2. Jacksonville Jaguars
Natrone Means, the 245-pound Jacksonville running back known
as the Bomb, remembers vividly when
the
bomb went off. On Feb. 29, 1996, Means, then the
23-year-old star halfback of the Chargers, thought his
career had been blown to bits. "My agent [Tank Black]
called me and said, 'I just got off the phone with [San
Diego general manager] Bobby Beathard,
and he said they're going to
release
you,'" Means recalls. "Then Coach [Bobby] Ross called,
talked to me for two minutes, said, 'Sorry, Natrone, it
just
didn't work out,' and that was it. I was in
shock."
Fearing a contract holdout for the second consecutive year
and concerned by the big back's poor conditioning, San
Diego did indeed waive the man who had run for 1,350 yards
in '94 and helped lead the Chargers to Super Bowl XXIX. The
first thought that
ran through Means's head? "Wow, what am I going to sell
first?" he says with a laugh. "I mean, I
wasn't going to be one of those guys who's out of the
league and riding around in a
Mercedes."
Eighteen months later the Jaguars are counting on Means to
drive their offense. In light of his spectacular stretch
over four games late in '96—and a preseason knee
injury suffered by quarterback Mark Brunell (untested Rob
Johnson will start at least
the first three games)—Means oddly enough looms as the
Jaguars' ticket back to the
playoffs.
When Jacksonville claimed him 11 days after his release by
San Diego, Means was somewhat apprehensive, given coach Tom
Coughlin's reputation as an uptight disciplinarian. After
all, Means's relationship with Ross, another taskmaster,
had been rocky from
the start. In November 1995 the two men had a heated
argument on the practice field, and Means stormed off. He
recalls Ross's screaming, "Natrone, if you walk off
this field, you and I have a problem." Means says he
turned and yelled, "Coach, I think
we've had a problem since the day I got
here."
Things have gone much more
smoothly with Coughlin. Says Means, "At our first
meeting, he told me, 'I'm sure you've heard all sorts of
stuff about me. It's all b.s. But I am the kind of coach
who'll tell you what to expect.' After that, we
coexisted."
Means struggled to lose weight early on, broke his thumb in
a preseason game and was beaten out by second-year back
James Stewart. With two games left in the season Means had
only 305 rushing yards. "I was like, 'Wow, maybe I was
a product of the system
in San
Diego,'" he says. "But I was getting to know the
offensive linemen, and they were getting to know
me."
Then, without warning, the Bomb went off and blew the
Jaguars all the way to the AFC title game. In the final two
weeks Means ran for 92 yards against Seattle and 110
against Atlanta. In Jacksonville's first-round playoff
victory over the Bills, he
ground out a career-high 175 yards. The next week Means ran for
140 yards as the Jaguars stunned the Broncos. Only the
Super Bowl-bound Patriots could contain Means, limiting him
to 43 yards on 19
carries.
Coughlin was equally impressed by Means's performance after
last season. Means showed up for enough of the team's
off-season workouts to avoid Coughlin's dreaded
conditioning test at the start of camp. The test requires
players to run five consecutive
120-yard sprints and keep their average time under a specific
standard for their position. "You have to keep running
it every day until you make it," Means says.
"There's no way you'll catch me running that
again."
Says Coughlin, "He's been outstanding. Once we got
Natrone's weight down into the 240-245 area, it has been
stable. That means he's starting to get a real handle on
it." The same can be said of Means's career in
general.
—Michael Silver
SCHEDULE
SKINNY
Harsh reality looms: No more fifth-place schedule and no
Mark Brunell, at least not until early October.
Jacksonville will need him back in time for a three-game
road swing that begins on Oct. 19 in Dallas and continues
with games at Pittsburgh and
Tennessee.
STRENGTH OF
SCHEDULE
NFL rank: 8 (tie)
Opponents' 1996 winning
percentage: .516
Games against playoff
teams: 6
Next team
| 
