ESPN.com - Marticians, Sopran-Os and Flab Five, oh my!

ESPN.com: NFL

Friday, November 16, 2001
Updated: November 17, 3:52 AM ET
Marticians, Sopran-Os and Flab Five, oh my!

By Greg Garber
ESPN.com

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- On Wednesday, Curtis Martin was asked by the New York media crowding the Jets locker room to discuss his chances of landing the NFL's Most Valuable Player award. In typical make-them-miss fashion, the running back dodged the questions, never to be seen again that day.

When presented with the opportunity to discuss his talented offensive line on Thursday, however, Martin was already past the line of scrimmage.

"Those guys are doing a great job, make no qualms about that," he said. "My job, my livelihood depends on them."

Martin and his Block Street Boys have been making quite a living on opposing defenses so far this season. Martin has rushed 194 times for 917 yards, tops in the NFL, and his 10 touchdowns tie him for the league lead with receivers Terrell Owens and Marvin Harrison.

The Jets find themselves in a critical game Sunday at Miami. The 6-3 Jets meet the 6-2 Dolphins with the AFC East lead on the line. The Jets have won seven straight games against the Dolphins and are 4-0 on the road this season. But Miami is spoiling to beat New York after throwing away a 23-point lead last October on Monday Night Football and another 17-point advantage a month ago at the Meadowlands.

Led by center Kevin Mawae, a Pro Bowl starter the past two seasons, this Fine Line is comprised of left tackle Jason Fabini, left guard Kerry Jenkins, right guard Randy Thomas and right tackle Ryan Young. The members of Martin's Front Line wear a T-shirt around the Jets complex that reads: OWUA -- Over Worked and Under Appreciated.

"Growing up in high school and college, all the linemen never got the publicity that the quarterback, running back and wide receivers and even the defensive players did," Fabini said. "We just kind of do our job, and that's the nature of our job. If Curtis and Vinny (Testaverde) and the receivers have big days, we know that we did our job."

Offensive lineman pride themselves on their anonymity; Fabini seems almost proud of the fact he can walk easily through the local mall without anyone recognizing him. Still, when ESPN suggested a Sunday NFL Countdown feature (to air between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET) that would drop a nickname on these Pit Bosses, the players jumped -- with some prodding from Mawae -- at the chance.

"This," Martin said as he sat down for his interview, "should be fun."

A good nickname is hard to come by
The history of football nicknames tips alarmingly in favor of defenses, from the Fearsome Foursome to the Steel Curtain to the Orange Crush to the Killer Bs. Rarely do offensive lines inspire memorable monikers. Vince Lombardi was one of Fordham University's Seven Blocks of Granite back in the day. The Buffalo Bills' Electric Company turned on the "Juice" in the early 1970s. The Washington Redskins featured "The Hogs" in the 1980s, and the 1985 Chicago Bears contributed the Ray-ban-wearing "The Black and Blues Brothers."


	When Fireman Ed and his company arrive, they're there "to take care of business."

ESPN.com solicited suggestions from readers this week. The total, as of early Friday afternoon, had zoomed past 2,700.

The responses, aside from the predictable catty, scatological barbs from fans in Pittsburgh, Miami, Indianapolis and Oakland -- and you pranksters all know who you are -- were uniformly thoughtful and clever.

The vast majority dealt with Jet airplane imagery: The Runway, the Launching Pad, the Widebodies, Cruise Control, Jet Stream, Forward Thrust, the Jetsons, the F-28s (Martin's number) The Jetway and, well, you get the idea.

The team's prominent color inspired many ideas: The Green Mile, the Green Wave, the Green Martians, Gang Green, Behind the Green Wall, Green Man Group, Green Acres, GreenFellas, Green Eggs and Bam!, and, more often than any other response, the Green Machine.

New York references were popular, too: No fewer than 15 people, including Sean Welds of West Palm Beach, Fla., David Liebhauser of Hoboken, N.J., and Matt Wrobel of Lynbrook, N.Y., came up with the elegant New York Block Exchange. Not only does it reference the city, but it adds football imagery and manages to rhyme with the original as well. On top of that, it echoes the Jets' once popular New York Sack Exchange led by Mark Gastineau in the mid-1980s. Call it Son of Sack.

Unfortunately, the players hated it. Too derivative, they said.

