Inside the NFL
By Peter King
Posted: Wed October 21, 1998
Time's Running Out | Struggling to Find His Game | Who Needs One In this League?
Divine Intervention | The Buzz | The Inner Game | Dr. Z's Forecast
Time's Running Out
The clock is ticking on Barry Sanders as he chases an elusive
title
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Sanders continues to eat up yards, but he still has no ring.
(Vincent Muzik)
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So this is what it's like trying to tackle Barry Sanders. "Come
on," he said to me over his shoulder, and with a deft move past
a minicam crew, Sanders turned the corner and headed toward an
exit in the Lions' locker room, trying to escape the commotion
after Detroit's 27-20 upset of the Packers at the Silverdome
last Thursday night.
Sanders froze for an instant outside the locker room door to sign
an autograph, so I began to ask about whether he might be the
best player never to win a Super Bowl. "Do you—?" But Sanders
knew what I wanted to talk about and quickly cut me off. "No!" he
said. "I don't agree."
It seemed an appropriate time to raise the subject. He had just
rushed for 155 yards against one of the premier teams in the
league, galloping 73 yards for a touchdown and having an 80-yard
run for another score called back because of a holding penalty.
Yet the Lions' win only evened their regular-season record at
75-75 since they drafted Sanders third in 1989. As he bounded up
a back stairwell, I wondered, was Sanders's NFL life passing,
unfulfilled, before his eyes?
Even if he shatters Walter Payton's career rushing record (he
needs 2,310 yards), it's debatable whether he's the best of an
elite group of players never to have won a Super Bowl, which
includes Dick Butkus, Dan Marino and O.J. Simpson. Regardless,
Sanders is admired by teammates and even by the Lions' fiercest
rivals for his transcendent breakaway runs and his humility. If
he ever reaches a Super Bowl, he might have more people cheering
him on than John Elway did last season. Unlike the Broncos,
however, the 2-4 Lions aren't championship material. How many
more years can Sanders maintain his performance level?
Of a possible Super Bowl shutout, Sanders said, "I guess it could
happen." Then motoring to the lobby off the Lions' offices, he
added, "But I've got too much life to live, too many games to
play."
In the lobby Sanders took a left past a man in a trench coat,
sidestepped a woman in a faux leather coat and power-walked
through the revolving front door to freedom. "Let me read you
something from Lomas Brown," I said to Sanders's shadow. Brown
was Detroit's left tackle from 1985 through '95 but now plays in
Arizona. Sanders turned his head slightly to listen.
"Here's what Lomas says," I began, reading from my notes. "'I
don't think not winning a title has been that hard on Barry. He
wants to win, believe me. But he's not consumed with
self-gratification. He's just consumed with being the best he
can be. You won't see him lose sleep over it. Not to say he
doesn't care. But football is not his whole life.'"
"Lot of truth to that," Sanders said, opening a brown paper bag
that contained one overripe banana, which he peeled and ate as he
talked. "But you know, this is a great team game, where so many
people have control over who wins and loses. If I could transfer
my skills to the NBA, I could have more control over who wins. No
matter how well one guy plays in football, he needs a lot of help
to win a Super Bowl."
According to some of Sanders's acquaintances, however, the
losing is starting to bug him. Asked last week about the Lions'
1-4 start, Sanders replied quietly, "Same old s—-." One
reporter says it was the first time he had heard Sanders swear.
"A lot of times after a bad loss," said Sanders, now standing by
his fire-engine-red Range Rover, "I go home, and I'm ready to
quit. Can't stand it."
He never won a high school state football championship while
playing in Wichita, Kans., never won a Big Eight title at
Oklahoma State and has come no closer to the Super Bowl than the
'91 NFC Championship Game, which the Lions lost to the Redskins
41-10. Still, the thought of playing in the Big One, he says,
keeps him going.
