Ah, Twitter.

It brings athletes closer to each other and their fans, and allows us insight into their day-to-day lives. Dustin Keller likes steaks! David Clowney likes Lil’ Wayne! Jay Feely actually seems to enjoy spending time with his family!

But what about if one of the Jets were to tweet, “Just woke up, too hungover to work out. Eating a tub of ice cream.”

That’s the kind of think that Jets head strength and conditioning coach Sal Alosi might find… interesting.

Alosi is following the team’s tweeters to see if they are following the routines that he has written out for them, and he’s prepared to make house calls if necessary. Even though the players are technically off until they report to training camp on July 30, Alosi’s job is to make sure they arrive in shape.

So sometimes he checks in on Twitter. Which probably means he’s not the only one. The medium has definitely given fans a window on athletes’ lives, but it also offers a way for employers to keep track of them as well.

Oh and by the way, I’m janesports and I’m about to eat a tub of ice cream. But I don’t think my editor will mind.

Calvin Pace has been suspended for the first four Jets games of the season for failing the NFL’s policy against performance enhancing substances. The outside linebacker issued a statement through the Jets saying that he was unaware that he’d ingested a banned substance.

“This is a situation that resulted from an over-the-counter dietary supplement that contained a substance that I did not know violated the League’s policy,” Pace’s statement reads. “I am responsible for what I put into my body and I should have paid closer attention to the League’s guidelines. I regret that this has happened and apologize to my teammates, the entire Jets organization as well as the fans. Hopefully, this does not distract from our ultimate goal of winning the Super Bowl.”

The Jets issued this statement.

“We respect the League’s decision and look forward to Calvin’s return for our Monday Night game at Miami.”

Pace has been a huge part of the Jets defense in the year since he joined the team. Last season Pace had 67 combined tackles, 37 solo and seven sacks for a loss of 44.5 yards. He will be eligible to play again on Oct. 5, but will be eligible for all preseason games and practices.

Last year Pace earned $12M last season after Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum signed him as a free agent from Arizona. Only quarterback Brett Favre was as well compensated. Pace will lose salary for the four games he misses.

Updated: Here is a link to Calvin Pace’s blog. This is the first post he’s made on this blog so I’m going to double check that it’s really him.

The Rutgers guard the Jets picked up off waivers from the Giants, Mike Fladell, failed his physical and will not be joining the team for training camp when it opens Jul 31 in Cortland.

I’ve been talking to a few of the players about what this time of year is like for them. Technically they are off, but new coach Rex Ryan gave them a lot of time between minicamp and the start of training camp, and players like Dustin Keller and Bart Scott are ramping up their training so that they arrive in terrific shape.

Imagine you have a month vacation but you’re working 8-hour days. That’s kind of what it’s like. More on that later.

If you are one of the Jets fans who cannot afford the PSL on your seat in the New Meadowlands, there is a solution. For just $499 you can buy two of the seats from the old stadium and have them installed in front of your television set.

The Jets and Giants announced that they will be selling the old seats (currently in use, and pictured left) on a first come basis. Here’s the pitch:

“As any Giants or Jets fan can attest, if seats could talk, they would speak of fierce rivalries and diehard loyalties, fourth quarter comebacks, secular Hail Mary’s, and very likely recite a verse or two from ‘Born in the U.S.A.,’” said Mark Lamping, CEO of the New Meadowland Stadium Company. “We are thrilled to give fans the opportunity to bring a special piece of history into their homes.”

The seats in the new stadium are more expensive than current tickets and many come with a one-time fee of several thousand dollars called a personal seat license, or PSL. Many Giants and Jets fans have had to give up season tickets because of the additional fee, which the Giants have applied to every seat in the new stadium while the Jets omitted PSLs on most upper deck seats.

With the new stadium slated to open in 2010, there is still doubt as to whether the Jets and Giants can force consumers to accept the new fee structure. Earlier this season the Yankees were forced to cut some of its ticket prices when fans didn’t fill the premium seats.

For more information on the old stadium seats, visit  newyorkjets.com.

The Jets get another Giants discard in G Mike Fladell.

Here’s what the team has to say about the Rutgers product:

Fladell (G/6-7/334/Rutgers/Howard Beach, NY) initially entered the NFL when he was signed to the Giants practice squad on Dec. 3, 2008 as an undrafted rookie free agent.  He was waived on June 24.  Fladell played left guard for Rutgers from 2003-07, contributing as a starter in 2006 and 2007.

Are you missing peripheral football events?

12 Angry Mascots, the event that brought Kerry Rhodes to the stage last March, will have Packers running back Ryan Grant and former Jets sideline personality Jenn Sterger tonight. The show is at 8 at Comix comedy club on W. 14th St. That one is open to the public.

Jets offensive lineman D’Brickashaw Ferguson is having his foundation’s fundraiser tonight as well, and if you’re wondering where everyone else is, some are in Florida for the rookie symposium. But you need an invite to get into those.

Deja vu, didn’t I do this at the same time yesterday? This time the Jets picked up Mario Urrutia, a wide receiver released by the Bengals. My guess is that this isn’t the solution to the No. 2 connundrum.

From the team:

Urrutia (WR/6-6/232/Louisville/Fern Creek, KY) entered the NFL as a seventh-round selection (246th overall) by the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2008 NFL Draft.  He was waived Aug. 30 and signed to the practice squad on Aug. 31 where he spent the entire season.  During his college career at Louisville, Urrutia tallied 130 receptions for 2,271 yards and 16 touchdowns.

