This Week, He Has Decided It’s His Call

The sweetest words in the English language may be: “You have no new messages.” Voice mail can be so irritating.

Imagine how bad it is for the players in the Super Bowl, what with all the relatives and friends leaving messages about tickets.

The players are allotted 15 tickets each, and generally requests far exceed that. So what to do?

New England Patriot defensive end Anthony Pleasant was asked by The Times’ Sam Farmer whether he had turned off his cell phone.

“You know what? My voice mail stopped working last week,” he said with a big smile. “Just stopped working. I’ll wait until maybe Monday to get it fixed.”

Trivia time: What is the largest deficit a Super Bowl winning team has overcome?

Prime reason: Deion Sanders, on why he doesn’t like the two-week break between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl: “Having two weeks off gives family, friends and the media more time to get on your nerves.”

Just for kicks: After the Patriots’ Adam Vinatieri kicked the winning field goal in the Super Bowl two years ago, he was invited to try another kick on David Letterman’s show.

“I tried to kick a ball from one building to the next, which was 93 yards away,” Vinatieri said. “I said, ‘You realize a kickoff into the end zone is 70 yards, right?’ He said, ‘Try anyway.’ I was unsuccessful that day.”

Kicking when down: Carolina kicker John Kasay remembers playing the Patriots two years ago in the last game of the season. The Panthers went into the game 1-14. The Patriots were 10-5 and on their way to the Super Bowl.

“It was in our home stadium and there were 15,000 fans there,” Kasay said. “About 12,000 of them were Patriot fans. It was a cold, nasty, wet and rainy day.”

The Patriots won, 38-6.

It’s all good: Ricky Manning Jr. said he had enjoyed every aspect of Super Bowl week -- even talking to the media.

“One of the older players was kind of complaining about the media,” said the Panthers’ rookie cornerback. “I was like, ‘Man, I’m enjoying it.’ He said it’s because I’m younger now and in a couple of years I’ll forget about it. But I like it. I love the attention.”

High on grass: Brett Favre, a guest on NFL Network, was asked what he liked to do after the season.

“There’s nothing like getting on a lawn mower and cutting a little grass,” he said. “I never thought I would say that. I honestly never thought I would say that.”

Trivia answer: 10 points. The Washington Redskins trailed the Denver Broncos, 10-0, after the first quarter in 1988, then rallied for a 42-10 victory.

And finally: Patriot safety Rodney Harrison, 31, was released by the San Diego Chargers after last season, despite being a fan favorite. Apparently, he still is.

“My mailbox in New England is filled with letters from people in San Diego,” he said.

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Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.