St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 11

SEP 29 mi SPORTS 3C TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1992 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH FOOTBALL Low-Scoring Games Are The Norm Again This Season JIM THOMAS NFL NOTEBOOK No one has been able to outscore the Cowboys lately. They have won a league-leading eight consecutive games and their 13-3 record for the past 16 regular-season games is matched onlyby Buffalo and Washington. Philadelphia features the league's top-rated defense, and a healthy Randall Cunningham. Enough said.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Patriots (0-3) meet the New York Jets (0-4) Sunday in the Something's Got to Give Game. And how 'bout those Bucs? Tampa Bay yes, Tampa Bay could go 4-1 if it beats visiting Indianapolis on Sunday. Seems Like Old Times: It used to be that Chicago's Neal Anderson and Brad Muster were considered one of the best backfield tandems in the NFL. Until last year, however, when both players were injury-plagued and saw their production dip. But Sunday's 41-31 victory over Atlanta was a flashback to days gone by.

Anderson and Muster combined for 301 rushing-receiving yards and three touchdowns. "It was just a phenomenal effort by those guys," Bears quarterback Jim Harbaugh said. "Brad had a great day," Anderson said. "He's too modest. I told him on the sideline he (48 catches for 569 yards last season).

Or a wide receiver like Cleveland's Webster Slaughter (64 for 906). Both were declared free agents last week by a federal judge in Minneapolis. Quick, Vice President Dan Quayle. Can you spell collusion? On Tap: Only four teams remain unbeaten after the Pittsburgh Steelers' loss to the Green Bay Packers. And all four meet this week.

Miami (3-0) will play at Buffalo (4-0) in an AFC, East battle Sunday, and Dallas (3-0) will play at Philadelphia (3-0) in an NFC East showdown Monday night. Never mind the self-destruction act at the Super Bowl, or the departure of offensive coordinator Ted "No Huddle" Marchibroda. The Bills look stronger than ever, thanks to a revived defense. The Dolphins are off to their best start since their 1984 Super Bowl year. Defense has held them back since then, but they appear to be making strides.

One reason is fiery linebacker Bryan Cox of East St. Louis (five sacks, three forced fumbles, one interception). Meanwhile, the only thing to slow the Cowboys and the Eagles this season was Sunday's bye week in the NFC East. had a great day, and he said, 'Ah, it was That's the way he is." Dan The Man: Dan Marino has thrown 270 touchdown passes in his career, but Sunday's game-winner at Seattle was his first in the Kingdome. Marino has thrown TD passes in 28 stadiums some of which either are no longer in existence or are no longer home to an NFL club.

Marino has yet to throw a TD pass in three stadiums: the Metrodome in Minneapolis, Sun Devil in Phoenix and the new Georgia Dome in Atlanta. He has yet to play in any of those venues. Around The League: After an 11-point performance against Atlanta, Chicago place-kicker Kevin Butler has tied Walter Payton's club scoring record with 750 points. "Which is pretty significant," Bears coach Mike Ditka said. "For one thing, it means he did score a lot of points when you consider all the people that played here over the years.

And the other thing is that he lasted a lot longer than most coaches do." Atlanta was one of the NFL's Cinderella teams in '9 1 but the Falcons now 1 -3 look more like pumpkins this year. punts, two on kickoffs and one apiece on a blocked field goal and blocked punt. We point the finger of blame at the once wide-open American Football Conference. The Seattle Seahawks (9.3), Indianapolis Colts (8.0), San Diego Chargers (7.3) and New England Patriots (4.3) all are averaging fewer than 10 points a game. In fact, the Colts, Chargers and Patriots are on pace to break Indy's NFL record for fewest points in a 16-game season (143) set last year by the Colts.

To the Chargers and Seahawks we say: Get a quarterback. To the Colts: Get Jeff George healthy. To the Patriots: Thanks, anyway guys. Never mind that move to St. Louis.

We'll take our chances on an expansion team, even if we have to wait until the 21st century. Item: Buffalo Bills safety Henry Jones has scored as many touchdowns this season two as the Patriots. We'd be remiss if we didn't bring the Denver Broncos into this discussion. The Broncos, with John Elway at quarterback, have gone nine consecutive quarters without a touchdown. Of course, none of these teams could use a tight end such as Philadelphia's Keith Jackson Remember all the hubbub last season over low-scoring games In the National Football League? Well, scoreboards aren't short-circuiting due to overwork this season, either.

