Ed Reed

Ravens safety Ed Reed said Tuesday that Junior Seau, who committed suicide after reportedly suffering brain damage during his NFL career, knew the possible dangers of football and accepted them when he signed an NFL contract.

“Did he sign up for it?” Reed said during Super Bowl media day Tuesday. “Yeah, he signed up for it.”

Reed said he’s already having issues he believes to be related to concussions during his NFL career, which began in 2002, but that all football players accept the potential risks.

“I feel effects from it,” Reed said. “Some days, I wake up and I’m like, ‘Where did my memory go?’ But I signed up for it.”

Meanwhile, Baltimore safety Bernard Pollard said he’d have doubts letting his own young son play football.

“My son will be 5 [years old] in a couple of days,” Pollard said. “He wants to throw the football and be tackled. I see it in him. My wife and I talk about it all the time. I know concussions can happen anywhere. I don’t want to see my son go through that.”

But Reed stood by his claim that Seau knew what could happen to his mind when he became a pro football player.

“Junior gave everything he had to football,” Reed said. “I’m sure he’s looking down and has no regrets.”

Welcome to Tuesday’s Morning Mashup. For the latest news, start at our WEEI.com home page or click here for the top stories from our news wire.

TUESDAY’S BROADCAST HIGHLIGHTS:
NHL: Devils at Bruins, 7 p.m. (NESN)
NHL: Islanders at Penguins, 7:30 p.m. (NBCSN)
NBA: Hornets at Lakers, 10:30 p.m. (NBA TV)
College basketball: North Carolina at Boston College, 9 p.m. (ESPNU; WEEI-AM)
College basketball: Wisconsin at Ohio State, 7 p.m. (ESPN)
College basketball: NC State at Virginia, 7 p.m. (ESPN2)
College basketball: Vanderbilt at Tennessee, 7 p.m. (ESPNU)
College basketball: Kentucky at Mississippi, 9 p.m. (ESPN)
College basketball: Nebraska at Minnesota, 9 p.m. (Big Ten Network)

AROUND THE WEB:

Ray Lewis

♦ Following the Patriots’ loss to the Ravens in last Sunday’s AFC championship game, Wes Welker‘s wife, Anna Burns Welker, posted a comment on Facebook mocking Ray Lewis for his apparent hypocrisy. Welker noted that Lewis “paid off a family” after being involved in a double murder outside a Super Bowl party in Atlanta in 2000 and has fathered six children with four women.

On Monday, Lewis insisted he has forgiven Burns Welker, who apologized one day after her attack.

“I’ve always been a firm believer of the Good Book, and the Good Book always confirms, even a fool is counted wise until he opens he or she mouth,” Lewis said. “Sometimes people just say silly stuff. And they say it out of emotion.

“Sometimes you need to let the game take care of the game. We lost up there last year, and I didn’t hear one teammate say anything about nobody there because we have respect for that team, that they won it fair and square. So for her to come out and say what she said — listen, I truly forgive her, and I have no hard feelings against her at all, but I believe people just make mistakes and say foolish things sometimes.”

Lewis also acknowledged he has made mistakes in his life, and he appreciates that he has been given an opportunity to win people over.

“I don’t know nobody that’s ever lived a perfect life,” he said. “I have [seen] people that have been through things before. Realistically, most of the time when you find somebody that goes through adversity, you really find out what their true character is. For me, people really now have taken time to find out who I am … and [what] my character is.”

Added Lewis: “For someone who has been through adversity and found his way out and really just showing what my true character is and who I am as a person.”

♦ Days after President Barack Obama said football needs to be safer for parents like him to consider allowing their kids to play, hard-hitting Ravens safety Ed Reed agreed.

“I am with Obama,” Reed said. “I have a son. I am not forcing football on my son. If he wants to play it … I can’t make decisions for him. All I can do is say, ‘Son, I played it so you don’t have to.’ ”

Reed added that football’s medical system needs major improvement.