"I envision playing in a Super Bowl," he said. "I really do. I
don't dream about it, just think of it sometimes when I'm awake.
Packed stadium, laying it on the line, taking over a game. I can
see it happening."
Even if no one else can.
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Struggling to Find His Game
Trailing the Giants 17-7 on his team's first possession of the
third quarter on Sunday, Cardinals second-year quarterback Jake
Plummer rolled right and forced a deep sideline pass into heavy
coverage. Strong safety Percy Ellsworth intercepted, and New York
was on its way to a 34-7 win. "I'm bulletproof, I'm Jake the
Snake," Plummer said sarcastically after the game. "I thought I'd
slip it in there."
Anointed as a young Joe Montana coming into this season (SI,
Aug. 17), Plummer has been having some rough days at the office.
Against the Giants he completed 12 of 21 passes for 139 yards,
threw one touchdown pass and a pair of interceptions, and was
sacked seven times. After Marc Trestman took over as offensive
coordinator in the off-season and installed a variation of the
West Coast attack, Plummer had to learn his second system in as
many years. Though he has completed 59.5% of his passes, his 11
interceptions are third highest in the league, and he has thrown
for only six scores.
Plummer is also taking a beating behind perhaps the league's
worst offensive line. Last season Arizona quarterbacks were
sacked 78 times, the second-highest total in NFL history.
Although the Cardinals are on pace to shave 21 sacks off that
number, Plummer has still gone down two dozen times. Bottom line:
It's ludicrous to dump on this guy when he's often under an
avalanche of pressure.
"This is a process that'll take a while," says Trestman. "I like
where he's going. We can't treat it as Armageddon when he doesn't
play great."
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Who Needs One In this League?
As the 4 p.m. EDT trading deadline approached on Oct. 13, Giants
general manager Ernie Accorsi took one call from a fellow G.M.
who asked if Accorsi would like to acquire a marginal player.
"No interest," replied Accorsi. The discussion took all of 15
seconds.
"I've got him beat," says Bills general manager John Butler. "We
got no calls for trades [that day]." The Bills didn't put out any
feelers either.
On the day of the major league baseball trading deadline last
July, 14 deals were struck. By comparison NFL teams made one:
The Bears sent running back Bam Morris to the Chiefs for a
conditional fifth-round pick in 1999. In-season trades have
become rare in the NFL, largely because it takes too long for a
player to pick up his new team's systems.
The salary cap can also pose problems. Most teams are at or near
their cap limit, meaning they'd have to restructure contracts to
make room for a new player. Also, if a player who is not in the
last year of his contract is dealt, the remainder of his signing
bonus is immediately applied to his former team's cap. Thus deals
that might make football sense don't add up economically.
Still, with more than half the season remaining, it's hard for a
trade maven such as Packers general manager Ron Wolf to believe
that teams can't figure out ways to acquire players. "Teams don't
trade because [front-office] people are afraid of their own
shadows," says Wolf, who tried unsuccessfully to upgrade Green
Bay's secondary.
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Divine Intervention
Panthers kicker John Kasay missed a 47-yard field goal with five
seconds left, sealing the Bucs' 16-13 win. "It was a perfect
snap and perfect hold," said Kasay. "I hit it completely square.
Believe me, that ball should have moved right, and it went left.
I can say with absolute confidence that God did not want me to
make that field goal." ...
The league will address one of the problems of a 31-team
schedule in '99 by giving byes in the final four weeks to the
four teams that finish with the worst records in '98. This is to
alleviate concern that a potential playoff team would benefit
from a week off late in the year....
For Office Pool Use Only: In their first 37 years the Cowboys never lost a game 13-12. In
their last 16 games they've lost by that score three times.
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The Buzz
1. Colts 31, 49ers 20 We've corrected the score because referee
Walt Coleman's crew robbed Indianapolis blind at 3Com Park on
Sunday and handed San Francisco a 34-31 gift. Peyton Manning
really beat the Niners with a fearless, three-touchdown,
no-interception day.
