Jennifer Mangold, tragically a widow for 14 days, walked out for the coin toss with her four children, ages 7 to 14, and a hushed football stadium choked with emotion, and anyone who knew Nick Mangold fought back tears.
There was a video tribute for Mangold, who succumbed far too soon to his chronic kidney disease, and a green and white jersey replica on the field next to the American flag and a photo of the great Jets center behind one of the end zones and a touching tribute from LT D’Brickashaw Ferguson, his teammate for 10 seasons, both of them iron men who played for the name on the front and the name on the back of the jersey with passion and pride. Jets players and coaches prayed for Mangold during the moment of silence.
It is fairytale stuff concluding that the Jets Won One For Mangold, 27-20 over the Browns, when they very much needed to win one for themselves following a week of turmoil and heartbreak that saw Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams jettisoned for Wait Till Next Year, but both can be true.
“We were definitely playing for something bigger than ourselves today for sure,” Isaiah Oliver told The Post.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
