WR Santonio Holmes (Super Bowl XLIII MVP)

[Buckskin86]

Ban Looming, Holmes Is Appreciating Camp
By DAVE CALDWELL
Published: August 15, 2010

CORTLAND, N.Y. ? Santonio Holmes had taken off his helmet and was standing 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage when Emanuel Cook, a Jets safety, intercepted a pass and took off for the end zone. Eleven Jets on offense chased after Cook. So, just for fun, Holmes did as well.

Heather Ainsworth for The New York Times
The Jets' Santonio Holmes is taking training seriously, while also trying to liven things up.

That got a big laugh, from his teammates and Jets fans. Training camp is mostly drudgery. But Holmes, the wide receiver who is in his first year with the team, is trying to liven things up, whether it be by thrusting his arms after a long touchdown catch or by making a tackle on a play off.

Holmes is also taking training camp a little more seriously than most veterans. He was suspended for the first four games of the regular season for violating the N.F.L.?s substance-abuse policy. The preseason, which opens for the Jets on Monday against the Giants, will be a crash course.

He said last week that his suspension was ?not even my focus right now.?

Holmes is just trying to blend in. His roommate at training camp is quarterback Mark Sanchez. As Holmes explained, Sanchez was the only player without a roommate, and he thought it would be a good idea to get to know his quarterback more quickly.

Holmes says he has a plan for what he will do during his four games away from the team, although he will not disclose the details. He said he had not talked to Jets linebacker Calvin Pace, who served a similar suspension last year, and it sounded as if he would not ask Pace for advice.

?I?m a professional with five years in,? Holmes said. ?I know what I?ve got to do to get to where I?ve got to be.?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/sports/football/16jets.html

 

[Buckskin86]

Jets receiver Santonio Holmes looking forward to final preseason game
Published: Monday, August 30, 2010
Colin Stephenson/The Star-Ledger

Jets receiver Santonio Holmes, in practice
William Perlman/The Star-Ledger

Santonio Holmes will see extensive playing time in the Jets' final preseason game on Thursday.

Under normal circumstances, Santonio Holmes wouldn't get anywhere near the field for the final preseason game. But when the Jets visit the Eagles in Philadelphia on Thursday, Holmes will be getting a lot of playing time. And he's looking forward to it.

"Being it’s my first time playing in a preseason game for this long, and for what I’m about to be out for, I’m up for the challenge,'' Holmes said after practice today. "I think I need it more than what anybody would expect a fifth year guy going into a fourth preseason game.''

http://www.nj.com/jets/index.ssf/2010/08/santonio_holmes_looking_forwar.html

Santonio Holmes seeks more snaps
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
BY J.P. PELZMAN
The Record
STAFF WRITER

FLORHAM PARK ? There are many people who want to do away with the fourth NFL preseason game. But don't count Santonio Holmes among them.

At least not this year, anyway.

Despite having been a Super Bowl MVP less than two years ago, and finishing seventh in the NFL in receiving yards last season, Holmes expects to be playing into the second half of the Jets' preseason finale at Philadelphia on Thursday night. He'll be sharing the stage with numerous players who, 48 hours later, might not have NFL jobs after teams trim their rosters to 53.

Holmes will be playing that long because this will be his last chance to play a game until Oct. 11, when the Jets host Minnesota. By then, Holmes will have served a four-game suspension imposed by the NFL for violating its substance-abuse policy.

So unlike most accomplished veterans, Holmes is looking forward to the last preseason game.

"It's going to be fun," he said Monday. "I hope I can get about 20 catches out there [and] just have some fun, knowing I'm about to exit and be gone for four games.

"I've just got to take it for what it is," the fifth-year pro said of the enforced layoff. "I can't think about it. It's only going to probably set me back if I continue to worry about it. [I have to] go home, do what I'm supposed to do and come back with the right focus. And the team will understand where I was, what I was doing, how I approached it [and] how I'm ready to take on this role" in October.

"We'll put him in there and let him go," said coach Rex Ryan, who estimated that Holmes will play almost three full quarters, much the way linebacker Calvin Pace did in last year's preseason finale when facing a four-game suspension for violating the NFL policy on steroids and related substances.

NorthJersey.com: Jets' Holmes looking for more snaps

 

[Rookie]

Picked him and Braylon Edwards up in late rounds for fantasy. I'm hoping Sanchez has a break out year throwing it to these guys. This move could either make me look like a genius, or a complete idiot.

