National Football League

Rhodes: Jets want to 'embarrass' Pats

Published Sep. 18, 2009 8:33 a.m. ET

foxsports

The New York Jets are turning up the verbal heat on the New England Patriots before their Sunday meeting in the Meadowlands.

Already we've had coach Rex Ryan saying he doesn't intend to kiss Bill Belichick's rings, then leaving voice mails with Jets fans asking them to turn up the volume during the game.

Now comes free safety Kerry Rhodes, who told the New York Daily News that the Jets want to "embarrass" the Pats and plan to get physical with N.E. QB Tom Brady.

"You go out from the first quarter on, from the first play on, and try to embarrass them," Rhodes told the Daily News. "Not just go out there and try to win, try to embarrass them. Try to make them feel bad when they leave here. We don't want to just beat them. We want to send a message to them, 'We're not backing down from you and we expect to win this game, and it's not going to be luck, it's not going to be a mistake.' "

In New England, the Patriots refused to be drawn into a war of words.

On its Patriots Twitter page, the Boston Globe quoted tight end Chris Baker, who was a teammate of Rhodes for the last three seasons with the Jets, as saying "it's Kerry being Kerry."

Baker said there is no point in the Patriots returning verbal fire.

"What does that do? That doesn't do anything," he said. "The only thing we're going to do is we're going to play on Sunday. The only thing that matters is what happens on Sunday; anything before that, it doesn't mean anything. It doesn't do anything, so what's the point of us getting into that back and forth? We're just going to go out there and do our job on Sunday and that's what it is all about."