The New York Post and the New York Times ran pieces about Jerricho Cotchery this week. All well deserved.
Largely overshadowed by brash fellow receivers Santonio Holmes and Braylon Edwards, Jerricho Cotchery doesn’t do choreographed celebrations or headlinegrabbing trash-talk.
All he seems to do is play — and help the Jets win. That’s what he did in the divisional playoff upset in New England, and that’s what he plans to do in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game in Pittsburgh.
“A lot of satisfaction goes into that [win at New England]. A lot of people said we were the team that got beat 45-3, but all along we were saying we weren’t that. To go out there and show we are who we thought we were, it feels good,†Cotchery said. “Our goal is to win the Super Bowl. We’re going to prepare like crazy this week to go out and get it done.â€
Cotchery got it done Sunday with five catches for 96 yards and plenty of dirty work over the middle. On the first play of the fourth quarter, he found a soft spot in the Pats’ zone, turned and took a mediumrange Mark Sanchez pass 58 yards to set up Holmes’ touchdown grab that gave the Jets a 21-11 lead.
The quiet veteran did not celebrate like some of his more boisterous teammates, like many star wideouts do. He acknowledged that he often tries to rein Edwards in — but never to the point of squelching his teammates’ fire.
“That Bart Scott [rant] was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen,†Cotchery said. “[But] that’s not my style. You can’t get out of character. You can’t start doing things you don’t normally do. I do get a kick out of it, I just try not to participate.
“I try to [quiet them] sometimes, but it doesn’t work. Sometimes it just throws gas on it. We have a lot of guys that play with a lot of emotion, especially Braylon Edwards, so I try to keep him calm, but I don’t want to make him sacrifice that because he uses it so well on the field, making plays.â€
