Jones Sends Message to Foster and Family

When the story first broke and UCLA began investigating DeShaun Foster’s use of a sport utility vehicle, the name of agent Sean Jones, the former Raider defensive end, surfaced and was quickly dismissed by those who checked further.

The rumors, however, have been slow to die.

Jones, here for the Super Bowl, is angry now, and he asked that a message be delivered--complete with obscenities--to demonstrate just how mad he is.

“I met that kid twice, and his mother is telling everyone that I turned him into the NCAA,” said Jones, who has been edited for public consumption. “How dumb is the kid anyway--walking into a Ford dealership and thinking no one is going to notice him getting an expensive vehicle.

“I spoke to the kid twice in my life, once to say ‘good game,’ and the second time to tell him if he wanted to talk at the end of the season--at the end of the season--we would. I swear on my kids’ lives that’s all that ever happened.

“But I’ve got his mother telling people I hurt her son and the kid not speaking up and setting everything straight. If I hear that again, I’m gonna sue them.”

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New England quarterback Tom Brady has started only 16 NFL games, and he’s on the verge of playing in front of an estimated worldwide viewing audience of 800 million people, but he seems cool as a Boston breeze.

That doesn’t surprise Marcellus Wiley, a Pro Bowl defensive end for San Diego who faced him in Week Four.

The way Wiley sees it, the real pressure begins for Brady when the season ends.

“He’ll have the whole off-season to harden those expectations,” Wiley said. “He’ll start thinking how good he is or how bad he can be. Not now. He’s got the momentum. You can’t slow this train down right now.”

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Before he signed with St. Louis this season, defensive end Chidi Ahanotu played for Tampa Bay. He was on the Buccaneer team last season that beat the Rams, 38-35, in St. Louis.

So, Chidi, how do you beat the Rams?

“You don’t come to play a team like the Rams hoping you can shut them down,” he said. “You just don’t do that. You just hope that you can get some turnovers. You hope you can get some big plays, and these are things you can’t design with Xs and O’s.

“You hope somebody comes and gets a big hit, knocks somebody out, those kinds of things. The losses we had this year, you had two good defenses that had the kind of athletes that have speed to match up with our speed. Unfortunately, a lot of guys can’t count on that.”

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Comedian Jay Mohr doesn’t give New England much of a chance today.

“If, during the national anthem when they release the bald eagle, the eagle loops back around and pecks out one of Kurt Warner’s eyes, then I think the Patriots have a chance,” he said Friday in his stand-up act at New Orleans’ historic Sanger theater.

Everyone knows that the NFL is a game of specialists, but ...

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Mike Martz, Ram coach and offensive guru, startled even veteran observers this week when answering questions about his defense and special teams.

When asked if they were preparing differently for Patriot quarterbacks Brady or Drew Bledsoe, he said, “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask Lovie [Smith, defensive coordinator] about that one.”

Then, when asked whether he was concerned that the Patriots use their starters on special teams, he said he had no idea who plays special teams for the Patriots.

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NFL owners unanimously approved the sale of the Atlanta Falcons to Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blank, who said Dan Reeves would remain as coach.

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Staff writers T.J. Simers, Sam Farmer, Bill Plaschke and the Associated Press contributed to this report.