http://www.newyorkjets.com/news/articles/show_permalink/wadsworth-makes-like-tug-you-gotta-believe
Wadsworth Makes Like Tug: You Gotta Believe
Published: 06-01-07
By Randy Lange
The first full week of the New York Jets' OTA practices are in the books, and Andre Wadsworth is still standing.
"It's not about proving anyone wrong. You've got to believe in miracles," Wadsworth said today, combining Tug McGraw's and Al Michaels' most famous lines into a new saying. "In life, you can't take no for an answer. Call me stubborn or not, but that's the way I live my life."
It's way too soon to say that the linebacker is back to the form that made him the third overall pick of the 1998 draft, or to a form that would help him contribute to the 2007 Jets, or to a form that will even get him out of the upcoming training camp. But he still looks the part at 6'4" and 272 pounds, and head coach Eric Mangini has labeled him as "just an impressive guy."
Perhaps most impressive, Mangini related for the first time, is that Wadsworth, beset by knee and Achilles' problems that knocked him from the game for the last six seasons, resisted all efforts by the Jets coach and general manager Mike Tannenbaum to shock him back to his senses and back out of football, back to running those six Florida car dealerships of his and to his family."
"Mike made me aware of his desire to get back in, and we decided we would bring him in, get to know him and see where he was," Mangini said. "When we talked to him, it was almost a case of trying to talk him out of coming back. In interviewing him and getting to know him, he was so impressive that as much as we tried to scare him off and get him to reconsider, he was too determined. That was attractive to Mike and me because of that level of determination.
"I thought they were testing me," said Wadsworth, who heard for the first time that his potential employers were trying to discourage, not encourage, him. He said Mangini "asked me how I'd feel about playing when it gets cold out or if I would miss my family. I took it like they were trying to see how serious I was, but now that I think about it, I can see that they might have been trying to talk me out of it."
It didn't work, because of that determination.
"I know I only have four or five years left of really getting a shot to do this again. I got healthy after the 5½ years I'd been out. I kept working at it," said Wadsworth, now 32. "The only way it'll ever get out of my mind is if I'm 40 ... or maybe 37 or 38."
Wadsworth is listed as a linebacker, and he's got that Willie McGinest/Bryan Thomas 3-4 OLB size that Mangini and coordinator Bob Sutton like, but as Mangini noted Thursday, he's also learning the DE position.
In other words, there's a lot on his plate, so he isn't lighting it up yet on the practice field. Yet considering he hasn't played the game in 1½ Olympiads, he doesn't seem overwhelmed mentally or physically by his newest challenge. He said he takes stock of his situation, but not nearly as often as people on the outside might think.
"One day at a time," he said, some of the preacher in him showing through. "That's one thing I can't do. You can't base every day as you're moving forward. You can't be like the weather, changing. You might have had an 'obstacle' day, but you're still moving toward your goal. I don't care how good your day is, it's still not your best day. And I don't care how bad it is, it's still not your worst day. You ain't dead."
