The man answering the phone at the home of Jack Sells says he's not going to waste your time. His son isn't returning any phone messages.

Not only is Jack Sells Jr., not going to talk about football, he no longer goes to or watches any games. His two sons don't play football and never will.

"There are too many scars," says Jack Sells Sr. "Do you go to church? Don't you know that when you go, none of this is going to matter?"

Eleven years ago, Jack Sells mattered.

Eleven years ago, Sells walked into a Kinko's in Knoxville, Tenn., and faxed hand-diagrammed Tennessee plays to his friend Ron Zook.

That wouldn't have been such a big deal except that Zook was a defensive assistant at Florida. Sells had recently been fired as a defensive assistant at Tennessee.

And Florida and Tennessee were about to play in Gainesville.

The Gators won 35-18 and went on to claim their first Southeastern Conference championship. But a firestorm had been created even before the game, when a Kinko's employee alerted Tennessee and media outlets about the faxes.

Soon, Sells was receiving death threats. Twelve days after the game, an angry 'Vols fans punched him in the face at a Chattanooga bar. Claiming that Kinkos had violated his privacy, Sells sued the company for $3 million and settled in 1995.

Jack Sells could tell you about the Florida-Tennessee rivalry.

"Oh, I know what you're after," said Jack Sells Sr., who like his son now lives in Nashville. "But first let me tell you about Ron Zook. He's the finest man you'll ever meet. Do I know him? He's my best friend. You guys need to get off him down there. Because he's going to win, I'm sure of it."

On Tuesday, Zook said that yes, he is still close to the Sells family. But he grimaced when the incident was mentioned. "It had nothing to do with this game and it had nothing to do with the game in '91," Zook said.

Tennessee Coach Phil Fulmer, a Vols assistant in 1991, took a more lighthearted approach when asked if any of his assistants might pay a visit to Kinko's this week. "I don't think so," Fulmer said. "I sure hope not, anyway."

It's hard to justify what Sells did except to note that he thought his firing was unjust.

In June of 1991, Sells was fired after an investigation of rules violations that led to two years of probation for the Vols football program.

Angry Vols Athletic Director Doug Dickey, a former Florida football coach, reacted strongly when he heard about Sells' form of retaliation. He pressed the issue.

"I want our people and our fans to know that we did not treat this like a hoax," Dickey said after the game. "We know what the real story is."

Zook called then-Vols Coach Johnny Majors to clear the air.

"I'm going to tell you, Jack Sells, this poor guy, I just couldn't see Jack Sells getting any more grief than he's already gotten," Zook said in 1991 of what became known as "FaxGate." "I feel terrible for the guy. The faxes were so immaterial, and it made no difference and had no relevance, it was nothing."

Then Zook took a shot at Dickey that surely both will remember this week.

"They're either trying to get Jack some more -- and they've already drove the guy out of coaching -- or Dickey has got a vendetta against Florida," Zook said.

Dickey denies any such vendetta against Florida, but he won't concede he over-reacted over the incident 11 years ago.

"We had some issues that Jack was involved in when he was here, but we've resolved them and moved on," Dickey said this week.

"I don't want to get into that. I will say that Ron coached here for a while and I know Ron has earned his spurs. We wish him well, just not this week."

SELLS' FATHER STILL ANGRY

The elder Sells became upset at mention of Dickey.

"They thought what my son did was disloyal," he said. "But Ron was one of his best friends, and those guys had fired him. They ridiculed my son and said he was not trustworthy. But what obligation did he have to Tennessee? He had no obligation to Tennessee."

Tennessee administrators pressed the issue until Zook came clean. Ten days after stating Sells had faxed only newspaper articles to him, Zook admitted that yes, he had received hand-drawn plays from his friend, though not UT's "game plan."

Semantics aside, The Associated Press in 1991 obtained copies of the 24 pages Zook received from Sells, who had worked under him as a graduate assistant at Tennessee in 1986. That's right, Zook is a former Vols assistant.

"This was a rivalry long before I was at either place," Zook said. "This is a storied rivalry with a lot of history over the years."

The diagrams Zook received included margin notes such as "this hardly ever happens," or "plays going to [Carl] Pickens, 15." And there were other notations such as if a play was a run or a pass, depending on where tight ends lined up.

An explanation of Tennessee's audibles showed which receiver the Vols were most likely to throw to in certain situations. And some plays were emphasized with asterisks and notes such as, "favorite first down pro-pass play."

VOLS' MOVED BALL WELL

Despite losing, the Vols gained 441 yards of offense and Pickens had seven catches for 145 yards. Said Zook after the game: "Obviously there's something they left out [in the faxes] because they got 400-something yards."

Then-Florida AD Bill Arnsparger dismissed the issue as overblown, as did SEC commissioner Roy Kramer, whose investigation concluded without punishment.

"I don't think I've ever been around an issue that received so much attention and meant so little," Arnsparger said. "We looked into it and were satisfied."

It seemed strange that Tennessee coaches were not that upset about the Sells incident, but there was good reason. Fulmer admitted a few years ago that the Vols actually had copies of Florida's playbooks, though he wouldn't say from where.

Leave it to former Florida Coach Steve Spurrier to put things in perspective.

"Those faxes made Jack Sells a millionaire," Spurrier said.

"He's got himself a brand new house and he's not coaching for a living anymore. We were saying Zooker ought to get a new ski boat or something out of that."

As millionaire coach at Florida, Zook has a new house and a new boat.