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BOSTON – The Boston Red Sox have been outbid for free agent first baseman Mark Teixeira and “are not going to be a factor” in acquiring him, owner John Henry said in an e-mail on Thursday night.

“We met with Mr. Teixeira and were very much impressed with him,” Henry said. “After hearing about his other offers, however, it seems clear that we are not going to be a factor.”

Henry, general manager Theo Epstein and president Larry Lucchino went to the Dallas area to meet with Teixeira and his agent Scott Boras.

“The Boston ownership was kind enough to request and travel to meet with Mark Teixeira,” Boras said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “While it was a very positive meeting, Mark was candid and advised he is in the process of making a decision and is now attempting to eliminate teams.”

Henry’s reference to the “other offers” leaves open the possibility that he is calling a bluff. Boras represented former Red Sox center fielder Johnny Damon, who signed with the New York Yankees in 2005 after the Boston brass apparently refused to believe that the offer from their archrivals was real.

Teixeira hit .308 with 33 homers and 121 RBIs last season, including .358 with 13 homers and 43 RBIs in 54 games with the Angels.

The Texas talks came two years and seven days after Epstein, Lucchino and minority owner Tom Werner arrived in Newport Beach, Calif., to meet with Boras and another client, pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, whose rights the Red Sox had won with a $51.1 million bid to his Japanese team.

The team officials planned to leave California two days later, with or without Matsuzaka, on Henry’s private jet. They arrived at the airport, uncertain if Matsuzaka would join them. He did and they flew to Boston to work on details of his six-year, $52 million deal.

In prior days, Boras had said he would not let Matsuzaka travel to Boston for a physical unless the sides had reached a preliminary agreement.

The Los Angeles Angels, who obtained Teixeira from the Atlanta Braves in July, said last week they made an eight-year offer.

Teixeira also has been pursued by the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals, and met before the winter meetings with Yankees general manager Brian Cashman. Officials of the Orioles and Angels said Boras had not been in contact with them on Thursday.

Henry had expressed concern about a contract of eight years or more.

“We all have limits,” he wrote to the AP on Wednesday. “Eight years is a very long time in baseball and everywhere else.”

He also said the amount the team is willing to spend on a free agent “depends on both” the economy and the player being sought.

“Baseball as a whole has not yet been hit by the financial crisis, but it will,” Henry said. “The degree is in question and won’t be answered for a while.”

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NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Elizabeth Alexander was a toddler in a baby stroller when her parents took her to hear Martin Luther King’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington.

Now, it’s Alexander’s turn to move the nation.

Alexander, professor of African-American studies at Yale University, was chosen by President-elect Barack Obama to compose and read a poem for his inauguration on Jan. 20.

“I’m completely thrilled and deeply, deeply honored,” Alexander said Thursday.

Alexander’s mother is a historian specializing in African-American women’s history at George Washington University. Her father was a presidential civil rights adviser and secretary of the Army.

“The civil rights movement was fully alive in our home,” Alexander said.

Attending King’s 1963 speech was an iconic moment for the family.

“That story was always a part of family stories that were told as a way of thinking about the importance of being civic, the importance of looking forward, the importance of having visionary leaders, the importance of involving yourself with the community, the importance of recognizing the historical moment and historical possibilities,” Alexander said.

Alexander said her parents are thrilled at her selection.

“This is an incomparable thrill to them in the way that Obama’s presidency is an especially potent and powerful thing for African-Americans in their 70s who have devoted their lives to progress,” Alexander said. “To be a part of it, I almost can’t imagine it myself.”

Alexander, who is 46 and married with two children, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2005 for her collection “American Sublime.” Her other books include “The Venus Hottentot,” “Body of Life” and “Antebellum Dream Book.”

Last year, she won the $50,000 Jackson Poetry Prize.

Alexander will be only the fourth poet to read at a presidential swearing in. Robert Frost read for President John F. Kennedy, while Maya Angelou and Miller Williams read at President Clinton’s inaugurations.

