'Positive things' help Martinez during uphill health battle

Tom Martinez is living proof that you can't keep a good man down.

The man who has mentored Tom Brady since the New England Patriots' quarterback was a teenager revealed two weeks ago that he had only a few weeks to live, losing battles with diabetes complications and a failing kidney. But on Saturday he was back on the football field, mentoring 35 teenagers at his 33rd annual quarterback camp in Woodside, Calif. Boosted by an overwhelming public response to his news, Martinez told the kids that "positive things" have happened since his revelation.

"I'm feeling better, and I'm optimistic after being almost completely certain that I was going to die," Martinez told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Eight people offered Martinez their kidneys after his daughter, Linda, took to Facebook to post a message of thanks from her father to the football, softball and women's basketball players he coached at College of San Mateo. The elder Martinez was told it would be difficult to find a kidney donor, and then he was told he would also need a heart transplant.

"One kid I used to coach said he would give both his kidney and his heart, but obviously I couldn't do that," Martinez said. "It was all very touching."

But then the parents of a former athlete helped Martinez -- who was receiving treatment at Stanford -- meet with doctors at UCLA, "where they're less conservative," he said.

In quick succession, adjustments were made to his pacemaker (which was implanted in March), and a blood donor was found.

"Incredible, isn't it?" Martinez said. "After my camp ends, I will go back down to UCLA for some internal tests, to see if I can handle surgery. They might try to do a double transplant if everything works."

Martinez reportedly left UCLA on Thursday and attended a workout with Brady and Patriots receiver Julian Edelman.

The severity of Martinez' illness caught people by surprise when news of his prognosis broke in mid June.

A melancholy Brady responded in an interview with Sports Illustrated, describing Martinez's influence over his career as "at the top of the list. Second to none."

Said Brady: "There is no one who knows more about throwing the football than (Martinez). And no one has meant more to me when it comes to throwing the football than Tom."

Brady told the publication that he met with Martinez for a passing session a week before Martinez broke his news.

"We spent two hours there (at an indoor facility in San Carlos, Calif.). He analyzed what I was doing, just like always. And when I got in the car with my dad afterward, I said to him, 'It's unbelievable how much he knows -- how much he helps me,'" Brady said. "I just can't say enough about him, and what he's meant to me. When I heard how serious it was the other night, I was there in bed with my wife (Gisele Bundchen), and it was just a sad moment. Very tough on his family and on ours."

Martinez says he tells his proteges -- who have included John Elway, Matt Cassel and JaMarcus Russell -- they know where to find him.

"Always at the end of every kid I work with, I give them a quarter," Martinez said. "And I tell them, when you need help, you call me. I am never going to call you, even Brady, and tell you what I see because you may feel fine in what you're doing.

"If you need help, if there's anything you think I can help with because I watch every game, call me. And here's a quarter. ... Brady used his quarter, and I had to give him another one, and he used that, and I gave him a different one. JaMarcus still has his."

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Jasper winning battle with scale while prepping for Bills career

Michael Jasper has been dropping weight the past few years, and when he embarks on a career as an NFL defensive tackle -- soon, he hopes -- he plans to be quite svelte.

Jasper, a seventh-round pick by the Buffalo Bills in last month's draft, is down to 375 pounds -- still big, even by NFL standards, but nowhere near the 448 pounds he carried not so long ago.

The 6-foot-4½ nose tackle has lost 73 pounds since leaving Middle Tennessee State after his sophomore year to transfer to Bethel, an NAIA school in McKenzie, Tenn., and he has focused on slimming down even more since his college career closed last fall.

"(Bills regional scout) Matt Hand made a deal with me initially, saying they wanted me under 400 pounds," Jasper told the Tennessean. "After the draft, I talked with coach (Chan) Gailey, and he said just to keep working hard and keep the weight off."

Jasper has become smarter about his diet while working out with his cousin, Artis Hicks, a nine-year NFL offensive tackle who played for the Washington Redskins last season.

"I've stopped eating so much and pretty much cut eating beef out," Jasper said. "I've minimized my bad carbohydrate intake, increased my vegetables and greens and water intake to kind of confuse my body so that it wouldn't hold onto so much water. It has started to flush some of the excess off.

"I feel brand new. I sleep better, I wake up feeling good, I enjoy being outside and feel like a kid again. I realize God has definitely blessed me."

Because of the NFL lockout, Jasper hasn't spoken with anyone from the Bills since the draft, and he's not sure if the team wants "me to get down to 360 pounds or anywhere near that," he said. "The way my body is, I'm not a regular 360-pound man. But I've done what the Bills asked me to do."

The average NFL nose tackle entering last season was 6-3 and 330 pounds, according to the Tennessean.

Jasper, 24, was listed at 394 pounds when he was drafted -- the heaviest player taken during the three-day process -- but Bills general manager Buddy Nix said that number was wrong.

"He's not as big as you've got him listed," Nix said after the draft. "He's down to 378 pounds, so he's drying up to nothing."

Bethel coach Dino Kaklis believes a slimmer Jasper will be a better Jasper. The lineman posted a 5.34-second 40-yard dash time, a 34-inch vertical leap and a 9-foot-5 broad jump in a workout for Bills scouts, and he wasn't as slim then as he is now.

"Everything the Bills and the other NFL guys saw of Michael playing during the year was when he was at 435 pounds, and they were impressed by what he did then," Kaklis told the Tennessean. "He's at 375 now and still as strong and solid as he was. I'd say he has the mobility of a 265-pound player."

Jasper weighed just 240 pounds when he started at Mount Juliet (Tenn.) High School, but he was 380 as a senior.

"When I got bumped up to varsity my freshman year, I started to put on the weight," Jasper said. "I started drinking creatine and protein and didn't know what I was doing. Then once I got to college, the food gets a whole lot better, and I started to get even bigger."

Jasper played two seasons as a nose tackle and offensive guard at Tennessee-Martin, then transferred to Middle Tennessee State but didn't play because of grades. He became a part-time student, and that's when he ballooned to his heaviest weight, before transferring to Bethel, where he played defensive tackle in 2009 and offensive guard in 2010.

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