 

[Buckeneye]

Braylon Edwards

This move could either make me look like a genius, or a complete idiot.

.... the latter.

 

[Buckskin86]

NFL Videos: Holmes TD rec

 

[Buckskin86]

New York Jets mysterious new wide receiver Santonio Holmes is a bundle of contradictions
BY Kevin Armstrong
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Saturday, September 4th 2010

BELLE GLADE, Fla. - To catch a cottontail was best. Of all the rabbits Jets receiver Santonio Holmes would chase after in the dark, rich soil beyond Lake Okeechobee's southern bank as a youth, the furriest ones were also the fastest.

From the backyard of his one-story home in the Okeechobee Center projects, he hopped a dirt canal, darted across a field and dove into the burnt sugarcane stocks. His best friend, Fred Robinson Jr., a two-time 100-meter state champion, rushed from the other side. The boys' blood would jump. Rabbits were "speed meat." Dirty ones sold for $1.75; if cleaned, they went for $3.

"It was like our after-school program," says Robinson Jr., now a sergeant in the Florida corrections department.

Up from the fertile ground sprang Holmes. In football, he could reroute a 10-yard hitch into an 80-yard home run with a sidestep, then sprint. No matter the direction - right, left or straight - he erupted past defenders on the thick, low-cut grass of Glades Central High's Effie C. Grear Field. Once, at a track meet in a relay event, he caught and passed a competitor. Frustrated, the opponent threw his baton at him.

"The longer he ran, the more he accelerated," says Willie McDonald, 68, who coached Holmes to three state championships in the 4x400 relay.

Holmes, 26, has captured trophies and encountered trouble from South Beach to North Jersey, emerging from a childhood that saw him swim in plastic garbage cans for lack of better options to an adulthood picking up $2,500 tabs for friends in Las Vegas. All the while, his image has rotated between mugshots and magazine covers, sullied by alleged misbehavior off the field and celebrated for attention to detail on it.

"When you Google Santonio, the first thing you see are the arrests and it about makes me sick," says Tom Shaw, his speed coach. "He's as good a kid as there is."

To speed away was one thing; it was another to splatter linebackers. Holmes was born at 6 pounds, 15 ounces to a 16-year-old mother, but she felt he was too small for football. He would climb out a back window or say that he was visiting his grandma. Once free, he shed his sneakers because he preferred to run barefoot. Then, he'd find someone to hit.

"He'd go at guys with 20-30 pounds on him," Taylor says. "Real feisty."

During Ohio State's win over Notre Dame in the 2006 Fiesta Bowl, Holmes had blocking responsibilities while receiver Ted Ginn Jr. wrapped around for a reverse. Holmes crept up on Irish linebacker Maurice Crum Jr. after faking a route and decleated him. Ginn Jr. sprinted 68 yards down the sideline to the end zone.

"He loves to crack," Ohio State receivers coach Darrell Hazell says

Read more: New York Jets mysterious new wide receiver Santonio Holmes is a bundle of contradictions

 

[Buckskin86]

RAVENS GLAD HOLMES ISN?T ELIGIBLE: The Ravens didn?t mind not having to compete with Jets wide receiver Santonio Holmes.

The former Super Bowl Most Valuable Player is suspended for four games for violating the NFL substance abuse policy.

Holmes had scored a touchdown in seven consecutive games against Baltimore when he was with the Pittsburgh Steelers prior to an offseason trade to New York.

?Santonio Holmes is a great wide receiver,? Ravens defensive coordinator Greg Mattison said. ?He?s a tremendous athlete. He?s got great speed. Obviously, anybody, if you take anybody with that kind of ability out of your lineup, you?re not going to be as good.?

http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/sports/ravens/article_862920fa-bfb7-11df-a8a6-001cc4c002e0.html

 

[TJnTN]

Jets passing game looked anemic. I'm not a Jets fan but I'll be excited to see Holmes get back on the field.

 

[buxfan4life]

Jets passing game looked anemic. I'm not a Jets fan but I'll be excited to see Holmes get back on the field.

As a Dolphins fan, I hope he never catches a pass for those moldy green bastards.

Fuck the jets.

 

[Flocka]

As a Dolphins fan, I hope he never catches a pass for those moldy green bastards.

Fuck the jets.

I would GPA this post if I could.