“I think what I hope to symbolize and demonstrate is the important role that arts and literature can play in this moment when the country is thinking so keenly about moving forward and coming together,” Alexander said.

Alexander acknowledged the challenge before her. She said she does not start with a message in mind, likening the process to a radio antenna in which she listens for the right language.

“You’re always trying to catch a rhythm,” she said. “It’s something I will be chipping away at every day.”

Alexander is friends with Obama from her days when they were on the faculty at the University of Chicago in the 1990s.

“That friendship makes this opportunity all the more special,” she said.

Tree Swenson, executive director of the Academy of American Poets, welcomed her selection.

“Elizabeth Alexander is a superb choice for the Obama inauguration: She is from Washington, she represents Obama’s generation, and she has written about the civil rights conflict and other historical events that have shaped the character of this country,” Swenson said. “At the same time, her intense personal vision reveals the commonplace life illuminated from startling new angles – as good poetry always does.”

Former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins said Alexander faces a tall order.

“I don’t envy her,” Collins wrote in an e-mail. “Such poems are nearly impossible to bring off. Because of the heaviness of the subject the risk is that you will end up under it rather than on top. I wish her well and I’m certainly glad Obama is making room for a poet.”

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BAGHDAD – The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush during a news conference was beaten afterward and had bruises on his face and around his eyes, a judge said Friday.

Judge Dhia al-Kinani, the magistrate investigating the incident, said the court has opened an investigation into the alleged beating of journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi.

Al-Zeidi was wrestled to the ground after throwing his shoes during the news conference Sunday by Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and there has been conflicting claims on his condition since then. One of his brothers said he was harshly beaten, but another said he seemed to be in good condition.

Al-Zeidi “was beaten in the news conference and we will watch the tape and write an official letter asking for the names of those who assaulted him,” the judge told The Associated Press. “Al-Zeidi has the right to drop this case.”

The journalist was in custody and was expected to eventually face charges of insulting a foreign leader. A conviction could bring a sentence of two years in prison.

Al-Kinani also confirmed that the journalist had written a letter of apology to al-Maliki. Iraq’s president can grant pardons that are requested by the prime minister, but the judge said such a pardon can be issued only after a conviction.

He added that he could not drop the case even though neither Bush nor al-Maliki had complained. “This case was filed because of an article in the law concerning the protection of the respect of sovereignity,” he said.

A spokesman for al-Maliki said Thursday that the letter contained a specific pardon request. But al-Zeidi’s brother Dhargham told The AP that he suspected the letter was a forgery.

The incident, a vivid demonstration of Iraqis’ dismay over the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of the country for more than five years, turned al-Zeidi into an instant folk hero. Thousands of Iraqis have demonstrated for his release.

The judge said the investigation would be completed and sent to the criminal court on Sunday, after which a court date would be set within seven to 10 days.

Al-Zeidi’s action was broadcast repeatedly on television stations around the world. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack suggested that worldwide attention to the shoe-tossing was overblown.

“We would hope that the fact of a U.S. president standing next to a freely elected prime minister of Iraq who just happens to be Shia, who is governing in a multi-confessional, multiethnic democracy in the heart of the Middle East, is not overshadowed by one incident like this,” McCormack told reporters in Washington.

McCormack said he believed that in the coming years “the fact of the president making that visit under those circumstances will probably overshadow any memory of this particular gentleman and what he did.”

In the Iranian capital Tehran, hard-line Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati praised the act at Friday prayers, calling it the “Shoe Intifadha.”

Jannati proposed people in Iraq and Iran should carry shoes in further anti-American demonstrations. “This should be a role model,” said Jannati.

Also Friday, the head of a large West Bank family said it is willing to offer one of its eligible females as a bride for al-Zeidi. The leader, 75-year-old Ahmad Salim Judeh, said that the 500-member clan had raised $30,000 for al-Zeidi’s legal defense.

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LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office on Wednesday ruled the death of Mark Ruffalo’s younger brother a homicide.

Coroner’s spokesman Craig Harvey says an autopsy determined that someone shot 39-year-old Scott M. Ruffalo in the head. He was found with a gunshot wound early Dec. 1 and died a week later at a hospital after being released from life support.

