybody else did,” Mangini said. “He had some soreness, but there was nothing different there, just typical soreness.” Even though neither Mangini nor Pennington were willing to acknowledge him as the starter, for the second straight opportunity the veteran worked with the first team unit – throwing a nice outroute TD to Laveranues Coles.
