Jacobs “Actually A Really Nice Guy”

If you live in Dallas and have the good sense to habitually watch professional football, you probably hate Brandon Jacobs with an unyielding ardor. The Giants running back is one of the league's most adroit (and loudest) trash-talkers, often taking aim at "America's Team."

Jacobs said this summer that he wasn't a fan of Tony Romo, that he doesn't "think he's that good a passer." He continued before the September meeting between the teams that he "hate[s] the Cowboys with a bloody passion." And of course, who could forget the two-season verbal jab-fest between he and receiver Patrick Crayton, which lasted from 2007 to 2008 (and possibly beyond).

His career against the Cowboys, both on the field and in front of various microphones make a pretty good case for Jacobs being the most easily despicable sports figure in Dallas this side of Alex Rodriguez; and while he lacks A-Rod's personal history with North Texans, the running back more for compensates in, to borrow a term from The A-Team's B.A. Baracus, "jibber-jabber."

For these reasons, it was initially shocking to hear the words "nice guy" used in reference to Jacobs, of all places, in the Cowboys locker room; but that was exactly the thought Jay Ratliff offered when asked about his former college teammate at Auburn.

"No, he's actually a really nice guy," Ratliff said. "We both have the on-field mentality where you're kind of nasty a little bit...He talks a whole lot more than I do, but he's actually a good guy, he's still a good friend of mine."

When Ratliff was asked if it bothered him that, in all likelihood, Jacobs is hated by many in the Cowboys locker room, Ratliff replied, flatly, "No."

"It's all in the game," Ratliff said. "It's normal to have friends that somebody else doesn't like, so it's all part of the game."

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