Beverly Hills police arrested Shaha Mishaal Adham, 26, before Ruffalo died on an attempted murder warrant. They later released her and she has not been charged.

Adham’s attorney, Ronald Richards, who said after her release that Scott Ruffalo shot himself, disputed the coroner’s determination Wednesday night.

“The only two eye witnesses to the shooting saw the same thing, a gunshot wound to the left side of the head, while one of them saw him pull the trigger,” Richards wrote in an e-mail. “They saw the gun in his left hand after the shot was fired.”

He said no gun residue had been found on Adham’s clothes and that police had not requested another meeting with her.

Police do not have any suspects in custody and had not been notified of the coroner’s determination by Wednesday evening, Sgt. Michael Publicker said. He said the agency had no further statements on the case.

Police have not released a motive for the shooting.

Scott Ruffalo’s family released a statement after his death thanking supporters and saying the funeral would be private.

Mark Ruffalo, 41, has appeared in films such as “You Can Count on Me,” “Zodiac,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and this year’s “Blindness.”

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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - The Illinois Supreme Court on Wednesday denied an effort to remove Gov. Rod Blagojevich, rejecting what could have been the quickest way to force the Democrat from office. Blagojevich’s lawyer, meanwhile, said the governor would not appoint someone to fill Barack Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat, potentially answering one of the key questions surrounding the scandal.

“Harry Reid said that they’re not going to accept anybody he picks,” said attorney Ed Genson, referring to the Senate majority leader. “Why would he do that?”

The state court’s ruling came as Genson was challenging the strength of the corruption case against Blagojevich before a panel of lawmakers considering whether to recommend impeachment.

Genson said the wiretaps that ensnared his client amounted to all talk and no action.

“It’s just people jabbering,” Genson told the House panel.

Genson attacked the impeachment proceedings on multiple fronts Wednesday, assailing the wiretaps, questioning the committee’s impartiality and complaining that the panel had not given the governor enough time to mount a defense.

Lawmakers rejected all of Genson’s complaints, saying the committee has broad power to review anything related to the governor’s performance. They said Genson’s courtroom-style objections won’t change the panel’s approach.

“He’s trying to throw up enough dust … to make people think the governor is guilty of nothing – pure as the new driven snow,” committee chairwoman Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, said afterward.

Blagojevich has been under siege since his arrest last week on charges that he tried to auction off Barack Obama’s Senate seat. But he got some good news when the state’s highest court refused to hear the attorney general’s legal challenge to his fitness to serve.

The state Supreme Court rejected without comment a challenge filed by state Attorney General Lisa Madigan, herself a top candidate for governor in 2010. It was unclear whether the court turned down the case on its merits or on procedural grounds.

The attorney general had asked the court to remove Blagojevich, arguing that his legal and political troubles prevented him from performing his duties. Madigan said the governor’s problems amount to a disability, so Blagojevich should have been stripped of his authority temporarily just as if he were physically incapacitated.

Madigan said she was disappointed by the ruling, saying Blagojevich’s refusal to resign has put the state in an “unsustainable situation.”

The court’s decision renewed calls from Republicans for a special election to choose Obama’s successor in the Senate.

But state Senate Democrats, after initially supporting such an election, this week canceled a vote on the matter and adjourned, leaving that power with Blagojevich.

When told about Genson’s comment Wednesday, Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero said he hadn’t heard from the governor “one way or another.”

“I don’t know if he’s closed the door on himself appointing a senator,” Guerrero said.

Blagojevich had already started the day feeling upbeat, telling reporters before a morning run that he had confidence in Genson and that he was eager to defend himself.

“I can’t wait to begin to tell my side of the story and to address you guys and, most importantly, the people of Illinois. That’s who I’m dying to talk to.”

Blagojevich denies any wrongdoing and is defying an avalanche of demands for his resignation.

Federal wiretaps recorded Blagojevich talking about selling or trading Obama’s Senate seat, but Genson told the House committee that the words do not amount to illegal actions.

