Nick Mangold, 1984-2025

I am not a fan of the New York Jets, but yesterday was a big day for them, for reasons both good and bad.

The bad was the loss of one of their all-time greats.

Nicholas Alan Mangold was born on January 13, 1984 in Centreville, Ohio, outside Dayton. He went to Archbishop Alter High School in Kettering. Other notable alumni include basketball stars John and Jim Paxson, and David Bradley, inventor of the keyboard combination Control-Alt-Delete. He went to Ohio State University, and missed their 2002 National Championship season as a redshirt, but helped them win the Big Ten Conference title as a senior in 2005.

Center might be the least glamorous position on the football field, even though it's literally in contact with the most glamourous, quarterback. He was rated the best center in the 2006 NFL Draft, and the Jets became the 1st team in 31 years to choose 2 offensive linemen in the 1st Round: Tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson with the 28th pick, and Mangold with the 29th.

The Jets had cut Kevin Mawae, who was headed to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but was 35. He ended up making 2 more Pro Bowls with the Tennessee Titans. Instead of this turning out to be a typically boneheaded Jets move, Mangold made sure they didn't miss him, making 7 Pro Bowls in his 11 seasons.

He anchored a line that included Alan Faneca and Brandon Moore as guards, and Ferguson and Damien Woody as tackles. Blocking for quarterback Mark Sanchez and running back Thomas Jones, they helped the Jets reach the AFC Championship Game in the 2009 and '10 seasons, although they were unable to take the next step and win those games and reach a Super Bowl.

An ankle injury late in the 2016 season led the Jets to cut Mangold. After sitting out the 2017 season, he signed a one-day contract in 2018, and retired as a Jet.

He married his high school girlfriend, Jennifer Richmond, and had 4 children, settling in Madison, Morris County, New Jersey, not far from the Jets' practice facility in East Hanover. He coached youth football, and was involved with local charities. The Jets inducted him into their Ring of Honor in 2022.

Although he has been eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame since that year, he has not been elected. That is not surprising: Offensive linemen often get short shrift, due to the lack of available statistics by which to measure them. Only 13 centers have been elected, and 5 of those were from the era when players played on both offense and defense. Only 3 centers have been elected since the dawn of the 21st Century: Mawae, Mick Tinglehoff of the 1970s Minnesota Vikings, and Dermontti Dawson of the 1990s Pittsburgh Steelers.

Mangold was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease in 2006, his rookie season, and played his entire career while dealing with it. It took his life on Saturday, October 25, 2025, at the age of 41.

Yesterday, the news got around the NFL, and reached the Jets, who hadn't won a game all season, their 1st under new head coach Aaron Glenn, who had played 8 seasons as a cornerback for them, including 1998 when they reached the AFC Championship Game, although he was gone by the time Mangold arrived.

The Jets were 0-7, but were more frustrating than pathetic. They'd opened the season by losing 34-32 at home to the Pittsburgh Steelers. They'd lost 29-27 away to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They'd lost 27-21 away to the Miami Dolphins. They'd lost 13-11 to the Denver Broncos at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. (Jokes comparing them to Tottenham, a.k.a. Spurs, and that the Jets were "Spursy," were easy.) And they lost 13-6 at home to the Carolina Panthers. They'd lost 4 games by a total of 17 points.

Finally, yesterday, against the Cincinnati Bengals at Paycor Stadium (formerly Paul Brown Stadium) in Cincinnati, they put it all together. They fell behind 10-0 in the 1st quarter, and were down 31-16 after 3 quarters. But they scored 23 points in the 4th quarter, including an option pass from Breece Hall to Mason Taylor with 1:54 to go, and a final defensive stop, to win the game, 39-38. Hall had also rushed for 2 touchdowns, and quarterback Justin Fields threw for 244 yards an a touchdown, with no interceptions.

The New York Giants weren't so lucky. Having dealt their geographical rivals, the defending World Champion Philadelphia Eagles, their 1st loss of the season, they had a chance to sweep them for the 1st time since the 2007 season, a Super Bowl-winning season.

But the Eagles, having recovered nicely from a 2-game slump that began with that loss to the Giants, had had enough of that, and again punished the Giants for their willingness to give up on Saquon Barkley, who ran for 150 yards, including a touchdown, and the Eagles won, 38-20. It was a typical Jalen Hurts game: The Eagles' "QB1" completed 15 of 20 passes, playing it smart instead of spectacular. The Eagles are now 51-22 with Hurts as a starter.

The Giants are now 2-6 under head coach Brian Daboll. They have improved, going 2-1 in the 1st 3 games started at quarterback by Jaxson Dart, but have lost their last 2. And the awful ankle injury to running back Cam Skattebo, likely rendering him out for the season, will only make things worse, especially given that he's been described as Dart's best friend on the team.

New York's NFL teams have been as collectively bad as they've ever been, and, unless Glenn can use yesterday's win as a springboard for recovery, it looks like this will continue for some time.