Carolina quarterback Jake Delhomme is the fourth Super Bowl starter in five years out of NFL Europe, following Tampa Bay’s Brad Johnson and St. Louis’ Kurt Warner twice. So it’s time to take another look at last year’s top NFL Europe passers.
Bears fans will be discouraged to know it wasn’t Henry Burris and even more depressed to discover it was Craig Nall. Why? Nall plays for the Green Bay Packers, of course. He’s the third-stringer behind Brett Favre and Doug Pederson.
So just as the rest of the league anticipates the retirement of Favre, there sits Nall. Burris also is a former Packer, but the Bears signed the wrong one. He’s out of the NFL. If Favre sticks around too long, Nall could follow the same career path of Mark Brunell, Aaron Brooks and Matt Hasselbeck–off Green Bay’s bench to stardom elsewhere.
Shaun Hill, a Minnesota Vikings quarterback, was the third-leading passer behind Phil Stambaugh, who was not affiliated with an NFL team at the time.
Big Thunder recalled: The NFL Players Association is reserving comment on the pending lawsuit by former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett to enter the draft earlier than established guidelines allow. But executive director Gene Upshaw, a Hall of Fame guard, is on record as saying, “I believe a kid 18 years old is not ready to play in the NFL.”
The arbitrary rule states a player cannot become eligible for the draft until three years after his high school class graduates. Clarett’s class will have been out for only two years.
Upshaw cites the example of former Bears running back Andy Livingston, a 6-foot-1-inch, 235-pounder signed out of Phoenix Junior College in 1964 when he was only 20.
“George Halas took advantage of him,” Upshaw said.
Ex-Bears coach Jim Dooley disputed that, insisting Halas always encouraged players to finish school. But Dooley recalled Livingston as a special case who was immature.
Teamed with 1965 rookie Gale Sayers, Livingston gained 365 yards and flashed such potential the Bears had visions of another Jim Brown. But he got hurt, gained only 66 yards in the next two seasons and finished his career in New Orleans in 1969 with his best season, 761 yards.
Livingston, who ate himself out of the league, never got his physical and mental maturity to coincide.
“I never saw anything like it,” Dooley said. “Tremendous speed and 250 pounds, but he didn’t know which way he was going.”
Degrees desired: The union encourages players to stay in college. Besides the obvious advantage of providing a free minor league that cultivates ready-made stars, the union is promoting data that indicates a correlation between team success and the number of players on the team with degrees.
The Panthers have the highest number of players with degrees, 42. The Indianapolis Colts are second with 37. and the Patriots are third with 35.
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Brady bunch: Drew Henson, the ex-Michigan quarterback who shared time with New England’s Tom Brady, is property of the Houston Texans, who drafted him last year in anticipation of him ending his baseball fling with the Yankees. The Texans expect to draw heavy trade interest before this draft. Henson is working out this off-season as a future quarterback, not a third baseman.
Brady said Henson’s arrival at Michigan in Brady’s fourth season continued the pattern of intense competition that nearly caused Brady to quit on coach Lloyd Carr earlier in his career. Brian Griese and Scott Dreisbach also were at the cradle of quarterbacks at the same time.
“Competing on the practice field was almost tougher than it was on the game field because you always put so much pressure on yourself,” Brady said. “That type of competition has really served me well. I went into coach Carr and said, `Coach, you’re not giving me a fair shake. I’m the best quarterback you have,’ and he said, `Why don’t you quit worrying about everyone else, quit worrying about Drew, quit worrying about the weather, quit worrying about a bad call, and go out and do the best you can do?'”
Labor peace: Upshaw said negotiations for a collective-bargaining extension will start in the spring even though the current contract doesn’t expire until 2007. That will give the league added ammunition in negotiating its next television contract starting in 2006, assuring no labor interruption.
Upshaw said the average salary, including benefits, for a player has grown to $1.6 million.
Averages for the top 10 players at each position show quarterbacks still leading at $9.95 million, followed by wide receivers at $7.2 million and offensive linemen at $7 million. On defense, cornerbacks have overtaken defensive ends, $6.8 million to $6.5 million.
Five Bears made top 10 lists. Phillip Daniels was No. 5 among defensive ends, Brian Urlacher No. 4 and Warrick Holdman No. 9 among linebackers, Desmond Clark No. 6 among tight ends and Paul Edinger No. 3 among kickers.
Drugs and supplements: The union has enlisted NSF International, a certification company for public health and safety programs, to certify contents of so-called nutritional supplements. Previously unregulated, some supplements have included banned substances contrary to labeling, which have resulted in player suspensions.
“We’re not encouraging supplements. We’re not saying they work,” Upshaw said. “If players take those products, they can be sure no banned substances are in them.”
Ex-Bear Trace Armstrong, the union president, took exception to President Bush’s State of the Union remarks urging sports to get tougher on regulating steroids. The NFL already has a zero-tolerance policy and tests 100 percent of its players.
“We feel we’ve set an example for others to follow and haven’t been recognized for it,” Armstrong said. “In some cases some people chastise us: `You have a strong drug policy, so you’re not a very strong union.’ We take the approach that doing this is what’s best for players in the long run.”
Pioneer union: The Field Generals, an African-American quarterback club, established itself during Super Bowl week to provide leadership, encouragement and historic perspective to aspiring quarterbacks as well as camaraderie for pioneers.
“It’s a story we didn’t necessarily ask for but was brought about because we are minorities and are always asked about being black quarterbacks coming up in different eras,” said Warren Moon, one of the founding members along with ex-Bear Vince Evans, Doug Williams, James Harris, Randall Cunningham and Marlin Briscoe.
The real star: Even though half the United States plus 266 other countries will watch and listen to the Super Bowl, Carolina defensive end Mike Rucker doesn’t believe the Panthers are more popular than pro wrestler Ric Flair in his hometown of Charlotte.
“No way,” Rucker said. “Rick is an icon, not only in Charlotte but all the way across the world. No way you can get bigger than Rick, especially in this city.”
Added teammate Brentson Buckner: “We might get to hang out with him a little bit. We won’t become as big, but we will be on the `A’ list when it comes to parties.”