Sports

Jets throwaway Goodwin now Super center for Saints

MIAMI — While Jonathan Goodwin was struggling to find his way during four under-productive years with the Jets, individual honors and the ultimate team success were the furthest things from his mind. He was merely trying to stay in the league after failing to win a starting job on the Jets’ offensive line.

“My first two years, I felt like I struggled,” Goodwin said. “My next two years I got better. I never believed that I couldn’t play in this league. Each year, I got better and better.”

Now the Saints’ starting center, Goodwin reached his pinnacle this season, being named to the Pro Bowl and helping New Orleans to its first Super Bowl.

Goodwin said the turning point for his career came in his third season with the Jets. That’s when offensive line coach Doug Marrone switched him from guard to center.

“Once I got the opportunity to play, I made the most of it,” Goodwin said. “To come from my first six years when I kind of got pegged as a backup to go to a Pro Bowl and Super bowl in one week is an amazing experience.”

Goodwin said he was pulling for the Jets to get to the Super Bowl in hopes that he could play his former team.

“It would have been a special experience to beat your old team in the Super Bowl,” Goodwin said. “I don’t know if you can top that. I was rooting for those guys because I’ve still got good friends on the team. They had a great year and I think they’re headed for great things. When I talk to them they all believe in their coach [Rex Ryan] and just from the outside looking in, I believe in him.”

* The last time the Super Bowl and the Colts were here was three years ago — the first time the big game was played in steady rain. Unless the forecasters are wrong, there won’t be a repeat of that soggy night. It is expected to be cool (by South Florida standards) and dry, with temperature at kickoff 65 degrees and dropping into the upper 50s during the game.

* Could this grand stage bring out the best in Saints RB Reggie Bush? He said coach Sean Payton early in the week told him: “Make sure you’re ready because you’re tongue’s going to be hanging out on Sunday.” Said Bush: “He knows guys like us, we love to hear that we’re going to be involved in the game plan. I want to be dog-tired by the time the game’s over because I know then that I’ve given it everything I have.”

* Jets kicker Jay Feely, who lives in South Florida, has been busy this week, but not kicking field goals. Feely, participating in the Super Celebrity Fishing Classic, caught the biggest fish on Wednesday when he and his partner in the competition reeled in a 33.4-pound kingfish.

“That’s why the Super Bowl should be in Florida all the time,” Feely, a Tampa native, said. “You can’t fish in Indianapolis during the Super Bowl.”

* Here’s a guarantee for Super Bowl XLIV: The winner will be . . . Tom Condon. The super agent represents both quarterbacks, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees, the first time an agent has been so fortunate since Leigh Steinberg represented Troy Aikman and Neil O’Donnell 14 years ago in Super Bowl XXX. The Colts have already said they want to re-do Manning’s contract to make him the league’s highest-paid player. The Saints have said they’ll restructure Brees’ contract. It’s a good time to be Condon.

* The battle at the line of scrimmage between Manning and Saints middle linebacker Jonathan Vilma will be a game within a game. Manning famously makes multiple checks and changes calls up until the last few seconds of the play clock. Vilma makes the defensive calls, but at some point he has to get his teammates in position and stop the mind games.

“He is always going to win that battle because he can take it down to five seconds and decide he wants to check into something,” Vilma said. “I don’t have time to switch it back in those four seconds or less. He’ll definitely win that battle if he takes the clock down that far.”