Jets propelled by Pennington

The National Football League post-season kicks off at the Giants Stadium in New Jersey this afternoon in a match that pitches the league's two black head coaches, the New York Jets' Herman Edwards and his one-time mentor, Indianapolis's Tony Dungy, against each other.

The confrontation between the nine-wins, seven-defeats Jets and the 10-6 Colts will also feature a pair of Tennessee-bred quarterbacks, Indianapolis's Peyton Manning and the Jets' Chad Pennington, who emerged from back-up obscurity to lead his team into the post-season after a 2-5 start had put Edwards's job in jeopardy.

When the Jets reached their nadir in mid-October Edwards turned to his old friend Dungy, on whose staff he had served with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. "We just talked about what we did in Tampa when things weren't going well," recalled Edwards, who with an African-American father and a German mother would appear to possess ideal bloodlines for an NFL coach.

The Jets had intended Pennington, a third-year former first-round draft choice, to spend one more year under the tutelage of the veteran quarterback Vinny Testaverde, but after such a start Edwards decided that the future had already arrived.

Pennington took over in the season's fifth week and his form since has drawn inevitable comparisons with Tom Brady's run to the Super Bowl with the New England Patriots a year earlier. Statistically he had a better 2002 than Brady's 2001, throwing 22 touchdown passes against 12 interceptions in the 12 games he started. He completed a league-high 68.9% of his passes, and his 104.2 overall rating led all NFL quarterbacks.

"I'm flattered by the comparison but I still have a long way to go to match what Tom did last year," said Pennington. But he outplayed Brady and Green Bay's Brett Favre in back-to-back games to close out the show, although the Jets still needed help to reach the post-season; it came when the Patriots erased an 11-point deficit with three minutes to play for an overtime win over the Miami Dolphins.

The Jets, Dolphins and Patriots all finished with 9-7 records. With the Patriots and Jets even in head-to-head competition, division record and conference record, the issue came down to the Jets' one-game advantage in games against common opponents.

Today's game will also be the first confrontation between Pennington and Manning, whom he idolised as a schoolboy in Knoxville. "Peyton Manning is Knoxville and Tennes- see football," he said. "I think he entails what a quarterback is all about with his prepara tion, his focus and his ability to execute against a defence."

The Pittsburgh Steelers (10-5-1) entertain the Cleveland Browns (9-7) tomorrow in the AFC's other wild-card game. The Oakland Raiders and Tennessee Titans finished 11-5 to draw first-round byes.

The New York Giants' 10-6 record earned them a wild-card berth in San Francisco against the 10-6 49ers tomorrow. In the NFC's other wild-card game, the Green Bay Packers (12-4) host the 9-6-1 Atlanta Falcons tonight. The Buccaneers finished 12-4 to win the NFC South, joining Philadelphia (12-4) in a first-round bye.

Oakland and Philadelphia will retain home field advantage for as long as they last and may well meet in San Diego on January 26.