Bears' Jones fending off a challenge

Thomas Jones will be more than an NFL running back Saturday night. He'll also be a fan and an ever-faithful brother, cheering for the Dallas Cowboys in their playoff game at Seattle. Well, Jones won't be cheering so much for the Cowboys as he will be hooting and hollering at his television in support of his younger brother Julius, Dallas' starting running back.

''It's going to be crazy to watch him in the playoffs,'' Jones said. ''The last time they were in Seattle, he had a pretty good game. I am rooting for him 100 percent. I want him to win. I would like to see his team win. It would be a great accomplishment for him.

''But if they come to Chicago, it will be a different story.''

The Jones brothers are close enough that they share the same Web site -- www.thejonesbrothers.com -- and are in the process of selling a TV series on their offseason life, ''Keeping Up With the Joneses.'' But a playoff matchup would take the bond of family to the highest level of sibling rivalry.

''We're always brothers, but when the game started, we'd kind of be enemies,'' Thomas Jones said with a smile.

Thomas and Julius are the only brothers among the seven children of Thomas and Betty Jones. Julius has a twin sister named Knetris. The Jones kids grew up in Big Stone Gap, Va., where both parents toiled in coal mines to support the family. Thomas said his mother would be unlikely to attend a possible Bears-Cowboys playoff game, mainly because she stopped watching NFL games some time ago.

''She really can't watch our games,'' Thomas said. ''She wasn't like that before in college or high school, but she knows how violent the game is now and the hits we have to take, and she can't watch it. She wants us to do well, of course, but when we're playing, she's washing clothes or making a trip to Walmart or something.''

Betty Jones missed some great games by both of her sons, who were two of 23 players in the league to rush for more than 1,000 yards this season. They also became the first set of brothers to eclipse the 1,000-yard barrier in the same year. Greg and Mike Pruitt combined for seven 1,000-yard seasons for the Cleveland Browns but never pulled off the feat in the same year.

Thomas finished 11th in the league with 1,210 yards on 296 carries (4.1 average) with six touchdowns. It was his second straight 1,000-yard season after leading the Bears with 1,335 a year ago.

Julius led the Cowboys with 1,084 yards on 267 carries (4.1 average) with four touchdowns. He finished seven yards short of 1,000 last season.

Both brothers started all 16 games -- no small feat when you consider both had to overcome tough challenges on their own teams. Thomas opted not to take part in some offseason workouts with the Bears and went to training camp behind Cedric Benson on the depth chart. He tweaked a hamstring on the first day of camp and didn't regain his starting job until Benson went out with a shoulder injury.

Benson has gotten more carries as the season has gone on, finally eclipsing the 100-yard mark in the finale against Green Bay. But coach Lovie Smith reiterated this week that Jones is the starter and will get the majority of the carries in the playoffs.

Julius has been steadily losing carries to Marion Barber in Dallas. The younger Jones brother has gotten more than 20 carries only once in the last six games and gives way to Barber in goal-line and third-down situations. Barber leads the NFC with 13 rushing touchdowns, becoming the power running threat that Cowboys coach Bill Parcells loves.

Thomas says Julius has taken advantage of his opportunities, and he's as thrilled with his younger brother's success as he is with his own.

''Before the season started, we had a motto: 'Countdown to a G,''' Thomas said. ''It was our countdown to 1,000 yards. We talked before every game, and we would say the same thing: 'Countdown to a G.' It started before the [opening] Green Bay game until we both finally got to 1,000 yards. I got there first, but I wasn't satisfied until he got it.''

Reaching the personal goal is great, but both brothers set a primary goal of helping their teams get to the Super Bowl. They joked before the season started that they might meet in the NFC Championship Game. That would happen only if both road teams won in the wild-card round and the Bears beat the Giants in the divisional round while Dallas won at New Orleans.

The more likely scenario, if the brothers are going to meet in the postseason, would be in the divisional round next week at Soldier Field.

''I would talk to him during the week,'' Thomas said, ''but we're both competitors ... I don't know.''

The Jones brothers squared off on Thanksgiving Day in Dallas a couple of years ago without incident, but that was a regular-season game, not an elimination scenario.

''This is a totally different situation,'' Thomas said, ''maybe a once-in-a-lifetime chance.''