“We’ve got some leaks in it that need to be worked out,” he said. “Every medical training room should be upgraded; training rooms can be a lot better.

“When you’ve got the president talking about it, you’ve got something.”

Meanwhile, Kristin Cavallari, who is engaged to Bears quarterback Jay Cutler, said she will push their 5-month-old son to a sport other than football when he gets older.

“I will try to steer Cam in a different direction, maybe a sport that isn’t so aggressive,” she said. “Maybe baseball — something where he doesn’t have to get hit.”

♦ The Jets reportedly have had internal discussions about former Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell, the 2007 No. 1 overall pick who struggled to stay focused and in shape and was out of the NFL after the 2009 season. Russell is planning to attempt a comeback after being out of the game the last two seasons.

New general manager John Idzik told New York sports radio station WFAN on Monday that he wants to challenge incumbent Mark Sanchez, whose contract makes him difficult to trade. Idzik recently got a chance to meet Sanchez and let him know where he’s coming from.

“Yeah, I’m comfortable with Mark being a Jet,” Idzik said. “I told him as well, we’re going to add competition. … It’s going to help make Mark and everybody else better.”

ON THIS DAY TRIVIA: On Jan. 29, 1996, the Red Sox sent outfielder Lee Tinsley, reliever Ken Ryan and minor league outfielder Glenn Murray to the Phillies for which pitcher (and two minor leaguers)?

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “We’re in the White House right now, which is like, ‘Mama, I made it.’ ” – LeBron James, as the Heat visited President Obama to celebrate their 2012 NBA championship

STAT OF THE DAY: 23 – Consecutive penalty kills for the Bruins to open the season

‘NET RESULTS (mobile users, check the website to see the videos): A player for the Russian Professional Basketball League team Unics Kazan makes a pass to his coach on the sideline. The alert coach makes a quick pass to another player.

Magic big man Glen Davis catches Gerald Wallace as the Nets forward goes in for a layup and gives him a lift to the baseline.

TRIVIA ANSWER: Heathcliff Slocumb

SOOTHING SOUNDS: Charlie Wilson, former lead singer of The Gap Band, was born on this day in 1953.

Safety Ed Reed told ESPN’s Ed Werder that he and other Ravens players wanted Rex Ryan hired as head coach for the 2008 season instead of John Harbaugh. Ryan was defensive coordinator when the Ravens went 5-11 in 2007. The entire coaching staff was dismissed following that season, and Harbaugh became head coach.

Harbaugh made Ryan defensive coordinator again, as well as promoting him to assistant head coach, but Ryan left after the 2008 season.

“We did not want him to leave,” Reed said. “It hurt when he left.”

“There was a reason why that defense was the way it was,” he added. “I would play anywhere with Rex — in a dark alley, on the street, in high school football, sandlot, anywhere — because he makes it fun. He loves this game. He truly loves this game and there’s a reason why those guys in New York back him the way they do.”

The body found in the Mississippi River is that of the brother of Ravens safety Ed Reed, Louisiana officials confirmed Tuesday. Brian Reed, 26, jumped into the river Jan. 7 while being pursued by police.

“It’s been tough, but Gold is good,” Ed Reed told WDSU-TV. “To have found our brother today brings closure and knowing that he’s in a better place.”

Ravens safety Ed Reed confirmed in a radio interview that he expects his team to place him on the physically unable to perform list, which would require him to miss the first six games of the upcoming NFL season as he recovers from offseason hip surgery. Reed missed the end of the 2009 season with various hip, neck and groin injuries. Reed is entering his seventh season in the NFL.

Ravens Pro Bowl safety Ed Reed, who had 50 tackles and three interceptions last season, reportedly could miss the first six weeks of the regular season.

Reed had hip surgery in the offseason and is said to be only 35 percent recovered. The 31-year-old safety has three years left on his contract.