"It wasn't his final play as a Jet, it didn't represent any last-second heroics, and in the haze of another abbreviated run toward the Super Bowl, a labor lockout and a cold, quick end to his New York career, it is a play that could easily be forgotten.

Yet, it was a play that said everything about what Jerricho Cotchery has been about across seven seasons in green, a play that his inherited coach showed the entire team at the next-morning's meeting as the embodiment of what it means to fulfill the overused mantra of "playing like a Jet."

A quick reminder: This was last November, Jets in Cleveland, overtime. New York at its own 37-yard line, facing third-and-9. Quarterback Mark Sanchez scrambles around in the pocket, escapes a near-sack and looks over the middle. He sees Cotchery limping through the hash marks, hopping on one leg. Cotchery had just pulled the groin muscle in his other leg, but keeps himself alive in the play. Sanchez points, directing his trusted receiver to an open area on the field. Cotchery responds, willing his body toward space. Then he leaps, hovering, fully extended and parallel to the ground, making the diving catch.

First down by a yard."