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Super Bowl Q&A with Desmond Howard
Posted: Wednesday January 27, 1999 10:04 AM
Two years after winning the Super Bowl MVP with the Green Bay Packers, Oakland receiver/return specialist Desmond Howard stopped in on CNN/SI's Miami set to talk about the importance of the special teams. Bob Lorenz: What goes through your mind now, Desmond, when you think back to that Super Bowl MVP and all of things you accomplished in that game? Desmond Howard: It's a great memory to sit back and relish in the time that we spent. Not just that day, but that whole year, the whole season getting up to that point was so special for us. It's something that will stay etched in your memory for a lifetime. BL: Do you feel like that you heightened the awareness of the importance of a kickoff return or the specialist positions? You did that on a world stage. It's not like you did that on a Sunday afternoon in the season opener. Everybody was watching. DH: We thought that our special teams were special all year long. I think when you can make plays like, not only in the Super Bowl, but in the playoff game against San Francisco when we had two big punt returns to give us a 14-0 lead, then people start to really recognize how important special teams is to the offense. James Lofton: You talk about being that special guy, and you've tried your hand at wide receiver, but you've had your greatest success when teams let you focus on returning kicks. Now Darrien Gordon is a guy who starts all the time, he's in there every play. How difficult is it for him after three downs covering receivers to then excel at returning a punt? DH: I think it is extremely difficult. Cornerback is probably one of the most complicated positions. You have to be probably the best athletes on the field to play cornerback. Darrien does that well and then he goes back and returns punts, which is extremely difficult. I think it's hard, but he's done and the more you do it the more comfortable you get. He's used to it at this point. JL: When I talked to Darrien today, one of the things he said is he doesn't expect to get a chance to return a punt because they angle-kick toward the sidelines. If you're the special teams coach of the Falcons, would you take a chance and kick the ball down the middle to this guy? DH: I don't think so. This game is too important. Watching Atlanta's special teams, what their punter does extremely well is hang the ball up high. So it doesn't matter if he kicks it right, left or down the middle. If you can put it up there with a 5.5- or 5.6-second hang time, that is usually enough time to get your coverage team down there and the ball carrier doesn't have anywhere to go. That's the same thing the Patriots did when we were in the Super Bowl, they angled it to the sidelines. But our philosophy was as long as it was in between those white lines, we're going to return the ball. Ron Meyer: You talked about those special things for the Patriots. What did the Packers put in special for you two years ago? DH: We just went with the same game plan. If it's not broke, you don't fix it. Our philosophy was as long as they give us some opportunity to do things, we were going to make some big things happen. It was only a matter of time. We were actually surprised they did kick us the ball consistently. We led the league in all the statistics, as far as the punt return was concerned, and there was a lot hype in Super Bowl week. But they did consistently and we finally broke one in the third quarter. JL: I talked to Tim Dwight and I asked him if he would he take the ball out 8 or 9 yards deep in the end zone. He looked at me and said, "Watch on Sunday." BL: What do you think about that, Desmond? Is that a good move? DH: The one thing that says about Tim Dwight is that he has an extremely incredible amount of confidence in the blockers ahead of him. I tend to take Vaughn Hebron's philosophy. If it's deeper than 3 or 4 yards, then you stay in. That's what you are coached to do. It's just like you don't field punts inside the 10, unless you really think you can bring it out. But he's a young guy, he's a rookie. He'll learn. BL: When you look at these guys, which team do you think has the advantage in the special teams? DH: It's hard to say. Both of them have very good return man. From the maturity standpoint, I would have to give the edge to the Broncos. Vaughn Hebron has been there before and so has Gordon. Those two guys know what it takes and they won't take chances and risks before. You would hate to see Dwight take one of those risks and it turns on him.
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