New Attitude Has Giants’ Jacobs Running Hard

Not long ago, Jacobs was angry at seemingly everyone for his reduced role at running back, as the backup to Ahmad Bradshaw. But now there is a kinder, gentler Jacobs. Although it may seem counterintuitive, his new outlook has helped to revive his identity as a punishing back.

“I feel more accepting of my role,” Jacobs said. “Now I tell them every week, ‘Let me know when you’re ready for me, and I’ll do my job.’ I’m here when they’re ready.”

In the past two weeks, Jacobs has run more like the , even though his carries have been limited.

“I think what he’s doing, he’s being a little bit more trusting of his reads and of his decisions,” Kevin Gilbride, the offensive coordinator, said. “And when he does that and he turns himself into a north-south with the correct read, he’s a special guy.”

Jacobs leaned on his family, speaking frequently with his aunt, Dianne Cheavious, whom he lived with as a child. She told him to remain faithful and be patient.

“I told him that everything happens for a reason,” Cheavious said in a telephone interview. “You don’t question every decision. It’s a business, and you’re only as good as your last game.”

Now Jacobs sounds different. He seems at ease. He looks happy.

“I don’t mind watching Ahmad run and try 4 yards out of something that was supposed to be nothing,” Jacobs said. “I can’t do that. He’s so pinballish in there where he can make something out of nothing. And I like watching him do that. When I get my opportunities to get in there and run over somebody and get some yards, that’s just what I do.”

If Bradshaw is a pinball, Jacobs is a bowling ball. But Coach chastised Jacobs for not running that way, saying he was trying to run with too much finesse for a 6-foot-4, 264-pound back.

After , Jacobs said that he was not happy being used merely as the pile-driving rusher and that he wanted to showcase his playmaking ability. He said that he would be willing to maintain his punishing style but that it would be unfulfilling.

Jacobs said Thursday that he realized that serving as the counterbalance to the shifty Bradshaw was his best means for success — and playing time. At least publicly, he has seemed to embrace it.

Before , Jacobs stood at the center of a pregame huddle and delivered an impassioned speech to his teammates, only days after he had complained about his role.

In the fourth quarter, Jacobs fumbled, and Coughlin had stern words for him. But Coughlin showed confidence in Jacobs by calling his number at the Bears’ 2 on the next possession, allowing him to score. Jacobs finished with 62 yards on six carries.

Last Sunday, Jacobs had another solid performance. He rushed for 41 yards on 10 carries, running with authority and punching in a 1-yard touchdown in the first quarter of the Giants’ win over the .

About 15 members of Jacobs’s family made the trip to Houston, the first time they had been to a game this season. He spent two hours with them Saturday night, then had breakfast with them before the game. Cheavious noticed that Jacobs seemed happier in their conversations. He seemed comfortable again, and he showed it on the field.

“You could just see him relaxing,” Cheavious said. “He was back to being himself. There’s still a lot of football left for Mr. Jacobs.” REVIS COULD PLAY Coach said Darrelle Revis would travel with to Denver on Friday.

“He wants to be with his team whether he can play or not,” Ryan said.

If it were unlikely that Revis would play Sunday, the Jets would have left him home to receive treatment and rest his left hamstring, which has bothered him since Week 2. Ryan said he told his defensive coaches to prepare as if Revis were not playing.

Outside linebacker Calvin Pace, who played his first game of the season against Minnesota last week, will also make the trip, Ryan said. Pace is recovering from a broken foot, which is sore but less so with each day. Pace is more likely to play than Revis, Ryan said. GREG BISHOP

RODGERS EXPECTS TO PLAY Quarterback Aaron Rodgers was cleared by doctors and returned to practice for the after sustaining a concussion last Sunday in an overtime loss at Washington. Assuming he does not have a setback in his recovery, he said, he was optimistic he would start Sunday’s game against Miami. (AP)

AVOIDING LOCKER ROOMS Ines Sainz, a reporter for Mexico’s TV Azteca who said the Jets made her feel uncomfortable in their locker room, is returning to work next week and said she suggested to the that she talk to players on the field or on the sideline rather than in locker rooms. (AP)

Jacksonville Jaguars Are Healthier and More Successful

Then , an Olympic swimmer turned holistic specialist, began to police the players’ diets when her husband, Luke, was hired last season as the Jaguars’ strength and conditioning coach.

Many factors are feeding into the resurgence of the Jaguars, who host the (6-6) on Sunday. They are 7-5 and lead the A.F.C. South nearly a year after losing their last four games by an average of 10 ½ points to finish 7-9, the division’s worst record.

The team has been infused with young blood — 24 of the Jaguars were not in the league in 2008. It has also benefited from the unexpected mediocrity of its division, epitomized by the , who are 7-6 after reaching the last season.

Quarterback David Garrard and running back Maurice Jones-Drew are having marvelous seasons. Garrard is tied with New England’s for the conference lead with a 66.8 percent completion rate, and Jones-Drew has strung together five 100-yard rushing games, including one for 186 yards on 31 carries last Sunday at Tennessee.

Players like tight end and defensive tackle changed their diets and helped alter the team’s chemistry. Under Nall Richesson’s supervision, Lewis lost his taste for pineapple upside-down cake and soda, and started craving salads and feasting on red-zone defenses. He has a career-high 8 touchdown catches and 41 receptions.

“I would credit at least half my production to the work I’ve done with Anita on nutrition and Luke in the weight room,” Lewis said.

Jack Del Rio, who is in his eighth season as the Jaguars’ coach, said: “Luke and his wife have done a great job helping our guys fuel themselves. What our guys are putting in their system is giving them more energy.”

