Nine-and-a-half Weeks

MAURICE JONES-DREW
JAGUARS RUNNING BACK

Jones-Drew has created excitement on the field (five TDs), but off the field he's toned down. "You can't have a great game, then party all week at this level," he says. "I wake up, go to work, go home. I don't go out. You've got to keep yourself contained and disciplined." The 5'7" Drew credits that discipline with helping him drop 15 pounds (he's 210); he avoids McDonald's and Taco Bell, which he favored at UCLA. And he has a new friend at home: Phillip, a bulldog puppy (above). "He's a great companion," Jones-Drew says. "All I do is hang out with him."

DARYN COLLEDGE
PACKERS GUARD

He started all 52 games in four years at Boise State, so his demotion from the starting lineup after the preseason opener was a shock. "I relied on my wife [Megan]," he says. "She said, 'You're going to be all right. Everybody has a bad day.' " Packers O-line coach Joe Philbin told Colledge, "Deal with it and react positively," and Colledge responded. "I decided I wouldn't go in the tank," he says. "I was going to work hard to earn my spot back." Colledge has started every game since Week 2.

DEMECO RYANS
TEXANS LINEBACKER

The rookie leader with 73 tackles has used his NFL riches to help "my mom, Martha," he says. "She worked in a steel plant in Alabama. She has headaches, back spasms, her hands hurt. I don't know how she did it, but we were never in need." Martha still watches over DeMeco. "She says football's dangerous," he says. "She'll say, 'I saw you get up limping. You hurt your leg, but you won't tell me.' I say, 'I'm O.K. Don't worry!'"

STEPHEN GOSTKOWSKI
PATRIOTS KICKER

The NFL's only rookie kicker (above) replaces the man who won two Super Bowls in New England--as fans keep reminding him. "'Where's Vinatieri?' I've heard every variation of that," says Gostkowski, who signed a four-year, $2 million contract. "I've advised myself not to spend a lot of money," he says, though he's made one splurge. "The truck I drove in college [ Memphis], I had in high school. A '97 Ford Ranger with 150,000 miles. It could barely make it up a hill. People had autographed their names on it with keys." Gostkowski now owns a new Ford F-150 truck. "My dream car," he says.

ERNIE SIMS
LIONS LINEBACKER

Sims went a less cuddly route than Jones-Drew, rewarding himself for being selected ninth overall with a saltwater aquarium and a multicolored, venomous lionfish (left). "Touch their fins, they sting you," says Sims, who has been stinging enough ballcarriers to rank 10th in the NFL with 65 tackles. "You can look at the fish. That's all you can do."