<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>The conversation began like an Abbott and Costello routine, with Redskins running back Clinton Portis turning to Jets linebacker Jonathan Vilma during a promotional appearance in Miami and asking, ?Did you hear that you?re going to Washington??To which Vilma replied, ?For what??Upon being informed that the word on the Internet had him being traded to the Redskins, Vilma said, ?Will I like Washington???Yeah,? replied Portis, his former teammate at the University of Miami. ?Will I like New York??Now Vilma was really confused. ?Yeah,? he said, ?but why???Because,? Portis said, ?I?m the other player in the trade.?Vilma chuckled Wednesday as he reconstructed the conversation in which he became aware that the gossip of the blogosphere had tossed him into the N.F.L.?s tradewinds.?I didn?t even know what Portis was talking about,? Vilma said by telephone from Toronto.To the best of Vilma?s knowledge, a Redskins fan began a blaze of speculation that spread to Weeb Ewbank Hall, where Jets General Manager Mike Tannenbaum last week was asked about Vilma possibly being traded. Tannenbaum said Vilma, who led the league in tackles two years ago but struggled last season in the new 3-4 defense, remains a Jet and added, ?I?m glad he?s here? and ?I expect him to be here.?In trying to douse the flames of conjecture, Tannenbaum managed to fan them by saying that no player, with the exception of punter Ben Graham, is untouchable. So it is that Vilma, the 12th overall pick in 2004, goes into tomorrow?s draft faced with the prospect that he might again hear his name called.Wondering if you are going be cast aside and waiting to be reeled in are opposite sides of the emotional expanse. Vilma is not the only player heading into the weekend having reason to feel slightly adrift. Chiefs quarterback Trent Green and Bears linebacker Lance Briggs have also been mentioned in possible draft-day trade scenarios.Vilma, 25, who finished with 116 tackles in 2006 after making 187 in 2005, was asked if the ongoing speculation bothered him. ?Not really,? he said. ?If they?re going to trade me, they?re going to trade me. Even if the rumor is true, I still don?t have any control over it.?Vilma is one of the Jets? more tireless strivers, his work ethic predicated on leaving nothing to chance. But after finding himself in the middle of a regime change and a defensive face-lift, Vilma accepted that in football as in life, somebody else sometimes seizes the wheel.To unwind after the season, Vilma went to Rio de Janeiro with another former Hurricane, D. J. Williams, for Carnivale. It was as good a place as any to get one?s mind off of football.?We didn?t want to leave,? Vilma saidThis week he is in Toronto with his mother, Nelly Banatte, who was one of eight N.F.L. mothers chosen, along with their sons, for the Campbell?s Chunky Soup ad campaign.When Vilma heard that his mother was being considered, he was dubious. ?I was like, are you serious?? he said. ?I just started to laugh. My mom is so laid-back and reserved. I was like, ?No way. My mom?s not going to do it.? ?Banatte, a social worker, seldom takes vacations, Vilma said. But an all-expenses-paid trip with her son was too good to pass up.Vilma?s parents divorced when he was 11 and he and his older sister lived with his father, Fritz, though his mother remained in their lives. But it has been ?a while,? Vilma said, since he and his mother were able to hang out, just the two of them.A visit to Niagara Falls was on their itinerary, Vilma said. And then it was back to Miami, and a weekend of riding out the rapids of rumors fueled by the draft.</div>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MLibid @ Apr 27 2007, 01:25 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I have one question. How come this is in the "Sports" forum? </div>It was late when I posted it.
