Chargers talk to Boomer about return
Posted: Monday February 01, 1999 01:18 PM
Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King checked in with CNN/SI anchor Bob Lorenz from Miami's Pro Player Stadium on Sunday morning to talk about the latest news around the NFL and leading up to Super Bowl XXXIII.
Bob Lorenz: Peter, before we get to the Super Bowl, what about the off-season? Any interesting moves in the works right now?
Peter King: Well, right now I think probably the most interesting thing to watch both in the ABC Monday Night Football booth and in the quarterback front is if Boomer Esiason comes back to football. I talked to him on Friday he said he talked to a team -- he wouldn't tell me which one -- I found out independently it is the San Diego Chargers who talked to both Boomer Esiason and Mark Rypien about coming in and being a mentor for the young Ryan Leaf.
Now let's move to Minnesota, where Brad Johnson is clearly the most valuable quarterback available in trade this off-season. I talked to Minnesota executive Jeff Diamond last night and he said, "Hey, it's going to take more than a first and third draft pick to get Brad Johnson." That's going to put a crimp in the Baltimore Ravens plans because that's as high as the Ravens want to go for Brad Johnson.
Finally a note about Deion Sanders. Now there is a rumor sweeping some areas of South Florida and the corporate community in New York that Sanders is interested in returning to baseball, perhaps full-time. I got his agent on the phone last night, and Eugene Parker said it is total bunk. Deion Sanders is not going back to baseball, and in fact is going to start to negotiate with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on a long-term contract for Deion. He said "don't worry about Deion going to baseball. He is playing football."
BL: Peter, tell us what happened during the Hall of Fame voting for Lawrence Taylor on Saturday. was it as spirited as expected?
PK: Well, Bob, I am one of the 36 selectors for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and I call yesterday's meeting contentious but not quite angry. At least seven of my colleagues voted against Lawrence Taylor for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame because of his checkered past, but I think the reason why at least 28 of us voted for him is a very simple reason. We are told in that meeting that nothing off the field can have bearing on whether a guy gets into the Hall of Fame.
One other note -- we did talk yesterday and turned down the prospect of inserting a morals clause into the bylaws of Hall of Fame so nothing is going to be different if guys with checkered pasts come up in the future.
BL: Peter, what is the buzz you've heard about with everything that has happened with Falcons cornerback Eugene Robinson?
PK: Well, Bob, how ironic it is that 10 years ago in this very town Stanley Wilson of the Bengals went on a cocaine binge and missed the Super Bowl. The one difference here is that Eugene Robinson will almost certainly play at 6:30 tonight when Super Bowl XXXIII kicks off. The other irony in this situation is that the Atlanta Falcons are one of three NFL teams not to require their players to do team meetings the night before the game when it is considered a home game or a road game, and so I'm sure that Dan Reeves is having a lot of second thoughts and probably wishes he had some team meetings last night, Bob.
BL: Peter, there's been some pretty good and entertaining trash-talking between Shannon Sharpe and Ray Buchanan, but the expected soap opera between Elway, Shanahan and Reeves never came up this week.
PK: No it didn't. Both of those guys did a really good job, along with John Elway, of totally putting that on the back burner. I sat down with Mike Shanahan yesterday and we were talking about the weekend and he said, "Hey, it is not going to be any problem for me in the hours leading up to the game. I'm probably going to gather my family in our hotel room and maybe watch 'White Men Can't Jump' because that's what we watched last year."
You know the very hard feelings of Dan Reeves are never going to go away with Mike Shanahan but that is not what he has to be worried about today, tomorrow and early in the off-season. It is the Elway question; Shannon Sharpe said this week that last year, after the Super Bowl, John Elway told him in the shower, "Hey, listen. Don't say anything, but I am coming back." Sharpe joked "if you guys want to know something, ask me about 11 o'clock tonight."
BL: Peter, you had a chance to speak to Falcons quarterback Chris Chandler this week. How is he feeling?
PK: Well, I think there is no question that Chris Chandler is expecting a heavy, heavy dose of the blitz. Last year looking at the Super Bowl Brett Favre was blitzed on about 60 percent of his pass drops, and I think Chris Chandler this week is expecting clearly the same thing. On Wednesday in practice the Falcons worked for two hours on blitz pick-up, and Thursday more than half of their practice focused on blitz pickup. There is no question in my mind that Chris Chandler believes that Steve Atwater and his buddies are going to throw the kitchen sink at him today, Bob.
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