 

[Buckskin86]

Santonio returns to the Jets tomorrow morning
Posted by Mike Florio on October 3, 2010

It's Week Four. And with most folks bracing for the Monday return of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to the Steelers, the return of the guy who caught the most important pass Roethlisberger ever has thrown largely has been forgotten.

Receiver Santonio Holmes' four-game suspension ends today. We're told that he'll be back with the team on Monday morning, and that he's expected to play when the Jets host the Vikings on Monday, October 11.

Per a source with knowledge of the situation, Holmes has been training hard and he's "ready to go."

And that could be great news for the 2-1 Jets. Holmes followed his toe-tapping Super Bowl XLIII MVP performance with 1,248 receiving yards (a 15.8 yards per catch average) in 2009.

But Jets fans should continue to be cautiously optimistic, at best. The fact that the league suspended Holmes four games for violating the substance-abuse policy means that he previously had violated the policy multiple times, and that a fine in the amount of four game checks wasn't sufficient to get him on the right track before facing a four-game suspension without pay.

Now, he remains subject to ongoing, unannounced testing. One false move will trigger a one-year suspension.

Until that should happen, the Jets will have a potent weapon for an offense that has improved dramatically since Week One.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/10/03/santonio-returns-to-the-jets-tomorrow-morning/

 

[Buckskin86]

Jets ready to take off with Santonio
Jets Blog
By BART HUBBUCH
Last Updated: October 5, 2010

Santonio Holmes kept about as low of a profile as possible around the Jets during his four-game NFL drug suspension.

Now that the ban is over, the former Super Bowl MVP won't be flying under the radar much longer.

Holmes' suspension ended with the final whistle of Sunday's 38-14 road thrashing of the hapless Bills, and the Jets have spent the meantime daydreaming how much more dangerous the ex-Steelers speedster can make an offense already among the league's most potent.

"To add a terrific player like Santonio to what we have -- an offense that's really been rolling -- is exciting," Jets coach Rex Ryan said yesterday as he basked in a 3-1 start that includes three AFC East wins. "It should be a lot of fun to watch."
GROUNDED NO MORE: The Jets are excited to see what wide receiver Santonio Holmes adds to the offense following his four-game suspension for violating the league's drug policy.

AP
GROUNDED NO MORE: The Jets are excited to see what wide receiver Santonio Holmes adds to the offense following his four-game suspension for violating the league's drug policy.

Holmes gets his first chance to spark those fireworks at New Meadowlands Stadium on Monday night, when the Jets reunite with old mate Brett Favre and the Vikings.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/jets/flyin_back_holmes_HV0U3CTkMN9sjDqPrebXlM#ixzz11U1hwU7K

Ryan on Holmes' return - NFL Video

 

[Buckskin86]

Updated: October 6, 2010
Santonio Holmes: No apology needed
By Jane McManus
ESPNNewYork.com


FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- Rex Ryan said Santonio Holmes was at the New York Jets' practice facility at 6 a.m. Wednesday, the first day he was allowed to fully practice with the team during the regular season.

As the wide receiver served the four-game suspension for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy, Holmes was allowed to come to the facility and attend meetings.

"Guys welcomed me every day I came in," Holmes said.

Holmes said that he has used the time to learn plays, attend meetings and work out with the team. He wouldn't play this off as a chance at redemption. In Holmes' eyes, he has nothing to atone for, and said he hadn't spent his time off trying to change.

"To look in your eyes and be honest with you, not 1 percent," Holmes said. "I've been the same person since I stepped foot in this NFL, I'll [continue] being the same person until I leave."

Holmes was as unapologetic as he was the day the Jets brought him to the team, after Pittsburgh unloaded the receiver in April despite the fact that he'd been the 2008 Super Bowl MVP. In October 2008, Holmes was cited for marijuana possession and received a one-game suspension. He could have triggered the four-game penalty with a positive or missed drug test, which happened with the Steelers. Another violation, and Holmes would face missing an entire season.

Asked if any of those things had been a wake-up call, Holmes was forthright.

"I made it to the Super Bowl and won it, didn't I?" Holmes said. "That's all I had to do with myself. I didn't have anything to think about. I'm a football player, what happens off the field happens off the field, doesn't affect anything I do or what I'm capable of doing."

http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/news/story?id=5655928

 

[Buckskin86]

Back with Jets, Santonio Holmes 'blessed' but has no time for reflection
Published: Thursday, October 07, 2010
Colin Stephenson/The Star-Ledger

William Perlman/The Star-Ledger
Santonio Holmes returns to the Jets at a time when the offense is humming along.

