Perhaps the best sight of yesterday’s practice was tight end A.J. Schable back in uniform only days after suffering what appeared to be a serious neck injury in the preseason game against the Browns Thursday night.
“I feel a lot better; the neck’s just a little stiff, but other than that it feels pretty good to finally get out here,” he said. “When I was laying there on the field that’s the most scared I’ve ever been. Laying there for about a minute I couldn’t feel my left side.
“After the trainers came out, about 30 seconds later, I could start to get the feeling back.”
Schable was injured on a kickoff coverage play when he collided with a Browns offensive lineman helmet-to-helmet and fell backward. He was removed from the field in a stretcher, immobilized and brought to a nearby hospital for observation.
“I was just running down on the kickoff and I was real pumped up because this was the first chance I had to do any contact since December of ’06 and I was the first one down there,” he said. “I ran into the guy and the next thing I know I’m laying on my side and I couldn’t move my left side. At first, I was thinking, ‘Oh, man, I’m done playing.’ I was just thinking of the worst.”
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WR Laveranues Coles, still sorting out his hurt feelings over the release of his friend, Chad Pennington, continues to decline interview requests.
Yesterday marked the third consecutive day that Coles, who last year emerged as perhaps one of the most affable team spokesmen in the Jets locker room, refused to meet with reporters.