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Contemplating camp Redskins unsure if Deion will show up on time
Updated: Friday July 27, 2001 4:57 PM
ASHBURN, Va. (AP) -- Deion Sanders knows how to make an exit, hitting a home run in his final game before clearing out his locker and leaving the minor league Syracuse SkyChiefs. The Washington Redskins are left to wonder what kind of entrance -- if any -- Prime Time will make when training camp opens Sunday. Sanders wasn't dropping any hints after his sudden departure Thursday night from the International League's SkyChiefs, but one figure has to loom larger than any other as he considers his next move: the $6.86 million he could be forced to return to the Redskins if he doesn't report to camp. "I've got to really get my head together and figure out what I'm going to do and what I want to accomplish," Sanders said as he bid his baseball teammates goodbye. Meanwhile, the Redskins have their own decision to contemplate: If Sanders does show, would they keep him? Head coach Marty Schottenheimer wouldn't touch that question Friday. He said he had not heard from Sanders or Sanders' agent, Eugene Parker. Sanders has been critical of Schottenheimer and has said he doesn't want to play for the Redskins, but Schottenheimer has kept his responses muted - playing the waiting game to perfection. "Let's just wait and see what happens," Schottenheimer said, then adding with a grin: "We've waited this long." Schottenheimer has said the Redskins would be a better team with Sanders than without, but the coach also places a high value on team chemistry and puts his stars on equal footing with the bench-warmers. It's hard to imagine Sanders fitting into a system in which he gets no preferential treatment. Also, Sanders was openly disenchanted when last year didn't turn into a Super Bowl season, and it showed. While he didn't have a bad season, he admitted it wasn't up to his usual standard and perhaps not worthy of his new, $56 million contract. If Sanders does report, the Redskins could save $3.6 million under the salary cap this season by cutting him -- more than enough to sign top draft picks Rod Gardner and Fred Smoot -- but he then would count $5.7 million against the cap next season. If the Redskins kept Sanders, they would probably have to restructure more contracts or release a veteran or two to sign Gardner and Smoot. Sanders hoped the Redskins would release him in June, but then his baseball comeback fell apart when the Cincinnati Reds released him. If he had stayed in the majors, he would have been exempt from training camp because of a clause in his football contract. The clause specifies "major league baseball," so his mediocre .252 stint with the SkyChiefs of the Toronto organization became immaterial because he wasn't playing well enough to get promoted to the Blue Jays. If Sanders doesn't report Sunday, he would be in violation of his contract, and the Redskins could ask that he return $6.86 million -- a prorated portion of his $8 million signing bonus. Parker did not return calls seeking comment. Redskins players have been mystified much of the summer. "What he's planning on doing, he knows it better than we do," center Cory Raymer said. "We'll definitely welcome him back as a football player just because we know how he can help us -- as opposed to how he hurt us in the last handful of years before did come to us. Coaches, maybe they think they got something on Deion -- that's an ugly part of it. The bottom line was that Deion was trying to be a baseball player. Hard times have fallen on him playing baseball, so we'll know more on Sunday -- if he shows up or not."
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