Pro Bowl center Nick Mangold of the New York Jets has a date with the Patriots Monday night. Two Fridays ago, he met with another foe, a fowl foe. Mangold cooked his very first Thanksgiving turkey a day after the Jets beat the Bengals on Thanksgiving night. Mangold’s approach to the turkey: grill it.

“It went pretty well, I mean after we calmed the fire, then it went pretty well,” he remarked. Wait… fire? What fire? “Ah, it was nothing,” he laughed.

Mangold told us that not burning the turkey  was the biggest challenge he faced in his cooking endeavor. The fire flamed up around the bird from time to time, but it was not even big enough to necessitate an extinguisher.

We asked Mangold if it ever got to a point where he wanted to quit. No quitting from Mangold. “Never say die when grilling,” he said. The Patriots likely will experience this mantra when facing Mangold on Monday night, as New England and the Jets renew their rivalry — with the winner owning the best record in the AFC.

The final product came out pretty well last week. “Once we got it to the table, it was great, people loved it,” he said. “At least I think they loved it…”

Mangold said he was definitely going to do it again next year. “And it will be even better,” he promised.

Posted in: Sidelines  | comments  |