He called the wiretaps “two months of somebody who obviously likes to talk a lot, but two months of nothing getting done.”

“There’s no evidence that anyone ever asked anybody for anything with regard to that (U.S. Senate) seat,” Genson added.

Genson said it would be “frankly illegal” for the committee to base an impeachment recommendation on the criminal complaint against Blagojevich. The complaint doesn’t provide full conversations and context, he said, and it can’t be cross-examined like a witness.

Rep. Jack Franks, D-Woodstock, challenged Genson to have Blagojevich testify.

“If we want the facts, we should have your client here. If you want to get to the facts, let’s bring him here, let’s ask the questions,” Franks said.

The Illinois House has appointed a 21-member committee to review the possibility of impeachment. It will look at the criminal charges, along with whether the governor has abused his power by defying lawmakers and spending money with authorization.

The committee, divided 12-9 between Democrats and Republicans, will recommend whether the full House should move to impeach Blagojevich. If that happened, the state Senate would then decide whether the governor is guilty.

Genson told the impeachment panel that some of its members have made statements suggesting they had already made up their minds. He also said neither the law nor the constitution spell out the standard for impeachment or what evidence should be considered.

Genson argued that three lawmakers – Franks and Republicans Bill Black of Danville and Jil Tracy of Mount Sterling – should be removed because their opening statements indicate they’ve made up their minds.

“They made comments which show Rod Blagojevich can’t get a fair and impartial hearing of this committee,” said Genson, who later called the atmosphere surrounding the governor’s case a “witch hunt.”

Currie said that the committee members would not be removed. She also defended the members’ opening statements for showing “a spirit of due process and fair play.”

Genson also is asking the Illinois House to appoint and pay for Blagojevich’s attorneys in the impeachment matter. That normally would be Madigan’s job, he said, but she cannot do it because of her challenge to the state Supreme Court.

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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Juan Jimenez’s job at the casino wasn’t the most glamorous one in the place.

But picking up cigarette butts, vacuuming dirt from carpets and shampooing stains from spilled drinks (and other, much worse substances) allowed him to bring his family from the Dominican Republic, buy a small house and claim a tiny slice of the American Dream.

In October, his luck ran out.

After 15 years at Bally’s, Jimenez was laid off, joining thousands of other casino employees in Atlantic City, Las Vegas and other hotspots around the country whose jobs have been eliminated in recent months because people are gambling less in this recession.

“This Christmas is going to be a lot like the first Christmas I had in this country,” said the 62-year-old Jimenez. “I didn’t have a job, I didn’t have any money, no anything. The only difference is now I have a mortgage and bills.”

Atlantic City has been hit particularly hard; this will be the second straight year of declining casino revenue after 28 consecutive years of increases. The industry’s woes began when slots parlors opened in the Philadelphia suburbs two years ago, stealing many of Atlantic City’s customers, and worsened in recent months, first when gas prices shot up, then when the economy nose-dived.

For the first 11 months of this year, Atlantic City casinos won $4.2 billion from gamblers, down 6.7 percent from the same period last year.

That has forced casinos to slash payrolls. As of Nov. 30, there were 39,137 people working at the city’s 11 casinos, down nearly 1,500 from the same period in 2007. Not all those cuts were due to layoffs; they include resignations and seasonal jobs.

Last month, the city’s most successful casino, the Borgata, laid off 400 employees. The four casinos run here by Harrah’s Entertainment laid off several hundred earlier this year, and still more layoffs took place at Resorts Atlantic City.

“We’ve had downturns before, but we’ve never seen anything like this,” said Donna DeCaprio, secretary-treasurer of UNITE-HERE Local 54, the union that represents casino cleaning staffs, food-and-drink workers and other employees.

The union held a two-day seminar this week for laid-off workers, giving them information on job training and the network of public and private services available to them. The neediest got diapers, infant formula, winter coats and supermarket debit cards.

Steve Norton, a gambling industry veteran who helped open New Jersey’s first casino in 1978, said the casinos have learned they are subject to the same business cycles as other industries.

