FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Walking out to the Jets’ first padded practice of training camp, Nick Mangold spotted a contraption that left him stumped. From a distance it resembles a cherry picker without a bucket: A long, adjustable arm sprouts from a post, and at the end of it hangs a bell, and below that a speed bag dangling about seven feet above the ground like pugilistic mistletoe.
“Well,” Mangold said he thought to himself, “this should be interesting.”
How that apparatus related to football started making sense to Mangold later that afternoon. One by one, Mangold and his fellow offensive linemen took turns trying to prevent pass-rushers from charging past to whack the speed bag and ring the bell.