New York Jets

No team in the NFL has been more aggressive in pursuing free agents than the New York Jets. Now the Jets are going after their biggest prize: Reggie White. Dick Steinberg, the club's general manager, said yesterday that the Jets have already shown that they're serious about White, the Eagles defensive end who has become the league's most sought-after free agent. "I think Reggie will be able to see that we've already improved our defense so that it can rise to another level," Steinberg said in a telephone interview.

It was Aug. 5, a normally newsy Monday afternoon at Camp Holdout at West Chester University. Two nights before, No. 2 quarterback Jim McMahon had sustained a sprained knee and sprained ankle in the Eagles' preseason victory over the New York Jets. On his way back to the dormitory after dinner, coach Rich Kotite stopped to shoot the breeze for a few minutes before heading to meetings. Eventually, a question about his emergency quarterback list came up. "You know what?"

Laveranues Coles finally got his wish. The disgruntled Redskins receiver is headed back to the New York Jets after asking out of Washington. In a swap of wideouts, Coles was traded yesterday for the speedy Santana Moss, a deal that was in the works for more than a week. Dolphins. Miami signed defensive end Vonnie Holliday to a two-year contract after the seven-year veteran was released by Kansas City on Feb. 22. Falcons. Atlanta re-signed Pro Bowl return specialist Allen Rossum and added kicker Todd Peterson.

The New York Jets traded backup quarterback Glenn Foley to the Seattle Seahawks yesterday for an undisclosed 1999 draft pick. Foley, 28, last season lost his starting job to Vinny Testaverde, who led the team to the AFC championship game and recently signed a three-year, $19.4 million contract. In Seattle, Foley will compete with Jon Kitna for the starting job. Kitna went 3-2 last season after taking over for Warren Moon. Foley, a graduate of Cherry Hill East, had been the starter until injuries prevented him from playing a full season.

New England star halfback Curtis Martin, only one of seven players in NFL history to begin a career with three 1,000-yard rushing seasons, signed an offer sheet with the New York Jets. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but ESPN reported that Martin had an option of $4 million for one year or $36 million for six years. The Patriots have one week to match the offer. Martin, now a restricted free agent, was taken in the third round of the 1995 draft by then Patriots coach Bill Parcells, now the Jets' coach.

Peyton Manning could be the missing piece for the Miami Dolphins. Or the Arizona Cardinals. Maybe even the New York Jets or Seattle Seahawks. Washington, Kansas City, Denver, and Tennessee also are possible suitors. But for now, where the free-agent quarterback lands is anybody's guess. Including Manning's. "I have no idea who wants me, what team wants me, how this process works," Manning said. "I don't know if it's like college recruiting where you go take visits.

TIM TEBOW WILL be introduced as the newest member of the New York Jets at a news conference on Monday. But before he can join the Jets, Tebow - because of a procedural issue - will be required to sign a rewritten contract with the Broncos on Friday and remain on Denver's salary cap for 24 hours thereafter, a source told ESPN.com. That means the trade will not be official until 4 p.m. Saturday. Tebow flew to New York Thursday afternoon, but the contract issue forced the Jets to postpone his introductory news conference until Monday.

The Eagles signed free-agent offensive lineman Harry Boatswain to a two-year contract yesterday. Boatswain, 27, spent the 1995 season with the team, starting seven games. After that season, the Eagles let Boatswain go. He signed with the New York Jets, filling in at both guard and tackle during the 1996 season. "Harry will be a good fit with us," coach Ray Rhodes said in a prepared statement. "He can play guard and tackle. He gives us added flexibility. " Boatswain, 6-foot-4 and 310 pounds, was a fifth-round draft pick of the San Francisco 49ers in 1991, and spent four seasons with the Niners.

Maybe the Eagles will show up at Hofstra University today. The players who showed up yesterday looked pretty disinterested in two full practices against the New York Jets, and the Eagles' coaches were not at all pleased with the way the Jets owned both lines of scrimmage. The Eagles' only real bright spots were the sharp throwing of quarterbacks Randall Cunningham and Bubby Brister, the offensive line's pass protection, excellent wide-receiver play, and high marks for the Birds' two young punters.

When Reggie White, the NFL's most-talked-about free agent, toured the New York Jets' facilities this week, he said he was impressed with the team's weight room but not with its quarterback situation. The Jets are one of a half-dozen clubs on White's free-agent tour and, according to reports out of New York, are prepared to offer him a four-year contract worth about $14 million. White said that he liked Jets quarterback Browning Nagle, but went on to say that he'd like the Jets better if they would trade for Cincinnati's Boomer Esiason.

