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Catching up and moving forward It's time for vacation anecdotes and tales from NFL campsPosted: Monday July 28, 2003 1:22 PM
SAN ANTONIO -- It's been a heck of a week, going from Long Island to Orlando to Denver to Phoenix to Flagstaff and now here. When's my next vacation? Anyway, after mountains of fun in late June and early July at a Bruce Springsteen concert (good, but not his best), a Cape Cod League baseball game in Orleans, Mass. (one of the great undiscovered treats of American sports), sitting a section away from Brandi Chastain and Mia Hamm at Yanks-Red Sox (Mia's good at pretending not to notice anyone staring holes through her), getting too much sun in Spring Lake, N.J. (and reading Moneyball, which is very interesting), barbecuing on the back deck at least 11 times (there is still nothing like cooking a greasy burger over the coals and loading it with a ton of ketchup) and coaching a 10-and-under girls softball team with family and friends all over northern New Jersey (what incredibly great kids), it's finally back to work. One story first. The Montclair Bears, the 10-and-under squad I mentioned above, were at North Bergen last Monday night, my final game of the summer. One of our ace hurlers, Emma Goldstein, stood on first with two out in a tight game. The first-base coach said to her: "Emma, two outs. Go on anything." After the next pitch, another coach said to Emma: "Two out. Get a good lead and run on anything." Two pitches later, Emma turned to the first-base coach and said: "How many outs are there?" You have to love it. But now we're back in full swing, headed out to see Camp Parcells this morning. Here's a taste of the last week, meandering by the byways and turnpikes and scorching fields of the early NFL summer:
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- The most impressive sight of the two-hour practice this morning: the marvelous deep-throwing arm of Vinny Testaverde. As I stand down the left sideline at about the 10-yard line, with a seven-on-seven drill coming my way, Testaverde throws two perfect, 35-yard rainbows, complete, on successive plays. He is, to me, the player of the practice. "He'll probably still make those throws 10 years from now," Jets GM Terry Bradway says. I watch rookie phenom Dewayne Robertson closely for a few series, trying to see the explosion the Jets drafted him for. On seven snaps he's matched up, single-blocked, against either seventh-round guard Dave Youvanotis from Temple or veteran Tom Nutten, and on six of those, Robertson gets blocked or ridden outside the play. Once he penetrates and gets to the quarterback just after he throws. Uh-oh. Dave Yovanovits?
CELEBRATION, Fla. -- Jon Gruden's back is to me in the workroom adjacent to his bedroom at the Bucs' hotel. He's at his computer and workstation, plotting the day's events. The sun won't be up for an hour or so. "This Super Bowl has been good for so many people," he says. "I've seen some people on this team really grow up." "Like who?" I ask. "Me, for one," he says. "You realize what you're in this game for. It's why I get up in the morning, to go again. I realize how crushing it is not to go." "What have you gotten to do by winning that you wouldn't have been able to do if you didn't win?" Pause. He looks up and thinks for a minute. He turns to look at me. "I met David Letterman. I was on his show. Nervous, man. I've been laughing at him for years. Me and [GM] Rich McKay threw out the first pitch on opening day at the Yankees' exhibition game. That was fun. They had a bunch of the old timers there, Ron Guidry and Reggie Jackson and Yogi, leaning over the dugout. I threw a pitch to [Jorge] Posada. Don't know how he caught it. It was smokin'." Big smile. Back to work.
ORLANDO -- I learn my flight from Orlando to Denver will be delayed four hours because the plane has a mechanical problem. Another plane has to be ordered. To make conversation, I ask the agent what the problem was. She says someone on the scheduled incoming flight tried to throw something away down the toilet in coach, and it got stuck, and they couldn't get it out, and they won't allow the plane to fly to Denver with only two working toilets. And so because they don't want us to have to wait in line for the bathroom, 100 or so of us get four extra hours in a remote concourse of the Orlando International Airport. Not that any of us wanted to get a good night's sleep, or anything like that.
DENVER -- Ah, Broncodom. Twelve minutes into the first practice of the summer, Clinton Portis drops his second swing pass of the morning from Jake Plummer, and a voice rings out from the crowd: "Awww, COME ON!!!" Tough crowd. Plummer, by the way, really looks good. Comfortable, smiling, sharp. Better arm than I thought I'd seen in Arizona. Near the end of practice, going through some first-team passing drills, Plummer looks like he fits just right with his new studs -- a cast he never had in Phoenix. Will it be good enough? I think it will be, but that's why they play the games, folks. "On one play, I go back and hit Ed McCaffrey on a shallow cross," Plummer tells me later. "On the same play, Rod Smith's running a deep corner route, Shannon Sharpe's crossing over the middle and Clinton Portis is running a checkdown. I'm like, 'Wow. Where do I go wrong?'" Later, Mike Shanahan tells me the Broncos were going to go hard after Kurt Warner if the Rams, in fact, did release him. I hear Denver was all over him, and I hear Warner thinks he'd surely have been a Bronco if he had been released. Interesting.
