Woody excited about return to Jets' practice
Jets offensive lineman Damien Woody (67) blocks teammate Vladimir Ducasse (62) during drills as the team prepares to face the Indianapolis Colts. (Jan. 4, 2011) Credit: Joe Epstein
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. - Damien Woody had his eyes set on this weekend all along as he recovered from arthroscopic surgery on his right knee.
"I've been behind the scenes, just doing my thing," the right tackle said. "Guys have done a pretty good job getting to this point and now I have an opportunity to come back, and really help this team in the postseason. And I plan on doing that."
Woody returned to the practice field Tuesday for the first time in a while, not a moment too soon for the Jets, given their AFC wild-card matchup with Dwight Freeney, Robert Mathis and the Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday night.
It was a significant achievement for Woody, who hadn't really practiced since surgery Dec. 15. He made a brief appearance at Friday's practice, but Tuesday was the first time in weeks that he did some actual work on the field with his teammates. Woody participated in some of the team drills and didn't report any lingering pain.
"Just sore," he said. "I haven't done anything like that in a while. I wasn't even practicing even before the surgery. So this is my first time really practicing in a long time. It felt good to get out there, and moving around, and doing some things that I hadn't done in a long time. Each day, I'll try to do a little bit. They've kind of limited me a little more and [we'll] just build toward Saturday."
Rules school
With this weekend's playoff action comes the implementation of the new overtime rule, which states that each team gets at least one possession in the extra time unless the team that wins the overtime coin toss scores a touchdown on its first possession. So Rex Ryan has a plan to make sure his players are aware of how the rule breaks down.
"We're going to have Mike Westhoff, like we always do, handle the officiating," Ryan said. "On Friday, we'll get Mike to do it because he loves this stuff. Then we'll explain all the rules to our players. We have a good grasp of it and, no, we will not defer."