After four weeks of play last year, an average of 37.75 points had been scored per game. That's fewer than 19 per team. After four weeks of play this season, the average is 37.61 points per game. Still fewer than 19 per team. Not the most exciting brand of football, unless you like watching David Treadwell or Pete Stoyanovich kick field goals.

Each had four Sunday. This season's numbers would be worse if it weren't for the unprecedented flurry of touchdowns by return. Before Monday night's Kansas City Chiefs-Los Angeles Raiders game, 29 TDs had been scored by return: 1 1 on fumble recoveries, eight on interceptions, six on Struggle For Power Stalls NFL Expansion Keen Outlook WU Twins Are Inseparable, And Share Common Goals EDWARD H. yjfl rcOHN THE BUSINESS AJA of sports r' ff A i fff-J I 3 fit 1frt (7 If I f-'jjf I A Jk pounds, is an inch taller and 22 pounds heavier, although you never could have proved that by Bears coach Larry Kindbom one day last spring. John walked into the football office sporting a haircut exactly like Aaron's.

Kindbom greeted him by saying, "Aaron, what's up?" John kept a straight face while Kindbom rambled on, thinking he was talking to Aaron. By all appearances, Aaron and John are two peas in a pod. They are identical twins, born 3 minutes apart on June 27, 1972, in Cheyenne, who insist they want their own identity. But even their dad finds that hard to believe when they go their separate ways and, like a moth drawn to a flame, keep coming back. "I don't know if they realize how much they rely on each other," Jim said.

"They fight like cats and dogs. They'll have a knockdown, dragout argument in the afternoon, then go out with one another that night." Aaron said: "My parents think we fight because we have trouble accepting the fact that we're so much alike we can't stand it. It's probably the truth." Birthdays and Christmas, John said, are toughest on twins. "It's always a race to see which of us can open the box first," he said. "If the gifts are in boxes the same size and wrapped the same, there's no surprise if you open yours second.

If I let Aaron open his first, I know what I'll be getting. Same thing, but in a different color." Clearly, each had his own identity at Cheyenne East High, where John was an all-state defensive end and the state heavyweight wrestling champion and Aaron was known more for academics than athletics. Aaron was the valedictorian of a senior class of 400, but acknowledges he would rather have shared the spotlight with John. "I was jealous," Aaron said. "I remember being frustrated with athletics in high school." They played football for two years for their dad until he was forced to resign as the East coach after their junior season because of a losing record.

That Aaron and John would pursue football was natural. Jim's father, Allen "The Rabbit" Keen, a halfback who ran 9.7 seconds for 100 By Dave Dorr Of the Post-Dispatch Staff What do Washington University quarterback Aaron Keen and his twin brother, John, a tight end, see in each other's eyes when they exchange glances in the huddle? The color blue. And the pizza delivery boy, what does he say when the front door opens at the Phi Delta Theta fraternity house on the school's campus? "Medium pepperoni for Keen. Medium pepperoni for Keen." What did Case Western Reserve coach Ron Stuckey tell an assistant when he looked up just in time to see a Keen-to-Keen pass for 18 yards take the Bears to the Case Western 20 late in the fourth quarter of a 21-9 WU victory? "Hey, that's Keen." Never mind how the twins found their way from Cheyenne, to The Hilltop. The question the Keens most often are asked is why they thought it necessary to attend the same college? And why did they decide to select the same major (history), which has meant that in their three years at WU they have wound up in many of the same classes? Sitting next to each other, of course.

They studied together as freshmen, which was not out of the ordinary for two guys who double-dated in high school. They shared a Toyota pickup during high school and share a car now, a red Ford Probe. They roomed together as sophomores last year in order to give their parents, Anita, an elementary school teacher, and Jim Keen, a high school football and track coach, a break in the hefty tuition costs at WU. Music? Aaron and John have similar, wide-ranging tastes. Everything from country to hard rock.

Even on the football field, they are as one: Keen-to-Keen. Twenty-two of the 24 career receptions John has at WU came on passes thrown by Aaron. John already has his life planned. "Teach and coach football," he said. "I felt sorry for other kids who didn't have a football coach for a dad.

