'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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Williams says 'Boys 'losing our key time to jell' during lockout

For wideout Roy Williams, the NFL lockout has provided the eight-year veteran with ample time to rest a battered body, but he sees how it's stolen from the growth of the Dallas Cowboys.

"We're losing our key time to jell as a team," Williams said. "That’s when you come together, in offseason, OTAs, minicamps. We try to make it up with our own workouts, but it’s not the same as it is when the coaches are pushing you."

Still, Williams sees a silver lining to the extended break. 

"I talked to a player who was contemplating retirement, but the lockout has gotten his body back to where it needs to be," Williams told the Odessa American over the weekend. "For us older players, it’s good."

Williams told the American he is focused on helping the Cowboys get back to winning after last year's bitterly disappointing campaign.

"We looked like paper champs. We had the team, we had the talent, but when we played, it didn’t pan out for us. We have to be better next year," Williams said.

Williams, who notched 21 receptions for 306 yards and five touchdowns in his first five games in 2010, had just 16 catches for 224 yards with no scores down the stretch.

With a salary-cap hit close to $9.4 million, per the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, there is speculation Williams could be done in Dallas shortly after a headline-grabbing trade brought him over from the Detroit Lions in 2008 for first-, third- and sixth-round picks in the 2009 draft.

"When I first got to Dallas and saw all the media -- in Detroit we only had like four or five guys -- in Dallas, it's like 25, 26. It’s 'America's Team,' the most-viewed organization in any sport.

"It’s been tough, because everybody's expecting me to do all these things that I'm very capable of doing when given the opportunity," Williams said. "I'm a role player, and I just try to make the plays whenever they come my way."

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Extra time during lockout to rehab injuries can be beneficial

MARTINSVILLE, N.J. -- Offensive lineman Damien Woody is no Nastia Liukin.

So when the 320-pound Woody tries to balance on a metal strip laying on the artificial turf at the TEST Sports Club workout center, part of his rehab from a ruptured Achilles' tendon, it is, well, a bit awkward.

It's also productive, as are his, uh, leaps on a mini-trampoline, and his squats while holding weights in each hand, his back pushing against a huge, round ball.

And when New York Jets receiver Jerricho Cotchery imitates the crane pose from "The Karate Kid" to enhance his balance and rotational skills? Simply part of his regimen as he heals from back surgery.

Woody, a free-agent tackle who was hurt in the Jets' playoff victory at Indianapolis in January, and Cotchery are among dozens of NFL players fighting back from major injuries on their own because of the league's labor lockout. Some, such at Colts safety Chip Vaughn, can have contact with the team's doctor because that's who performed his left ankle operation.

Others, including New Orleans Saints tackle Jon Stinchcomb, went back to their college roots for his rehab.

They all would be recovering and working at their team's facilities had there been no lockout, which is in its fourth month. And each of them normally would be fighting the itch to rush back and join their teammates for minicamps and the like.

This year, as the labor impasse continues, these players might be benefiting from the work stoppage.

"This has given a lot of guys time to heal and to get rid of those nagging little injuries, too," Cotchery said after more than an hour's worth of exercises, during which he displays the intense concentration any NFL wideout must have. "You can go at your own pace, get your rest, and that has benefited a lot of guys."

"The Top 100: Players of 2011" countdown continues on NFL Network on Sunday, June 19 at 8 p.m. ET. Stay tuned for a reaction show after players Nos. 21-30 are revealed.

Added Woody, with a tired smile, his T-shirt soaked with sweat: "Even if there were an offseason program now, I'd be doing rehab. I don't have to worry about the football side at all, just focus on getting 100 percent, and I'm getting closer. It's an opportunity to freshen up all the other aches and pains you get from playing 12 seasons in the NFL. So, yeah, in a way it's perfect timing to have the lockout."

Woody was released by the Jets on March 1, but he hopes to be back with them once he is fully recovered from what he calls "the most major injury of my career." He intends on playing somewhere in 2011, if there's a season.

