The Nfl

Starting Over
A nightmare '97 behind him, Carolina's Kerry Collins is working to regain his Pro Bowl form

Kerry Collins's plan was simple: He would transform himself from Joe Quarterback into a regular Joe. He would pack four pairs of pants, a few shirts and sweaters, and only whatever else was essential into an oversized backpack. Fie would fly to Copenhagen, take a train to Stockholm, then go on to Berlin, Prague, Budapest and wherever. He would stay in youth hostels. At many stops he wouldn't be able to speak the language, but that was O.K. When anybody asked, he would say he was traveling abroad after grad school.

That's exactly how his eight weeks of European travel, from late January until mid-March, worked out. "You know how great it was?" Collins, the embattled fourth-year Panthers quarterback said last week at the team's training camp in Spartanburg, S.C. "A couple of times I got to be friendly with people. I told them I was an NFL quarterback, and they were like, 'What's that?' "

What makes a high-profile athlete want to blend into the scenery? For Collins, it was the desire to put behind him as bad a season as any NFL quarterback has had of late. To recap: On the final day of last year's training camp, Collins reportedly directed racial slurs at two teammates. Shortly thereafter, it was reported that other Carolina players said he partied too much. In a preseason game his jaw was shattered on a vicious hit by Broncos linebacker Bill Romanowski, and Collins missed the first two regular-season games. He never regained the form he exhibited in steering the Panthers to the '96 NFC Championship Game. He threw 21 interceptions and only 11 touchdown passes and wound up as the lowest-rated quarterback in the league.

Then, a month after the season, Collins learned that because of his poor performance the team would not be paying him the $6 million bonus that would have activated the final three years of his contract. As a result Collins became a restricted free agent. He received little interest from other teams around the league, and the Panthers were able to retain him with a one-year, $1.15 million deal.

Collins won't discuss the racial allegations, but he and coach Dom Capers think the broken jaw was the biggest factor in his disappointing season anyway. "When I got hit," Collins says, "it felt like my face exploded." Four titanium plates were inserted into his jaw, which was broken in two places. By the time he returned to action five weeks later, he had lost 12 pounds—and become gun-shy.

"I don't think Kerry ever got his confidence back to where he could stand in there like he always had," Capers says.

Collins agrees. "I was a prototype pocket guy who could take any hit, and now I'd watch film of myself and think, Who the heck is that guy?" he recalls. "That was a devastating injury. I didn't feel human until all the metal came out two months ago."

At 6'5" and 243 pounds, Collins is hardly someone you expect to see directing the West Coast offense, yet in the off-season Capers imported Packers receivers coach Gil Haskell to be his offensive coordinator. Not long after spending St. Patrick's Day in Dublin, Collins was in Haskell's office, introducing himself. He has been a frequent visitor since.

Collins says that the European vacation was just the break he needed and he's ready to get back to being Joe Quarterback—and enjoying the nightlife. "I won't live in a bubble," he says. "I'm 25. I'm single. I like to go out, and I will go out."