“We’re starting to see that we’re not bulletproof,” he said. “In the early days, we didn’t think that could ever happen. It definitely is a new reality.”

In Las Vegas, about 6,000 union employees have been laid off or had hours reduced, according to the culinary workers union, which is bracing for more cutbacks.

Harrah’s, which runs eight Las Vegas casinos, has laid off nearly 1,800 workers this year. Las Vegas Sands Corp. cut more than 200 employees last week from its work force of 10,000 at the Venetian and Palazzo hotel-casinos on the Strip, after shedding 50 workers three weeks before.

Mississippi’s 30 casinos on the Gulf Coast and the Mississippi River are coping not only with the national recession, but with the effects of hurricane-related closings in September. They have laid off workers amid a 3 percent decline in revenue this year.

Connecticut’s two huge Indian-run casinos, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, have seen slot machine revenue fall 5 to 7 percent, and have eliminated more than 1,300 jobs through layoffs and attrition over the past year.

James Howard spent 14 years as a food and beverage worker at the Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort before being laid off last week.

“I didn’t have any idea this was coming,” said the 54-year-old Howard. “It’s very upsetting. Each year at Christmas, we would have parties to celebrate the season. This year, we’re trying to figure out where our next meal is coming from. It’s like this all over the city.”

In between trips to the unemployment office, Howard has looked – unsuccessfully – for jobs stocking shelves at stores in between trips to the unemployment office. He and his wife have already burned through their meager savings and are grateful their landlord has been understanding about late rent. But they know that won’t last forever.

Howard will be giving his wife only one present for Christmas this year.

“My love,” he said. “That’s about it. They can’t take that from me.”

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Nashville police say country singer Mindy McCready has been hospitalized after an apparent suicide attempt. A police report says McCready’s brother discovered she had cut her wrists and taken several pills at her home Wednesday. Timothy McCready told police his sister had been “very intoxicated” after a night out.

A hospital spokeswoman says the singer is in stable condition. McCready attorney Lee Ofman said he did not have details about the situation.

In October, McCready was released after about 30 days in jail for violating probation on a 2004 drug charge.

She has struggled with legal and personal problems that included previous suicide attempts.

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NEW YORK – A Nazi-filled Christmas is not an easy sell.

That’s just one of the challenges Tom Cruise faces with his new World War II thriller “Valkyrie,” which opens Dec. 25. In the film, which portrays the seldom-recalled German resistance to Adolf Hitler, Cruise plays would-be Hitler assassin Col. Claus von Stauffenberg.

It’s a risky film to make and not just because of the sensitive subject matter. Cruise has been trying to rehabilitate his image – and few PR experts regularly advise donning a German army uniform to engender warm feelings.

On the other hand, “Valkyrie” is also a serious, suspenseful film. Can it help put Cruise back on top?

In a recent interview, Cruise and director Bryan Singer downplayed the bad pre-release buzz for “Valkyrie.”

The film’s release date repeatedly changed. Early ads showing the similar appearance of an eye-patched Cruise and Stauffenberg were mocked online. At one point, German Defense Ministry officials said the production couldn’t shoot at Berlin’s Benderblock memorial to the Nazi resistance because of Cruise’s beliefs in Scientology – which isn’t recognized as a religion in Germany. (The statements were quickly recanted and shooting went forward.)

Cruise, 46, is familiar with uncontrollable spirals of bad publicity – and not just in the last few tumultuous years. He has long been dogged by rumors about his personal life and has been through productions (like 1988’s “Rain Man,” he points out) that seemed doomed before they were released.

“It’s nice to be able to have people talk about the film, as opposed to us reading about the film,” Cruise said. “It is what it is. And I understand it. I do understand it.”

His recent bout of bad publicity started with that fateful appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s show in 2005. Then there was the awkward interview with “Today” show host Matt Lauer. The following year, Paramount Pictures severed its 14-year relationship with him.

“As I’ve said, I want an adventurous life,” said Cruise. “And yet I’ve gotten a little bit more adventure than I bargained for.”