So he spends his mornings at TEST, along with Cotchery; Jets star linebacker Bart Scott; defensive tackle Barry Cofield, a former Giant who is a free agent; and several other NFL players. Brian Martin, CEO of the facility and another in Florida, has several former players on his staff, plus a rehabilitating player in Dolphins quarterback Chad Pennington.

"We're very careful to make sure we are in no way competing with what the teams do or want their players doing," Martin says. "But they know the players are getting intensive personal care and rehab work here from a highly trained group of professionals. Our only purpose is to help the players who are recovering from injuries to get well, or to keep the other players who come here, like Bart, in the best of shape."

Players who were injured last season have their recoveries paid for by their teams under workman's compensation plans. Vaughn, who is rehabbing in South Florida at Bommarito Performance Systems, is putting in more physical work than in other offseasons. That work simply doesn't involve playbooks and pass defense, because those aspects of his game depend on contact with the team -- which he can't have.

He starts his workout routine at 7:30 a.m. with two hours of rehab on both his ankle and left shoulder, which also was operated on in the offseason. Then comes stretching for an hour or more, followed by lifting weights.

He also does Pilates twice a week.

"If I was with the team, I'd be rehabbing still, but mixed in with meetings and practices," he said. "As far as team stuff goes, there isn't any of that now.

"This whole process is very delicate. I don't want to come back to the team in worse shape or with something lingering from last season to now. You don't want the team doubting how you were working. I can't give the Colts any reason to think I have not been busting my butt."

Vaughn also has been aided by garments made by Evidence Based Apparel that he might not have discovered without the extra recovery time the lockout has provided. He said his shoulders are stronger than ever, and he's been plagued by shoulder issues since his freshman year at Wake Forest. Such EBA jackets and shirts also have been worn by Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Brian Urlacher and Troy Polamalu.

"The straps are positioned to help correct the posture," he said. "At first, I said, 'What the heck is that?' But they say in tests, if your posture is where it needs to be, your body produces at maximum output.

"My jumps would go higher and higher, and I knew this can't just be my rehab. I am starting to use every muscle in my back and shoulder and deltoids. The shirt helps you keep the kind of posture you are supposed to have."

There's supposed to be football right around now, too, from minicamps to optional workouts. Without that structure, players have had to improvise to get their own regimen in place.

"This lockout is nasty business," said Stinchcomb, coming off left knee surgery. "It poses each guy a little different set of issues and problems.

"The University of Georgia was quick to welcome not only me, but there were other former Georgia players in the training room at UGA. So obviously there was a lot of guys that returned to their college campus to get the rehab ... and you're just trying to make the best of it all the way around."

Cotchery is one of the NFL's most graceful players, yet he struggles with some of the movements Martin and his staff ask him to do. He admits the most difficult are those designed to enhance his balance and stabilization, and he attacks them as if he was going after a Mark Sanchez pass in traffic.

At times, he gets frustrated. A botched exercise is no different to Cotchery on this June day than a drop in November.

"If you don't hit the rep right, you want to do it over and over," he says. "If I feel like I conquered that exercise, it makes me feel better when I come in the next day.

"There's no football, so I want to come in the next day ready to give my rehab everything I can give it."

Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press

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Dolphins RB Clay working odd jobs to pay bills during lockout

Charles Clay grew up dreaming about getting drafted by an NFL team then living the good life.

Clay achieved the first half of that dream when the Miami Dolphins selected him in the sixth round of the 2011 NFL Draft in April. The "living the good life" part, however? Not even close.

With the NFL work stoppage past the three-month mark and no finish line in sight, Clay -- like other rookies -- lives in financial limbo.

To pay his bills, Clay has taken up day labor type work with a company called LPD, which has him cutting grass at oil wells and doing other various odd jobs, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

“It’s hard times right now,” said Clay, who starred collegiately at Tulsa. ”I’m working little small jobs and things to get money. Not getting an income right now is tough, especially when I’m trying to have a facility to workout in, and have to pay for things like [trainers].

