From the Arizona Republic’s Senta Scarborough, Richard Obert and Josh Kelley : (link courtesy Kevin Murphy)

The head coach of the Arizona Rattlers arena football team admitted snorting cocaine behind a Mesa business early Tuesday and faces possible drug charges, police said.

Former 49ers linebacker Todd Shell was shirtless and sweating profusely when an officer found him pacing around his Land Cruiser about 1 a.m. behind a business near Ivy Street and Greenfield Road, Mesa police Detective Tim Gaffney said.

Shell told the officer he owned the business and kept looking north. When the officer asked why he was looking in that direction, Shell told him he was alone but said a “guy wearing camouflage is in the tree,” police said. The officer found no one else in the area.

At first, Shell, 43, of Mesa, said he found the bag in the parking lot but later admitted the substance, which he identified as cocaine, was his. He said he had an “eight ball,” or an eighth of an ounce.

Shell told the officer he went behind the business to use the cocaine, and told the officer he had only used cocaine three times and he had obtained the drug from a friend.