In that vein: The New York Transit Authority, New York's Finest, New York's Meanest, the Five Burrows of New York, Broadway Bruisers, Five Angry Men at Exit 16A (of the New Jersey Turnpike), the New York Sky Line, The Big Show, The Empire Statesmen, Wall Street, New York State of Line, The Long Island Expressway, N.Y.P.D. (New York Path Development), The Big Apples, Grid Lock, etc.

Fusing football lingo and earth-moving equipment was big, too: The Turf Tractors, The Aerators (they make holes), the Back Hoe Bunch.

And then there were some sweet names: The Hole Patrol, the Hole Truth, The Line Sublime, Mt. Rush More, The Opening Act, Cinco de Martin, the Jade Brigade, Air Force Run, The Rushin' Front, Line-O-Mite, Northern Alliance and, just in time for the holiday blockbuster season, Lords of the Line.

	“	I like that one. That's what coach (Herman) Edwards calls us, that's our theme. We are the Shreks. We are ugly, the way we do it. We don't always do it the way people want it, but we win games. ”
		— Left tackle Jason Fabini on The Shreking Crew, a suggested nickname for the Jets' offensive line

A reoccurring theme was the movie "Shrek." The gentle green ogre seems like a natural for the Jets. The best of the many Shrek names: The Shreking Crew, from Fraser Coleman of Oakland, Calif., among others.

"I like that one," Fabini said. "That's what coach (Herman) Edwards calls us, that's our theme. We are the Shreks. We are ugly, the way we do it. We don't always do it the way people want it, but we win games."

Some of the more deft names required explanation: Rene Carrero of Albany, N.Y., wrote they should be called The Flight Attendants because "they're always showing people to their seats."

Manny Blanco of Naples, Fla., suggested The Divorcers, because "they create separation."

Vince Pierri of Boston came up with The Trojan Line, because they offer the best protection. Bruce Owens, who also hails from Beantown, suggested Monica Lewinsky because they ... well, you can fill in the blank on that one.

Not all are terms of endearment
In point of fact, some of the highest-quality nicknames came from bitter fans in rival cities.


	Curtis Martin leads the NFL with 917 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns.

Jeff Calden of Santa Cruz, Calif., offered The East Coast Bias Five, because no one named the Raiders' O-Line when Oakland led the league in rushing last season and, by the way, spanked the Jets on national television.

The people of Pittsburgh -- where, to be honest, Jerome Bettis has a better yards-per-game average (108.25 vs. 101.89) -- were particularly harsh. Not Quite Pittsburgh (Kevin Taccino), Second Best (Matt Hummel) both came from the Steel City.

Other charming, complimentary names: The Green Pile, The Turnstiles (thank you, Jack Krupski of Austin, Texas) and the Snot Rockets (Alex Gisbert, Oxford, N.J.). And how about this inspired offering from Dan Simms of Charlotte, N.C.: The New York Holding Company?

"Hey, that's pretty good," Mawae said. "I hold all the time."

And then there is the Flab Five, which emerged several times from Pittsburgh, a nasty little takeoff of Michigan's Fab Five.

"Some of the guys might take offense to that," Young said. "These guys are self-conscious."

"Hey, they have fatter linemen than we do," Mawae said of the Steelers.

Fabini laughed. "Flab Five ... probably fitting," he said.

Also thrown into the mix, albeit far less often, were some high-end names, the best of which came from Seth Kirschenbaum, who offered Martin du Gard, after the Nobel Prize-winning novelist. "Not all football fans," he wrote, "are complete idiots." Or something to that affect.

There were numerous plays on players' names: Mawae-5-0 (thank you, Gail Pinto of Union, Maine, among others), The Fab(ini) Five, The Martinets, The Marticians (because they're death on defenses).

Driving was a popular theme, too: The Chauffeurs (Joey Hester, Birmingham, Ala.), the Stretch (Jim Montrose, Concord, N.C.), Road Rage and Driving Mr. Martin (Michael Mitts of Pemborke Pines, Fla., and several others).

Because the Jets' home field is in New Jersey, The Sopranos was a popular choice. Both the Jets and the Sopranos, several folks noted, like to put the hit on people. Alex Silverstein of New York modified that to Sopran-Os, which was the consensus choice of the Jets' line and Martin as well.

Martin, for one, is hoping the PR exposure will push his Jets line above the radar.

"They're always on me for being the one who is noticed when we go out," Martin said. "I guess they will enjoy some of what I go through and see how it is for themselves."

How are these previously anonymous players going to react to all the fame and fortune that comes with the attention?

"Oh," Fabini said, nodding. "I think we will be able to handle it."

Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com