A rebound is fully in the works. Cruise revisited Winfrey – the scene of the sofa – earlier this year. On Monday, he publicly patched things up with Lauer. He started his own Web site, too.

And last week, he received a Golden Globe nomination for his hilarious performance in Ben Stiller’s raunchy summer comedy “Tropic Thunder,” in which he plays a dirty-dancing, foul-mouthed studio head.

With producer Paula Wagner, Cruise reformed the United Artists film studio as a boutique label for MGM. Their first film for UA, last year’s “Lions for Lambs,” was a critical and box-office failure and Wagner exited as chief executive officer in August. The more expensive “Valkyrie” – reportedly made for $90 million, though Singer said $75 million is more accurate – is a considerable gamble for both UA and Cruise.

He jokes at the predicament: “Go kill Hitler on Christmas!”

There were many plots to assassinate Hitler, but the one involving Stauffenberg and many other high-ranking German officers is well-known in Germany. On July 20, 1944 (six weeks after D-Day), Stauffenberg conspired to kill Hitler with a bomb and install a change-of-power scheme called Operation Valkyrie. The plot failed (Hitler would kill himself in April 1945) and about 200 were executed for their involvement.

The film was written by Christopher McQuarrie and his writing partner Nathan Alexander. McQuarrie’s last collaboration with Singer was the widely admired “The Usual Suspects” (1994). After bringing “Valkyrie” to Singer, the two expected to make a “small” film for less than $20 million.

“I love it when he says that,” jokes Cruise. “I laugh at him. All you have to do is read the script. It has the planes, it’s in Berlin. How is this ever a small film?”

Now embracing his instinct for big movies, Singer (who also helmed “X-Men,” “X2″ and “Superman Returns”) said, “You sell the small film and then you go: `We could have cardboard or we could have the metal. I’m just saying.’ It is a bit of a shell game.”

McQuarrie is quick to acknowledge he never expected the film to get made, but believes the result is a “delightfully odd movie” in the tradition of taut World War II thrillers like “The Great Escape,” “The Devil’s Brigade” and “Where Eagles Dare.”

Said Singer: “We always knew that it was a thriller, we always knew that it was for the mainstream. It was not something we were gunning for awards.”

Early reviews for “Valkyrie” have been mixed. Variety said its commercial prospects are “so-so.” The Hollywood Reporter called it “a fine film” that “should enjoy modest success, but if Cruise’s career is seen as momentarily stalled, `Valkyrie’ is not the electric jolt he’s looking for as a jump-start.”

Cruise’s Stauffenberg is, like many of the actor’s roles, an embodiment of determination. With a similar steadfastness to Ethan Hunt of the “Mission: Impossible” movies, the striving agent in “Jerry Maguire” or the more demented determination of Vincent in “Collateral,” Cruise’s Stauffenberg is resolute.

“I think there is that part of me, there is that spirit of wanting to engage in life,” said Cruise. “Here’s a guy who worked under tremendous amounts of pressure, and still could be absolutely clear and lucid about his choices and try to push this and drive this forward.”

Watching Cruise promote “Valkyrie,” it’s easy to see a similar indomitable pluck. On his way to a photo shoot, he rapidly changes his shirt, bare chested (and notably muscular) for a flash. Between interviews, he cheerfully autographs a movie poster for a pilot, being sure to sign it “Maverick,” alluding to his “Top Gun” character. He speaks passionately about “Valkyrie,” repeatedly explaining his interest, above all, in entertaining people and “telling stories.”

“I’m a father,” said Cruise, who’s married to Katie Holmes and has three children. “You have to choose the things you want to focus on. I make movies.”

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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The New York Jets were facing a stinging loss that would’ve knocked them out of first place in the AFC East and severely damaged their playoff hopes.

A bad play call, a big hit and a lucky bounce changed all that in an instant.

Abram Elam sacked J.P. Losman from behind and caused a fumble, and Shaun Ellis picked up the ball and rumbled 11 yards into the end zone with 1:54 left to give the Jets the go-ahead score in a 31-27 victory Sunday.