Santonio Holmes? four-game suspension is over and the former Pittsburgh Steelers receiver will make his Jets debut Monday night when Randy Moss, Brett Favre and the rest of the 1-2 Vikings come to New Meadowlands Stadium.

?I?m blessed to be here, get a second opportunity,?? Holmes said. ?I?m ready to get the season started, for myself, and continue what the other players have been doing so far.??

Holmes talked about how he kept in shape during his time away from the team ? he lifted weights for two hours every day and ran routes, ran in the sandpit, ran wind sprints in a basketball gym for two hours ? but he didn?t spend a lot of time reflecting on the behavior that got him suspended, it seemed.

?Not one percent,?? Holmes said. ?I?ve been the same person since I stepped foot in the NFL, I?ll continue being the same person until I leave ? I didn?t have anything to think about. Everything was already done, in the process. It?s time to play football now.??

http://www.nj.com/jets/index.ssf/2010/10/back_with_jets_santonio_holmes.html

Santonio Holmes impresses New York Jets, Rex Ryan as he prepares to return from suspension
BY Manish Mehta
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Thursday, October 7th 2010

Santonio Holmes wasn't concerned with personal growth or epiphanies during his league-mandated four-week suspension for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy. He was more focused on keeping himself in shape so that he could make a seamless transition upon his return.

Mission accomplished.

Holmes returned to practice for the first time Wednesday, looking every bit like the former Super Bowl MVP the Jets traded in the offseason.

"He looks sharp," Rex Ryan said. "He looks like he hasn't missed a beat."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/f...ack_and_jets_are_impressed.html#ixzz11g1S8KKL

Holmes feeling Super for Jets
Jets Blog
By BRIAN LEWIS
Last Updated: October 7, 2010

An unrepentant and unbowed Santonio Holmes ? who was reinstated from a four-game drug suspension and practiced with the Jets for the first time this regular season yesterday ? vowed he?s the same man who won the Super Bowl MVP two years ago for Pittsburgh.

The Jets are hopeful the receiver can duplicate the feat for them.

?We got three No. 1 (receivers); it?s hard to match up. It?s going to be a problem for anybody. We were a Super Bowl-caliber offense without him, so to get him,? Braylon Edwards told The Post, with a mischievous wink.

Like Edwards, Holmes has had his run-ins with the law, cited on Oct. 23, 2008, for marijuana possession and suspended for this season?s first four games by the NFL for a second offense. But Holmes ? whom the Jets acquired in April for a fifth-round pick ? said the events haven?t changed him at all.

?Not 1 percent. I?ve been the same person since I stepped into the NFL, and I?ll be the same person until I leave,? vowed Holmes, who had 79 catches for 1,248 yards last year. ?That solidifies that question. I didn?t have anything to think about. Everything is already done in the process time to play football now.

?This happened back in ?08, and now it?s coming out in 2010. I made it to the Super Bowl and won it, didn?t I? That?s all I had to do with myself. I didn?t have anything to think about. I?m a football player. What happens off the field happens off the field. It doesn?t affect what I do or what I?m capable of doing.?

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/jets..._feeling_KT6E1hwgOYPJV68fFz1AVK#ixzz11g1GNEvX

 

[Buckskin86]

http://twitpic.com/2wd0s9

Jets, Ryan pushed hard for Holmes
Jets Blog
By BART HUBBUCH
Posted: October 10, 2010

Rex Ryan is obviously an excitable sort, but even this was a bit out of character.

The Jets coach was doing a TV interview in his office last April when general manager Mike Tannenbaum got a surprise phone call from the Steelers telling him former Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes could be had more or less for a song.

Tannenbaum sent his assistant to peek into Ryan's office with orders merely to say the words "Santonio Holmes" and ask the Jets coach for a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down signal.

"You couldn't even count to 20 after that before Rex came barging into my office screaming, 'Hell, yeah!' " a smiling Tannenbaum recounted to The Post this week.

When Tannenbaum asked if they should watch recent film on Holmes just to be sure, Ryan waved him off.

"[Bleep] that!" Ryan screamed, according to Tannenbaum. "That [S.O.B.] cost me one or two Super Bowl rings already when I was in Baltimore! Get him in here now!"

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/jets/holmes_run_YINNl1CwTU7vEemDWZsHJO#ixzz11xarp2EN