TIM TEBOW WILL be introduced as the newest member of the New York Jets at a news conference on Monday. But before he can join the Jets, Tebow - because of a procedural issue - will be required to sign a rewritten contract with the Broncos on Friday and remain on Denver's salary cap for 24 hours thereafter, a source told ESPN.com. That means the trade will not be official until 4 p.m. Saturday. Tebow flew to New York Thursday afternoon, but the contract issue forced the Jets to postpone his introductory news conference until Monday.

NEW YORK - Just another crazy day for the New York Jets. Hours after the Jets announced they had agreed in principle to acquire Tim Tebow from the Denver Broncos on Wednesday, the deal hit a snag. A few hours after that, the deal was completed, but not before rumors of trades to Jacksonville or St. Louis had swept the NFL. The deal was delayed when the Jets balked at repaying Denver more than $5 million for a salary advance due Tebow. ESPN reported that the two sides had agreed to split that cost, which closed the deal.

TIM TEBOW IS going to New York. Really. After a big false start, the New York Jets pulled off a Tebow-like comeback Wednesday night, getting the quarterback who turned the Denver Broncos from an also-ran into a playoff team last season and became the NFL's most talked-about player - for a fourth- and sixth-round draft pick. Now, Tebowmania is opening on Broadway. Eight hours after initially agreeing to a deal, the teams completed the trade that was hung up when the Jets apparently balked at repaying Denver more than $5 million for a salary advance due Tebow.

Peyton Manning could be the missing piece for the Miami Dolphins. Or the Arizona Cardinals. Maybe even the New York Jets or Seattle Seahawks. Washington, Kansas City, Denver, and Tennessee also are possible suitors. But for now, where the free-agent quarterback lands is anybody's guess. Including Manning's. "I have no idea who wants me, what team wants me, how this process works," Manning said. "I don't know if it's like college recruiting where you go take visits.

Each time the Eagles do this, each time they find a jewel of a game amid a junkyard of a season, the opportunities they have wasted become all the more frustrating. There were two reasons that the Eagles were able to dismantle a New York Jets team that thought it was pretty good by a 45-19 score on Sunday. The first reason was the Jets, who were plain awful, but the second was what the Eagles did to grab the game by the throat. It wasn't a perfect game, by any means. The Eagles could have put the thing away by halftime, but committed four turnovers in the first half alone.

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. - Slow starts are a thing of the past for the suddenly clicking New York Jets. Remember those brutally boring first quarters when they couldn't get much going? Well, those are so four weeks ago. Mark Sanchez and the once-struggling offense have become an efficient group that has gotten on the scoreboard early and often during the Jets' three-game winning streak. "I think we're all just playing a lot better across the board," Sanchez said. And they've done it against some pretty good defenses.

Stevie Johnson acted out one of the most novel cabarets seen in an NFL end zone in years on Sunday, but he wound up looking like the goat when he helped cost the Buffalo Bills a game against the New York Jets. The wide receiver caught a touchdown pass from Ryan Fitzpatrick late in the first half. Johnson jumped up - and mocked being shot in the thigh, clearly making fun of the Jets' Plaxico Burress , who served 20 months in prison for shooting himself in the leg in a nightclub in 2008 while he was with the Giants.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Darrelle Revis ran back an interception 100 yards for a touchdown and the New York Jets did just enough to beat the winless Miami Dolphins, 24-6, on Monday night and end a three-game losing streak. Mark Sanchez threw a touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes and ran for another score as Rex Ryan's Jets - who called this a "must-win" game - capped a tough week by pulling out a victory and sending the winless Dolphins to their fifth straight loss. With the losses mounting and the season already on the brink of spinning out of control for the Jets (3-3)

WHEN Joe Namath was recruited by Sonny Werblin, owner of the American Football League's New York Jets, in 1965, he had a choice between the Jets and the National Football League's Cardinals. He decided on the Jets, with which he went on to become a Hall of Famer, but told Werblin that he had one condition: that the Jets hire his old University of Alabama roommate, Ray Abruzzese. Ray, a South Philly kid, was playing defensive back for the AFL's Buffalo Bills at the time. Bills owner Ralph Wilson agreed to let Ray go and he joined Namath on the Jets.

Derrick Mason thought about going back to Baltimore. He considered Tennessee, too. There was just something about the New York Jets that outweighed everything else. "I'm coming to the end of my career and I can still play a lot of good football, but I wanted to take every opportunity to try to win a Super Bowl," the Jets' newest wide receiver said yesterday. "For me, this was the best place to try to do that. " Mason, 37, signed a 2-year deal with the Jets, picking them over his previous two teams.