PHOENIX -- I get in the rental car, right around 5:30 a.m., and the temperature on the dash reads 97 degrees. Two and a half hours later, pulling into Flagstaff, the temperature reads 67. I know Phoenix is a swell place. That's what people who live here tell me. I like saunas, too. I'm just not sure I'd want to live in one. FLAGSTAFF -- Walking up to the morning practice to watch Emmitt Smith make his Cards debut, I chat up Bill Bidwill for a while. He's the Arizona team owner, but I think most Cardinals fans would prefer his title be "team seller." Anyway, after our talk, I say I'm going to watch practice for a while. He heads for the sponsors' tent, off the corner of the end zone. "Let me know if you see anything new," he tells me. I reply that I probably won't see anything new. He says: "I know." And he sits in the tent while his shiny new running back puts on the Cardinal red and white for the first training camp practice. Strange. I think: If I owned this team, I'd probably want to keep an eye on Emmitt.
Writing/Transit/Five innings at BankOne Ballpark for a 1-0 baseball game -- One question about the BOB, which is a comfy oasis of a barn with the terrific leg room I like in a ballyard: Why doesn't the team doesn't put the current stats of the Diamondbacks players on the board when they come to the plate? Two things about the Dodgers, the D'backs' opponents on Sunday: They scored 1, 0 and 1 run in 33 innings this weekend here, and have not an offensive soul who excites anyone; and Shawn Green looks like a little lost sheep at the plate. Wow. What happened to him? And so it's on with the show. Good to be back in the swing. I'll write next week from San Antonio, Latrobe, Pa., and ... well, let's make it all a surprise.
I collected a few of them during the time I was on vacation. My favorites in reverse order:
No. 4: "On the assembly line of putting people together, somehow it stopped on him and gave him whatever it gave him."
No. 3: "In the baseball world, Babe Ruth's everything, right? I got his slugging percentage and I'll take his home runs and that's it. Don't talk about him no more."
Not be knee-jerkish, Barry, but this quote is exactly why 70 percent of America will never like you, no matter what an incredible ballplayer you are and how many jacks you hit.
No. 2:"Look at me, man. I'm an idiot, man. I've got long hair and tattoos, but I love me and that's all that matters. I date and I drink beer, just like everybody else. But my life is football."
No. 1 (My personal favorite): "Since 40 percent of our Monday Night Football audience is women, our preference was to select a woman."
Now, I played golf with Gaudelli in St. Louis in early June (actually, he played golf and I embarrassed myself), and he seemed like a nice guy. But this is the silliest sports quote of the last few weeks. Guerrero posed in a lacy black nightie in Maxim last year. She got the job because ABC knows the leches who only marginally care football and teen gawkers will go out of their way to watch Guerrero. The way it sounded from Gaudelli's comment, the network reviewed tapes and applications of 100 candidates, and it just so happened that the hottest babe got the gig ... and it just so happened that she got the gig because ABC is trying to appeal to women. Fred, in the immortal word of Jimmy Johnson, Puh-leeeeeze.
Chris Jenkins of the NFL e-mails to inform me that the New York Giants will not fly to a game until their Oct. 26 tilt at Minnesota. In fact, they'll fly to only four of their first 10 contests, including the preseason -- Minnesota, Tampa Bay, Dallas and New Orleans. They will travel by bus or Amtrak to New England (once in the preseason, once in the regular season), the Jets, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington. I wonder when the Giants last played a season in which 17 of their 20 games were in the Eastern time zone, with none in the Mountain or Pacific zones.
... Emmitt Smith, who began his Arizona Cardinals career in Flagstaff, Ariz., this weekend with three camp practices. MMQB: Now that you're here, tell me: Who else wanted you? Smith: When I was looking, Buffalo called. Carolina had some interest, but they ended up getting Stephen Davis. What I really wanted to do was to go home to Florida. I wanted to go to Tampa Bay. But something happened in Tampa. The Bucs couldn't work it out. Arizona showed the most interest. The Cards didn't insult me and tell me they'd only pay me the minimum. Then I talked to Daryl Johnston for some advice, and he really liked the Arizona option. MMQB: What has been the toughest thing about making the move? Smith: I don't have my people. For years I've used a chiropractor and nutritionist in Dallas, Dr. Robert Parker, who has restored me to health a lot of times pretty quickly. He uses something called muscle-interactive therapy, and it involves lots of things regular trainers don't do. It works for me. I may have to talk to him about coming in here once a month. MMQB: When's the last time you were in red-and-white? Smith: Brownsville Middle School in Florida. Before that, my first year in football, when I was 8, my uniform was cardinal red. The Salvation Army. My first team, and now maybe my last. Pretty interesting. (Special bonus question!) MMQB: Today, when you walked on the practice field, did you, even for a second, think of the Cowboys? Smith: Nope. I just thought, 'Man, what a view. Look at that mountain. [The San Francisco peaks, just outside Flagstaff.] Time to do my thing. It all starts now.' Could I work in the Parcells system? The answer still is yes. But me being gone allows Jerry Jones and Bill Parcells and the Cowboys to move forward. It allows Parcells to come in and crack the whip without anyone saying anything. There's nobody left there who will say a word about what Parcells will do. Now, if thought something needed to be said, I'd have said it.
