Shaun Ellis still is steaming about the Jets spurning his attempt to get a contract extension, but he said yesterday he expects to remain with the team this season.
“The fact is that it’s the last year of my deal and it’s time to get an extension,” the Jets veteran defensive end told The Post. “I tried to work something out and they basically told me, ‘No,’ and they’re making me play it out.”
Ellis conceded that this “[ticks] me off.”
“I’ve done a lot in this league and I have a lot more to do,” he said. “My numbers speak for themselves. I feel definitely that I have produced and I’ve been producing for a long time.”
He said he’s “frustrated” when he hears that he’s injury prone after suffering a broken bone in his hand last year.
“Then on top of that they bring up what happened two years ago [his marijuana arrest],” he said. “I dealt with that. I handled it, let it go. Focus on the good things I’ve been doing instead of putting me in a negative light.”
Ellis said he was stung by trade rumors with his name attached.
“At first I was a little worried about it, but now I’m just like, ‘[Bleep] it,” he said. “I’m just going to go play. I want to be here and I think I’m going to be here, just because of the personnel (the Jets are thin on the defensive line). I want to finish my career here.”
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Left tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson, who was Mark Sanchez‘ “plus-one” guest at the White House state dinner Wednesday night, said the experience was “something I’ll remember forever.”
“You meet one of the most powerful men in the world [President Obama] and it humbles you,” Ferguson said.
“It just felt right to take a teammate and someone who was interested,” Sanchez said. “I know ‘Brick’ is into politics and he looks like a governor.”
Center Nick Mangold said jokingly that “2032 is the year of Brick in the White House.”
Asked what his first reaction was when he heard Sanchez was invited to the White House, right guard Brandon Moore said: “Why not me?”
Sanchez said the rest of the offensive line gave him a hard time yesterday, saying, “Why couldn’t you bring all of us?’ “
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New linebacker Jason Taylor said his first few days with the Jets “were a little strange.”
“But they’ve made it so welcoming and so easy to make a transition, it’s gone pretty well,” he said.
Taylor, asked about his role with the Jets, said he just wants to contribute to an already-strong defense.
“They have a good thing going here,” he said. “They were No. 1 in defense last year. I don’t want to mess it up. I just want to add to it, and do what I can to help this team. Whatever that may be, show me the way and I’ll go do it.”
He called the atmosphere under coach Rex Ryan compared with the Bill Parcells regime in Miami, “like night and day.”
“Everything here is a little more relaxed,” he said. “It’s whole different vibe in building. I don’t want to call it relaxed like its lackadaisical, but it’s a little more positive and little more calm.
“Rex’s attitude and enthusiasm trickles down. What I thought would be a tough transition has been seamless.”
Taylor is two lockers away from Ferguson, with whom he has had some good battles.
“I remember when he came in as a rookie, and I was trying to abuse him and getting him going to see if I could get a personal foul on him,” Taylor said.
Taylor said he’s not even trying to pry his old No. 99 jersey number from Bryan Thomas “because I have too much respect for ‘BT.’ ”
He’s going with No. 95 in honor of his former Dolphins teammate Tim Bowens, whom he called, “instrumental in my career and special to me.”
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Ryan said there should be no question whether the NFL’s showcase event should be played at the new Meadowlands Stadium in 2014. The league’s owners are voting on the site next week at their meetings in Dallas.
“The game should be played here,” Ryan said, “and it would be a great Super Bowl.”
If the owners vote in favor of the joint bid by the Jets and Giants, it would be the first Super Bowl to be played outdoors in a cold-weather locale. Miami and Tampa, Fla., which have hosted 14 Super Bowls between them, also bid.
“I don’t see how it’s not played here,” Ryan said. “The weather, if your team is not built to play in those conditions, that’s too bad. I’d just as soon play all those games up north.”
— with AP