We grew up around football. I love it." And Aaron? "Teach and coach football," he said. Wait a minute. Isn't anything different between these two? Well, yes. Aaron is the fastidious one, from schoolwork to clothes to pass patterns.

John, at 6 feet 2 and 224 Karen ElshoutPost-Dispatch Twins Aaron (left) and John Keen are alike in everything but size. They are a pass-and-catch combo for Washington University, Aaron as the quarterback and John at tight end. just figuring out that the NFL's draft violates antitrust laws and they're going to get hammered for it. The owners probably have three options: Change the draft, pay damages, or both. 2.

The owners have been unable to reach a collective bargaining agreement, a sort of master basic contract, with their players. In spite of that, or perhaps because of it, the remnants of the NFL Players Association has succeeded in nibbling the owners nearly to death. The owners have said time and time again that they won't allow the NFL to expand until a collective bargaining agreement is signed. But their argument is hollow, because the NFL expanded in 1976 without an agreement. 3.

Remember the first discussions of expansion? Expansion was linked to realignment an issue on which the owners are hopelessly divided. It may not make much sense for Phoenix to play in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference, but who'd want to give up the payday when the Cardinals visit the Meadowlands to play the New York Giants? 4. Tied into the issue of realignment is the sticky wicket of television. Although the TV networks rarely agree with one another about anything, and still more rarely agree with the cable industry, they all concede that they struck a very bad deal with the NFL. And they're all concerned about realignment, since all networks want the large (i.e., New York) markets rather than the small (i.e., Buffalo, N.Y.) markets.

While sports generally and football specifically are important to cable and television for ratings purposes, network sources say there's no way they'll match, much less exceed, the current contract when it expires in 1994. These sources suggest and mind you, this may amount to little more than a negotiating position that they'll be aiming to cut the fees by 35 to 45 percent. That could reduce the yearly TV payment to each team by as much as $18 million. Even at today's inflated player salaries, 18 million or even half that sum goes a long way. None of these issues will be settled any time soon, and all are likely to draw more immediate attention than expansion.

After all, adding teams to the league would further dilute the pot of TV money. If an owner is breaking even or losing money which the league claims is the case for more than half the clubs why would he want to add to his financial woes? The simple answer is that no rational owner would opt for expansion in the foreseeable future. And that's why, unless the St. Louis NFL Partnership is willing to incur the NFL's wrath by moving the New England Patriots to Cervantes, pro football here will remain an object of intense fascination and speculation but little more. Is football expansion dead? Some people with a direct interest in National Football League expansion and perhaps with "inside" information say it's alive and well, albeit on a slow track.

But the stronger argument, one that most fans don't want to hear, is that NFL expansion has been placed in the deep freeze. This is no slam at St. Louis, area football fans, the stadium expansion of Cervantes Convention Center or the St. Louis NFL Partnership, which has waged a relentless and costly drive to win an expansion team to play here. Rather, it's a recognition that the business side of the sports world has changed dramatically since Bill Bid-will moved his Cardinals to Phoenix and St.

Louis entered the expansion derby. In the late 1980s, new stadiums tricked out with skyboxes, club seats and private lounges seemed to hold the keys to the NFL kingdom. Now it takes much more, and no city is in a position to offer, much less deliver, what the NFL wants which, for starters, is exemption from federal antitrust laws. Contrary to popular perception, money isn't the main issue; power is. Of course, the NFL isn't about to admit that pigs will fly before it adds teams.

The expansion derby is a terrific publicity device, one that guarantees extraordinary interest in the league's most minute details by fans in the contending cities. This type and depth of publicity simply cannot be bought. Why such a bleak outlook for expansion? 1 The NFL has been unable to gain an exemption from antitrust laws, and no serious move is afoot in Congress to provide relief. Despite the fog being thrown up by the league's lawyers and former lawyers (including Commissioner Paul Tagliabue), the NFL's owners finally realize they have serious legal problems with both their veteran players and prospective players who would enter the NFL through the draft. Just as the baseball owners have had to pay and pay and pay as a result of adverse rulings in free-agent arbitrations, the football owners are going to end up shelling out big bucks to their players, particularly the.

veterans. The so-called "Plan free agency a misnomer if ever there was one will be replaced by "Plan "Plan "Plan and so forth, until the owners finally put in a plan that passes legal muster. In the meantime, the owners probably will have the privilege of paying damages each year. At the same time, the owners are the team's No. 1 conditioned player, based on a series of fitness tests, and owns a grade-point average of 3.53 on a 4-point scale.