2. Mount Ditka erupts With this postgame explanation of how the
Falcons beat his club 31-23, Saints coach Mike Ditka showed why
it's great to have him in the league: "They smacked us in the
mouth and said, 'You like that?' Evidently we said yes, because
we let them smack us in the mouth again. This game is not about
tricking people. You hit them in the mouth enough times, their
eyes start watering. We didn't hit anybody in the mouth today."
3. No Place Like Home On a Sunday when all 11 home teams won, the
Oilers picked up their first win ever in Nashville. Best news for
Tennessee fans? Fourth-year quarterback Steve McNair had his
finest day as a pro, completing 16 of 21 passes for 277 yards and
one touchdown and running for another score in the 44-14 victory
over the Bengals.
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The Inner Game
When Bills quarterback Jim Kelly announced his retirement in
January 1997, one of the first things that went through the mind
of Buffalo director of pro personnel A.J. Smith was, Doug
Flutie's going to be a free agent after this season. I've got to
get to work.
Smith spends about a third of his time during the season
preparing a scouting report each week on Buffalo's upcoming
opponent. On Sundays he sits in the press box and scrutinizes
the Bills' next foe for weaknesses. The rest of Smith's job
revolves around the magnetized boards that line the walls of his
10-by-18-foot office at Rich Stadium. On one wall are posted the
depth charts of every NFL team with the players' names
color-coded (blue for excellent, red for very good, purple for
good, black for run-of-the-mill). On other walls are lists of
prospects from the Canadian Football League, NFL Europe and the
Arena Football League.
Smith's most important meeting of the year occurs a few days
after the end of the Bills' regular season when he visits with
John Butler, the club's general manager, and the coach, which was
Marv Levy when they convened last Dec. 23. Smith goes to the
meeting with a list of players he thinks will be the top 150 free
agents on the market, with 15 highlighted as the best of the
bunch. Then, like a carnival barker, he touts three or four
players. Last winter one of his favorites was the 35-year-old
Flutie, the 5'10" Toronto Argonauts quarterback, whom Smith had
scouted twice in person and five times on tape in '97.
When he began pitching Flutie, Smith was ready for the funny
looks he got from Butler and Levy, but he pressed ahead. "I
don't care about age, I don't care about height, I don't care
about how defensive coordinators say they can game-plan him
easily. There's an exception to every rule. Some guys are just
football players, and Doug Flutie's a football player who can
help the Buffalo Bills."
In the weeks that followed, Butler quizzed Smith about Flutie.
"He's been in the shotgun in Canada, and we'll have him under
center," Butler said on one such occasion. "Can he make the
adjustment?" Another time the question was, "Is his arm good
enough?" Smith kept plugging his man, and he also dispelled one
of the biggest concerns about Flutie. When he came out of Boston
College in 1984, Flutie ran a 4.9 40, mediocre for a quarterback.
Smith timed Flutie in 4.7 and presented his evidence that the
quarterback could outrun many of the linebackers who would be
chasing him.
Helping Smith's cause was the fact that Flutie wanted no
guarantees—only a chance to make the Bills and a pittance of a
signing bonus ($50,000). When he closed the deal on Jan. 20,
Flutie turned to Smith and hugged him. "Thank you," said the
quarterback who had last played in the league in '89, with the
Patriots. "I'm back in the NFL."
With a vengeance. In two extended outings in relief of the
injured Rob Johnson, Flutie completed 72.9% of his passes, with
four touchdowns and only one interception. With Johnson hobbled,
Flutie got his first start for Buffalo on Sunday and engineered a
last-minute drive, capped by a bootleg run for the winning
touchdown, in the Bills' 17-16 upset of the Jaguars.
"A lot of teams are afraid to [take a chance]," Smith says. "I'm
lucky to work for one that isn't."
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Issue date: October 26, 1998
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