John Hall figured he was a goner after last season.
There were many thoughts running through his head as walked out of the Jets’ locker room after the end of last season.
The first thoughts had to do with the numbers 35 and 12. In the second-to-last game of the 2000 season against Detroit, he missed a 35-yard field goal with 12 seconds to play that would have propelled the Jets into the playoffs.
In the days following, former Jets coach Al Groh brought in Brett Conway to kick in the regular-season finale in Baltimore, banishing Hall despite the fact that the kicker from Wisconsin had been almost even money on “clutch” kicks in his career before that miss.
Hall was so distraught when Groh left him home for the Baltimore game that he almost didn’t watch the game.
“I thought about it at first and said, ‘I don’t know if I want to watch it,’ so I went to play basketball,” Hall revealed Saturday night after kicking FGs of 37, 20 and 49 yards in the Jets’ 16-3 preseason win over, ironically, the Ravens. “Then I got out there and was like, ‘I’ve got to get back,’ because I wanted them to win so bad.”
The turning point for Hall was when Jets special teams coach Mike Westhoff called him at home in Fort Lauderdale during the offseason.
“We talked for a little while on the phone and he told me, ‘You know what? I like you. You’ve made big kicks. You’ve made them against my team [the Dolphins] and put us under a couple of times. I’m going to stick by you. I think I can help you with a few things, so let’s get after it,’ ” Hall recalled. “I said, ‘All right. Let’s do it.’ “
Hall called that last week of the season “awkward” and said, “The toughest part was being sat on the bench when you’ve been out there eight or nine times [successful on clutch kicks] and then you yank one at a bad time and all of a sudden you’re tossed out in a gutter. I don’t know how to pinpoint that feeling, really.”
Those feelings are over now, with the entire coaching staff behind him.
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Herman Edwards said yesterday that TE Jake Moreland has a sprained knee and will be out at least three to four weeks. . . . LB James Darling also suffered a knee sprain, though Edwards said he doesn’t believe it’s serious. RT Ryan Young and RB Reggie White also suf- fered slight knee sprains.
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Edwards said Shaun Ellis “did better” at defensive tackle Saturday and won’t completely move to defensive end this Saturday against the Giants. “Maybe we’ll put him at [DE] on third downs some,” Edwards said. . . . The Jets should find out about NT Jason Ferguson’s rotator cuff situation this week when they go back and take a look at the mending process.