Players often face defining moments in their careers. They are spontaneous, like Joe Namath running off the field with his index finger signaling No. 1 after the Jets won Super Bowl III.
In Jaime Henderson’s case, his moment arrived via “The Bus.”
In the Jets’ 16-6 win over Pittsburgh Thursday night, the Steelers had a second and goal from the 1. The Steelers gave the ball to their big and bruising running back Jerome Bettis. Jets cornerback Jaime Henderson met Bettis and delivered a jarring tackle for a one-yard loss.
“Man, he was a load,” Henderson said Saturday at the Jets practice facility at Hofstra. “He dropped his shoulder on me and I saw it, I caught it at the last minute so I dropped mine with him. He’s a load. He was slipping. I kept asking for help. I’m like, ‘Help!’ “
Henderson, a 6-foot-2, 202-pound cornerback, figures to help the Jets greatly in his second season. His fierce hitting caught the eye of Jets coach Herman Edwards last season. During the off season, Edwards and his staff decided the best way to use Henderson is to insert him on the goal-line defense for plays just like the one he made against the Steelers.
Henderson also was in on a gang tackle when the Steelers tried the same play, running it to the other side of the field, this time away from Henderson.
“There are certain positions, certain groups, you put on the field and you implement certain guys,” said Edwards. “Now they have pride in that. ‘I’m the starting corner on the goal-line defense.’ Is that important? You’re dad gum right it’s important.”
The importance of having a solid tackling cornerback on the goal-line defense can’t be overstated. Most teams will try to run on first and second from inside the five, especially if they have a big back like AFC East rivals Miami (Ricky Williams) and New England (Antowain Smith).
Hitting comes naturally for Henderson, who started running track as an eight year old in his hometown of Carrollton, Georgia before he started playing football. In the South, where football is a religion, Henderson was juiced the first day he put on a helmet and pads. He was eleven.
“In Carrollton, Georgia it is was pretty tough coming up there,” said Henderson. “If you didn’t play football, you were considered a wuss or whatever.”
It’s not uncommon for track athletes to wimp out on the football field. Renaldo Nehemiah is the most glaring example. He was terrific in the hurdles but never made an impact in pads.
Henderson has been able to combine his track skills with his penchant to hit. Edwards said he is the fastest defensive back on the team. He went as far as to say that a 40-yard dash between Henderson and former Jets cornerback Aaron Glenn would be close but that Henderson would beat Glenn in the 100.
“He’s a track guy who’s not afraid to tackle,” said Edwards. “A lot of those track guys, they don’t want to tackle anybody. They just want to run fast. Then, all of sudden when it’s time to play football they come in running 4.4 but when it’s time to play football they’re 5-flat because they’re petrified half the time.”
One of the areas of improvement Henderson must make to evolve into a complete corner is become a better pass defender. He played rover at Georgia, a hybrid position that combines linebacker and defensive back. The emphasis was always on Henderson’s ability to hit.
Henderson lined up incorrectly on one play against the Steelers which went for a 33-yard gain. A penalty wiped out the big gain, something the Jets pride themselves on not giving up.
“He likes running,” said Edwards. “That’s one thing he can do. Now sometimes he don’t know where he’s going, but he can run fast. He don’t always go in the right way but he’s going fast.”
The Jets are looking to take advantage of Henderson’s hitting rather than his speed. He said that hitting is something that came naturally to him and just listening to Henderson talk about laying the wood provides a glimpse of the inner workings of a hit man.
“I think it’s just my attitude,” said Henderson. “I go out there and I make myself feel violated. That person violated me and I try to take all my anger and frustration out on that person, the one I tackle.”