On a 104-minute flight from Denver to Phoenix late Friday, I sat stuffed into a middle coach seat on a broiling plane between a chunky kid who slept the whole way and a massive man who, for the entire time we were in the air -- and I exaggerate you not -- pulled a David Puddy while the hot left side of his body was pressed against my right side. Once, on Seinfeld, Elaine and Puddy, the boyfriend, were flying home from Europe and Puddy stared straight forward, reading nothing and doing nothing. It caused Elaine and Puddy to break up. If that had only been possible on my journey. My pal Puddy never pulled out the in-flight mag or a book or a paper or even took a catnap. How is it possible to stare at the seatback for nearly two hours -- unless you're doing trancendental meditation?
1. I think if I were a Bucs player, I'd be fuming that not only did I have the shortest offseason in the NFL this year after winning the Super Bowl, but I was in camp the longest (52 days) before my opening game. That is an absurd amount of time to practice and go through two-a-days and over-prepare for the first game. And on Tuesday, they will get on a plane for Japan. The reaction among the players I asked about this was mixed. Brad Johnson's ticked off about camp length and the schedule, but Warren Sapp said: "This is our bowl game. We didn't have a chance to really celebrate the Super Bowl as a team, and this will be our chance. We ain't practicing over there." Well, I can think of better ways to gather as a team than getting in a plane and flying 18 hours to be mobbed by people who aren't your fans. 2. I think the moral of the Matt Millen $200,000 fine is this: Matt has a lot of friends, black and white, in the game. But when he was hiring Steve Mariucci, someone -- Dan Rooney, Bill Ford, Paul Tagliabue -- needed to tell him, "Matt, go to one of your black coaching friends and tell him you'd really like him to come in for an interview. Tell him it's important." A friend would understand. And one day, Matt would do the friend a favor in return. Now, one thing forgotten in this whole story is how minority coaches can help themselves by interviewing for every job, including jobs they know they won't get. Those NFL owners need to get to know the candidates. This is the point I made when the story originally broke last winter, and I still believe it fervently. And by the way: The rule penalizing teams for not interviewing minority candidates is a good one, a very good one. It will eventually provide exposure for coaches who would not otherwise have received the attention they deserve, such as Ted Cottrell. Then, whether they get hired or not has to be the personal choice of the owner. But at least they've had a chance to air their case. 3. I think I got a kick out of Jake Plummer's reaction to Emmitt Smith suiting up for his former team: "I thought they needed defensive linemen. Then they went out and got a running back. Shows how much I know." 4. I think we should all stop the presses for a moment. Corey Dillon was a no-show on Day 1 of Bengals camp? What? Corey is not buying into another Bengals program? I'm shocked! Just shocked! I'm shocked -- shocked -- to find that gambling is going on in here! I shall have to have you arrested. 5. I think you guys must have the wrong impression about me. I don't hate the Dolphins. One guy who claims to read my column all the time came up to me in the grocery store in Montclair, N.J., a couple of weeks ago: "I've got to ask you: Why do you detest the Dolphins?" Maybe I left the wrong impression when I said the Dolphins were one of the top five teams in football, and it was a travesty that this underachieving group didn't make the playoffs. Doesn't mean I hate them, just means I'm speaking (what I believe to be) the truth. 6. I think I would like to hand my "Dolt (Or Liar) Of The Month Award" to Ohio State coach Jim Tressel. A couple of weeks after the New York Times ran a story saying star running back Maurice Clarett got favorable treatment on a makeup test, helping him get a good grade in a class, the Associated Press ran this line in a story about Tressel's reaction to the scandal: "Tressel said he had not read the Times article and would not comment on the allegations." Now, if Tressel did not read the well-researched story that could put his program on probation, he is a bigger idiot than Hank Kingsley. I can only assume he read the story, but like so many coaches, fibbed when asked if he'd read it. At least if I were the Ohio State administration, I'd hope my football coach wasn't dumb enough to bury his head in the sand about such a vital issue. 7. I think Mike Martz loves the speed Jason Sehorn showed early in camp. Martz thought Sehorn would be a perfect complement to the hammer of Adam Archuleta at safety for the Rams. Now comes word that Sehorn broke his foot and will be out until October. Tough news for Sehorn. That also eliminates one of the real fun matchups of the first week of the season: Sehorn at Giants. That would been one of the best football boo-fests of recent years in New Jersey. 8. I think I love this time of year ... everyone's optimistic, everyone thinking his or her team has a real chance to do something. I was happy to read Jerry Jones is thinking long haul instead of quick fix, by the way. This is about building a contender for 2004, and then a good base for the next decade. 9. I think, just as I thought a low third-rounder (Brian Griese) would have a better pro career than a high first-rounder (Ryan Leaf) in 1998, now I think a low third-rounder (Chris Simms) has an excellent chance to have a better pro career than a high first-rounder (Carson Palmer). Environment, people. Environment. 10. I think, speaking of Carson, I heard the Chargers had less than 100 people at their first practice in the Carson, Calif., facility the other day. Chargers Fever! Catch it!
Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com. Monday Morning Quarterback appears in this space every week. Click here to send him a comment.
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