Clay concedes the pay for his side work is minimal, but it's better than the flat-broke alternative.

“It’s tough, but at the same time you’ve got to get by somehow,” said Clay. “I’m pretty sure there are other guys doing the same thing. Nobody is getting any kind of income. You have to get money some kind of way.”

And in a reality that puts Clay's situation in perspective, he admits he hasn't taken part in the Dolphins' players-only workouts in Florida because he can't afford the trip.

”At one point I actually thought about going down there, but when you go down there and you have no source of income I’d just be down there," he said. "You also take risks of being injured."

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Pryor's best move is to steer clear of NFL during uncertainty

Terrelle Pryor has yet to chose an agent or file for the NFL supplemental draft. And, if I were representing the former Ohio State quarterback, my advice to him would be simple: Forget about the NFL, at least for 2011.

Pryor is walking into the vortex of the spring/summer of uncertainty in the NFL, a time where, outside of April's draft, you really can't bank on anything. In many ways there could be perhaps no worse time for a 21-year-old, slightly-tarnished developmental quarterback in need of prolonged teaching and instruction to be embarking on an NFL career, especially when teams I speak to have just a fifth-round grade on him at best.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders have acquired the negotiating rights to Terrelle Pryor and have spoken to Pryor's lawyer about bringing the former Ohio State QB to the CFL. More ...

» Brooks: Pryor not ready for NFL

There isn't much to lose by plying one's trade elsewhere for a year or two -- not monetarily, not in terms of hands-on teaching time and certainly not in terms of future earning potential, given that the young man doesn't even turn 22 until later this month. And the NFL that would await a fifth-round supplemental pick come training camp -- whenever that actually starts, and assuming in fact that a legal battle over the very idea of a supplemental draft during a lockout doesn't postpone the event itself indefinitely -- would not be very advantageous to cultivating project quarterbacks.

Indeed, if Pryor is determined to be a pro quarterback, and not a receiver or a "slash" or some hybrid of the sort -- then the UFL or CFL provide the best options. The money would be about the same, he would be a higher short-term priority there and the coaching can be plenty good as well (especially if, say, you were to land with Marty Schottenheimer's staff on the UFL's Virginia Destroyers).

I know that's the thinking of at least one agent who has had conversations with Pryor (the agent came away pleasantly surprised with Pryor's attitude and character, by the way, and believes a normal pre-draft interview and workout program would actually boost Pryor's stock).

And it's sound logic.

So many teams already found their young starter or developmental guy in the draft, or they have their eye on a un-drafted kid, likely older, more experienced and mature than Pryor, and a prospect who wouldn't cost them a draft pick. Many NFL teams are essentially putting their coaches and football operations staffs on vacation the rest of the month.

As I mentioned, the exact timing of the supplemental draft, and whether or not there would be injunctions against it, is a subject of debate. The Brady v. the NFL case -- the players' antitrust suit against the league -- already claims the draft, free agency, and franchise tags are illegal; at the time of its filing, no one had yet applied for the supplemental draft but it would be only natural for the players' council to object to that as well given its opposition to the NFL draft itself.

The one potential Pryor agent wondered if the quarterback would then be asked to be a part of Brady v. NFL? Could the NFL Players Association file a brief against the supplemental draft even without Pryor's consent? And would Pryor's best interests be served by any of that?

For a kid already with so much to juggle and already caught up in maelstrom in Columbus, Ohio, entering the NFL in the middle of another controversy would be less than ideal.

Furthermore, would Pryor, at a time when all other players are locked out, be able to spend hours talking to coaches and general managers and have private workouts for teams? Because all of that would be essential and imperative for all parties given this unique situation.

If you're looking at a potential 1-3 round pick -- maybe. But for a kid with a fifth-round grade, and for one as raw as Pryor, I say it's not worth the risk, not with options like the UFL and CFL there.

NFL teams could be trying to sign draft picks, fill out rosters, reschedule preseason games, tender players and conduct shortened training camps all at once. Teaching the playbook to a fifth-round supplemental draft pick and getting him meaningful reps isn't going to be a priority. Not close.