Nall Richesson, a breaststroker, won gold, silver and bronze medals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics in Spain at age 16. She then endured several years of poor health that compromised her performance in the pool. Her search for answers for the illnesses that stumped her doctors sent her down the path of examining food as not only fuel, but also medicine and led to her business, .

One day last week, the 5-foot-5 Nall Richesson, who is as slender as a carrot stick, bounded into the cafeteria to examine the lunch fare, including gluten-free pasta and a red sauce with no artificial preservatives. The cookie buffet is gone, and in its place are fruit and gluten-free snack bars.

At the smoothie bar, which has fresh fruit and honey but no sugar or dairy, a player was reading the ingredients on the cartons of coconut milk and almond milk. He is trying to gain weight and was looking to see which option contained more calories.

“When I see a guy reading a label, I get so excited,” Nall Richesson said.

“In football I don’t think there’s been a light shone on nutrition,” she added. “There’s a huge focus on weight, but the traditional thought process has been how big can you get in any way, shape or form.

“The challenge with these players is how can they fuel their bodies so they’re energetic and exuberant on the field without inviting the potential health hazards of what being big can bring.”

Lewis, 26, had never given much thought to what he ate. He was, in his words, a reckless eater, until he had a food sensitivity test and discovered his body has an intolerance to many of his favorite foods, including pineapple.

Dining out one night last week at a steakhouse near his downtown apartment, Lewis was careful about his order. He passed up steak for roasted chicken and asked for a side of green beans served dry, without butter. Lewis also ordered a shrimp appetizer and a sweet potato dish but passed on desert, eschewed soda for a glass of water with a slice of lemon, and limited himself to one piece of French bread instead of devouring the whole loaf, as he said he used to do.

“I recover faster,” said Lewis, who is carrying 254 pounds on his 6-6 frame, down from 275 at the start of the season. “I’m running better. I have more energy. And I’m still strong. This is Week 14 of the season and I feel good. That is ridiculous.”

Lewis, a former star from Southern California, did more than change his diet to improve his performance. He used to escape to Los Angeles immediately after the season to be near his mother, stepfather and three younger siblings, with whom he is close. The last two off-seasons, Lewis rededicated himself to football by remaining here so he could work out regularly with Garrard, a sacrifice far harder than forsaking sweets.

N.F.L. Reduces Three Big Fines for Hits to the Head

, the former defensive coordinator, who oversees player appeals of fines, reduced Robinson’s fine from $50,000 to $25,000, and reduced Meriweather’s fine from $50,000 to $40,000. Then Cottrell decided to revisit the $75,000 fine on Harrison for on Cleveland receiver Mohamed Massaquoi, a punishment that upset Harrison so much that he . With the support of Commissioner , Cottrell reduced that fine to $50,000.

The reductions are sure to ignite questions about whether the league — which had also threatened suspensions for repeat offenders — is going soft on players who make the dangerous hits and who have been angered by the fines, some of which have been levied even if the plays did not draw penalties during the game.

But the person with knowledge of the league’s disciplinary system offered a different explanation: Cottrell, the person said, was convinced by the players that they now understood the rules and had made sincere efforts to alter their style to avoid those types of hits.

JETS FINED FOR TRIPPING The N.F.L. fined the Jets $100,000 for violating league rules when the assistant coach Sal Alosi tripped Miami’s Nolan Carroll on the sideline during a punt return earlier this month.

The Jets were fined because Alosi “placed players in a prohibited area on the sideline to impede an opposing team’s special teams players and gain a competitive advantage.” The N.F.L. called it a competitive violation as well as a dangerous tactic.

The discipline was in response to the actions of Alosi, the Jets’ strength and conditioning coach, and comments made by the special-teams coach Mike Westhoff, who accused other teams of employing similar tactics.

“We will comply with the league’s decision,” the Jets said in a statement. Five inactive players were ordered by Alosi, the team’s strength and conditioning coach, to stand together nearly shoulder-to-shoulder on the sideline in the Jets’ 10-6 loss to Miami on Dec. 12.

Alosi was first suspended without pay for the season and fined $25,000 for tripping Carroll, before being suspended indefinitely by the team after acknowledging that he ordered the players to form the wall. (AP)

SANCHEZ TO START is ready to go for the Jets.

Coach announced that Sanchez would start in the team’s regular-season finale against Buffalo, but Ryan is uncertain how long he will stay in the game. It is possible Sanchez could play a few series or a few quarters before giving way to and Kellen Clemens. “We’ll go ahead and start Mark this game,” Ryan said. “How long he plays, we’ll determine that as the game goes.”

Ryan said Sanchez, dealing with a sore right shoulder, showed some zip on his passes in practice and looked good enough to make Ryan feel comfortable about starting him for the playoff-bound Jets (10-5). (AP) FAVRE STATUS UNCERTAIN At the end of a long, difficult season, ’s status for the finale is again in doubt. The want him to give it one more try and start Sunday at Detroit, but by N.F.L. concussion rules he first must be cleared by the team’s medical staff — and time is running out. The interim coach Leslie Frazier said Thursday that Favre hadn’t passed the first stage of the standard post-concussion testing. (AP)

AROUND THE LEAGUE missed practice because of a leg injury and is unlikely to play Sunday when the Eagles host Dallas. Kevin Kolb, the starter in Week 1, would make his fifth start this season in Vick’s place. … Coach said receiver Marques Colston had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee and may not be able to play in Sunday’s finale against Tampa Bay. Also, the Saints placed kick returner Courtney Roby on injured reserve, officially ending his season three weeks after he sustained a concussion against St. Louis … Jaguars quarterback David Garrard had surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right middle finger. (AP)