“That play that Shaun makes and Abe makes, who knows?” quarterback Brett Favre said. “At the end, we may look back and say that could be one of those plays that catapulted us into something great.”

Maybe, but the Jets (9-5) looked nothing like a playoff team for most of this one as the Bills’ once-dormant offense prospered against New York’s struggling defense.

Buffalo (6-8) was nursing a 27-24 lead and close to wrapping up its first win against an AFC East opponent when Losman dropped back to throw and was hit from behind by a blitzing Elam. The ball squirted out and bounced around before Ellis grabbed it, tiptoed down the sideline and splashed into the end zone.

“I just kept running, got some good blocking and was able to get into the end zone,” Ellis said.

Added running back Thomas Jones: “Me and Laveranues (Coles) said he jumped into the end zone like he was jumping in the pool.”

The big play came as Ellis is dealing with legal troubles. He was arrested Nov. 29 and charged with possession of marijuana, speeding and driving without insurance after being pulled over by police in Hanover, N.J.

“Shaun has been Shaun, he hasn’t changed,” Favre said. “You find out a lot about people in tough times. If anything, guys rallied around him. It was good for this team that that play happened. And it was good for Shaun.”

The Jets were surprised the Bills were passing in that situation, expecting Buffalo to try to run out the clock. After all, Marshawn Lynch gained 127 yards on 21 carries and New York was struggling to stop him. Instead, coach Dick Jauron overruled offensive coordinator Turk Schonert.

“Clearly the responsibility for the last call, the play-action pass, that was mine,” Jauron said. “That goes right on me. It backfired clearly and caused us to lose the game. … It’s one of those times in a game that’s pretty good for a pass, right before the 2-minute.”

Jauron refused to blame Losman, making his second straight start for the injured Trent Edwards.

“It’s on my shoulders to protect him, to keep him from that situation,” Jauron said, “and I didn’t do it.”

It was a hectic scene as bodies flew everywhere near the end zone, with even referee Jeff Triplette getting knocked to the turf face first by Bills center Duke Preston and taking a bloody nose. He worked the rest of the game wiping his face with a towel.

Buffalo got the ball back twice, with both drives ending on interceptions, including Losman’s desperation heave as time expired that was picked off in the end zone by Kerry Rhodes.

“It’s been that type of season,” receiver Lee Evans said. “Sometimes the ball bounces funny ways. On that last play, it certainly took a bounce for the worst for us.”

The Jets remained tied atop the division with Miami, which beat San Francisco 14-9, and New England, which routed Oakland 49-26.

It didn’t appear likely that the Jets were going to be doing any celebrating after this one, especially when the Bills – held to single field goals in their previous two games – went ahead on Fred Jackson’s 11-yard touchdown run with 5:30 remaining.

Losman marched the Bills down the field with four straight completions to get the ball to the Jets 20. Lynch followed with a 9-yard run, and then Jackson powered into the end zone despite being hit by several Jets at the 3.

The Jets snapped a two-game losing streak and offset another shaky performance by Favre. The veteran quarterback was 17-of-30 for 207 yards and a touchdown, but also threw two interceptions and misfired several times.

“Maybe I don’t have the arm I once had,” he said. “I don’t know.”

Losman was 24-of-39 for 148 yards and a score and was picked off three times.

Leon Washington gave the Jets a 21-17 lead on a 47-yard touchdown run with less than a minute left before halftime.

The Jets took a 7-0 lead on Jones’ 2-yard touchdown run on their first possession. It was the eighth straight game he scored in, his 15th touchdown overall, and 13th rushing – all franchise records.

Notes:@ Jones, who entered leading the AFC with 1,144 yards rushing, finished with 78 yards on 20 carries. … Jets linebacker Vernon Gholston, the No. 6 overall pick, was inactive for the first time. … Jets safety Eric Smith played for the first time in seven weeks after suffering three head injuries in four games. … Bills rookie wide receiver James Hardy left early in the first quarter with an injured left knee and didn’t return. Jauron was unsure of the severity of the injury, but said, “We’ll have to remain optimistic.”

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