In the CFL or UFL, he is a much more prized asset. The money would be about the same. The chance to put up quality game film in a true pro environment? Priceless. In the CFL, he would likely end up spending at least two years in the league given the nature of their contracts; in the UFL his deal could be up by November. Maybe someone squats on his draft rights next April, in this hypothetical. Or, who knows, maybe Pryor ends up joining the NFL as a free agent down the road and gets to pick his team.

Time will tell, but in the short term I'd have Pryor give Warren Moon and Joe Theismann a call and ask them how the CFL worked out for them. I'd maybe give Dolphins linebacker Cameron Wake a call as well. Especially at a time like this, those are the more viable alternatives for this particular player.

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Report: Jones-Drew set for scope on knee hurt during preseason

Jacksonville Jaguars Pro Bowl running back Maurice Jones-Drew will undergo arthroscopic knee surgery to repair a right meniscus injury suffered during the preseason, The Florida Times-Union reported Saturday, citing a team source.

Jones-Drew hadn't practiced in the past two weeks and was ruled out of Sunday's regular-season finale against the Houston Texans because of the lingering knee problem. He also didn't play in last Sunday's overtime loss to the Washington Redskins.

The surgery calls for a knee scope to repair cartilage nestled between bones in the knee, which started bothering Jones-Drew after his sixth consecutive 100-yard game Dec. 12.

Jones-Drew doesn't have ligament damage, the source said, and he could be available if the Jaguars make the playoffs. To do that, they need to beat the Texans and have the Tennessee upset the Indianapolis Colts, giving Jacksonville the AFC South title.

Jones-Drew's 1,324 rushing yards through 14 regular-season games this season was second only to Houston's Arian Foster at the time. Statistics aside, the Jaguars prize Jones-Drew's health above rushing titles, so they monitored their star as he played through pain from Week 1.

"They told him going into this year -- that knee may not hold up," Jaguars offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter told The Times-Union. "It's really pretty remarkable that he put up the numbers that he did and ran the way he did for as long he did."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Eagles' Avant knocked out during Jackson's punt return

All eyes were on Eagles return man DeSean Jackson on Sunday when he fielded a punt on the game's final play and zig-zagged his way through the entire special teams unit of the New York Giants to give the Eagles a 38-31 win.

All eyes except for those of Eagles wide receiver Jason Avant, who said he was briefly knocked out after throwing a block for Jackson and colliding with Giants long snapper Zak DeOssie, according to the Philadelphia Daily News on Monday.

"When I saw (Jackson) break the initial wave, and I saw a lane to the right, I knew if I got (DeOssie), he was gonna score," Avant told the newspaper. "So I just threw it in there. I knew he scored. Me being knocked out just reminded me of a dream I had of us winning on the last play, but I didn't know who it was against."

Eagles coach Andy Reid confirmed in his news conference Monday that Avant has a slight concussion, and tested very well.

DeOssie said after the game that he thought he would be the one to prevent Jackson from scoring.

"I thought I had a great angle. I thought I was going to stop him. I don't have eyes in the back of my head," DeOssie said.

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Browns RB Hillis injures thigh during Thursday's practice

BEREA, Ohio -- The Cleveland Browns added running back Peyton Hillis to their injury report Thursday with an unspecified thigh ailment.

Hillis, who has rushed for more than 100 yards the past two weeks, had limited participation in Thursday's practice. Hillis apparently was hurt following the 30 minutes of practice that's open to reporters.

Hillis has been the Browns' top offensive player through four weeks. He rushed for a career-high 144 yards two weeks ago against the Baltimore Ravens and followed that by running for 102 to help Cleveland record its first win this season, 23-20 over the Cincinnati Bengals.

Hillis wasn't listed on the Browns' injury report Wednesday.

The Browns acquired Hillis in a March trade that sent quarterback Brady Quinn to the Denver Broncos.

Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press

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