The Jets have added another defensive back. The Jets will get CB  Rashad Barksdale after the Giants placed him on waivers.

From the Jets release:

Barksdale (CB/6-0/208/Albany/Hudson, NY) originally entered the NFL as a sixth-round selection (201st overall) by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2007 NFL Draft and was released on Sept. 1, 2007. He signed with Kansas City on Sept. 2, 2007 and recorded nine total tackles in six games. He was released by the Chiefs on Aug. 30, 2008. Barksdale signed with the Giants practice squad, Sept. 1, 2008, and was waived on June 20,

Eric Smith could not have felt all that secure after Rex Ryan was hired. The former Baltimore defensive coordinator started bring in his guys, including S Jim Leonhard. Then Ryan started stocking the defense backs with familiar talent like CB Lito Sheppard and CB Donald Strickland.

Getting crowded in the backfield.

Smith was playing with the second team during the Jets mandatory minicamp two weeks ago when, over the course of three days, he nabbed five interceptions. The last one was a goofy ball popped up by James Ihedigbo (aka Diggs), which came down within Smith’s grasp.

“I feel 10 times better going from the first minicamp and trying to learn everything,” Smith said. “I was feeling like I was playing real slow and not up to my ability. Now, I’m pretty comfortable with the defense. I feel like I am playing a lot faster and as a result; making more plays.”

0611smith

Smith got Ryan’s attention, and kept it when he hurt his hamstring after that last play.

“Ed Reed, that’s what it reminded me of,” Ryan said “But, he’s really pushing. He really is. When you look at it on paper, you’ve got Jim Leonhard and Kerry Rhodes. That’s a heck of a safety combination. We also have Ihedigbo and Eric Smith.”

[Update, Thurs. a.m.: Just communicated with Smith, who is staying in town for treatment on the hamstring, and he said it was feeling much better now.]

Smith might be best known—or is that notorious?—for a collision with Anquan Boldin last season which left both with concussions. Smith was the one fined by the league, however, for what was deemed a dangerous hit. He always contended that Boldin’s trajectory was changed once both were in the air, and Smith couldn’t have avoided the contact at that point. That was what he gleaned from the replay, because Smith had no memory of the actual collision.

But once training camp starts next month, Smith, 26, will have a fresh start with a coach who clearly likes players who can reach up and snare an interception. Or five.

This story ran in the paper and Giants Journal last week, but I thought I’d put it here because I find it fascinating that an NFL quarterback is a heroic figure for many in the New York natural birthing community.

So I called Eli Manning to find out if he knew what he was getting into.

Mary Esther Malloy-Hopwood, a doula from Hastings, was at another woman’s side helping her through a three-day labor. The mother was having a difficult time, until she focused on something that seemed just as impossible as having her baby.

Eli Manning’s pass to David Tyree when the Giants won the Super Bowl.

So when Hopwood heard that the Giants quarterback and his wife Abby were spearheading the effort to fund a new $10 million birthing center at St. Vincent’s Hospital, it just seemed to fit.

“It’s been a subtext to my year, Eli Manning and birth,” Hopwood said with a laugh.
To many others however, quarterbacks and natural birth might seem like a strange combination. Even Manning understands it might seem unusual for a football player to take up such a core women’s issue.

“It’s probably a little different,” Manning said.
His involvement increased with St. Vincent’s very gradually. Manning made the traditional visits to the hospital as part of the Giants community outreach. The NFL often works with community hospitals and, like other players, Manning was affected by the people he met.

The more time he spent in the pediatric rooms, the more he was moved by the plight of young cancer patients and their parents. He asked how he could get more involved in helping St. Vincent’s and learned about the plans for the birthing center. He and his wife discussed it and signed on.

“My attachment to the new hospital, the plans, (is so) they have everything they need to make a woman feel like they’re doing it at their home,” Manning said.

A birthing center is very different from a hospital’s traditional labor and delivery area. Many women who decide to come to a birthing center opt for a midwife or doula rather than a physician, and the philosophy is very different.

“The assumption is that birth works and that women can do it,” Hopwood said. “Procedures are reserved for women who need them.”

Those procedures include fetal heart monitors, epidurals and IV fluids. Instead, women at a birth center might lean on hot tubs, relaxation techniques and visualization to make it through their labor — things Manning is finding out more about.

“The more we get involved the more we’ll learn,” said Manning, who was married after his Super Bowl victory and doesn’t yet have children.

Was he worried that he might get some ribbing from his fellow GIants?
“I think that players will see that I’m helping out with the hospital,” Manning said. “I don’t think I’ll get much heat for it.”

In 2003, Manhattan lost the Elizabeth Seton Childbearing Center, the only free-standing birth center in the city. Some natural birth advocates feared that women would be forced to choose between a hospital and a homebirth.

But Hopwood said interest in natural birth increased and there are several options for women in the five boroughs. She also thinks athletes and women in labor might have more in common than they think, in pushing themselves to accomplish a physically difficult task.

Hopwood will be hosting a discussion at St. Vincent’s later this summer on ment and natural childbirth, and she is sure that Manning will be a topic that comes up.
“It’s interesting having an icon in the masculine world of sports emblazoned across a birthing center,” Hopwood said, “but there are almost as many men walking through those doors.”

Manning may be an unlikely hero for the natural birth movement, and the quarterback has gotten letters through the hospital from people excited about his sponsorship. But Manning said he isn’t even sure that it’s what he and his wife will want when they decide to have children.

Then he paused.

“I’ll let my wife make that decision,” he said