"Aaron puts everything he has into everything," Kindbom said. "He's very intense. John is too, but in a different way." John has become one of the few college players at any level this season to go two ways, at tight end and defensive end. With six catches for 87 yards and 31 tackles, including a pass deflection and two sacks, he's having his best season. It's defense, not offense, that is his favorite and he says when Kindbom him about going both ways, "I was thrilled.

I love the attitude you can have when you play defense." The twins insist they will follow separate paths after they leave WU, but you never know. Being the older by 3 minutes, Aaron says what probably will happen is that he'll become a head coach and hire John as his assistant. yards, played at the University of Arkansas and was a member of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1937 and 1938. Jim was a quarterback at Wyandotte High in Kansas City, and a starting cornerback in 1968 and '69 at the University of Wyoming. Kindbom was recruiting Aaron because of his top grades when he discovered John.

It led to a drive to St. Louis by Jim and the twins for a visit to WU after a track meet at Casper, with a stop at the Warrensburg, home of Stan and Dorothy Rundquist, the twins' grandparents. The twins toured the campus. Both made up their minds WU was it and gave Kindbom the word before returning to Cheyenne. Ever the achiever, it was Aaron who in college grabbed the place in the spotlight he didn't enjoy in high school, even surpassing the notoriety accorded John.

Aaron began his college career fourth among five quarterbacks as a freshman. Last season, he started the final six games. He is Hard-Working Gallon All The Way Back For K-State VAHE GREGORIAN BIG EIGHT NOTEBOOK sive tackle Tony Williams, from Riv-erview Gardens High. After halftime, Williams said, "We realized they weren't everything they were cracked up to be. I can honestly say I went out thinking of stats: tackles, sacks, that kind of thing." Tulsa Time: Nor did the Tulsa Golden Hurricane, which won 10 games and earned a bowl berth last season, earn notoriety in its 24-19 loss to Oklahoma State.

"At one point, I didn't think they could run it or pass it or throw it or kick it or anything without us taking advantage of it," Cowboys coach Pat Jones said. "I thought we were going to slaughter them, and we probably should have." and he couldn't believe it," Gallon said. "And then I went to his office on May 29 without a brace, and he was getting everybody from around his office and saying, 'Look at this That's what K-State opponents are saying now. Gallon, still tentative during training camp, not only has returned but is thriving. He leads the Big Eight in rushing with an average of 110.5 yards a game, and his knee has shown no adverse reactions after games.

Shirley Temple: The Wildcats led Temple 28-0 in the first half Saturday, and some weren't impressed. "Everybody had been saying how tough Temple is, how rugged and rough they are," said K-State defen NFL NOTEBOOK 'Huskers Turn In Cowboys Scout Stull Closes MU's Practices For Marshall Not that the Cowboys, who managed nine first downs to Tulsa's 23 and scored their three touchdowns on two interceptions and a blocked punt, were elegant. "Who didn't it appear pretty to?" Jones joked. Playing It Koy: Freshman quarterback Koy Detmer, brother of former Heisman Trophy winner Ty Detmer, again was the catalyst for the lOth-ranked Colorado Buffaloes. The Buffs, who called on Detmer to rally them against Minnesota the previous week, turned to him in the second half of Saturday's game with Iowa.

Detmer responded with three touchdown passes to boost CU to a 28-12 victory. The scrawny Detmer was to be red-shirted. But when sophomore starter Kordell Stewart was hurt, Detmer became the alternative when junior Duke Tobin couldn't move the team against the Gophers. Stewart returned against Iowa but still was bothered by a foot injury and suggested to coach Bill McCartney that he insert Detmer, whom McCartney cherishes for his instincts. "You can't weigh and measure that," McCartney said.

Stewart remains the starter, though. Cy-clowns: Despite a week of "preaching and screaming" from coach Jim Walden, Iowa State apparently had little regard Saturday for NCAA Division I-AA Northern Iowa. The Cyclones lost 27-10. "Some of the guys didn't think they had to play too hard to beat this team," kick-returner James Brooks said. "Coach kept telling us all week this was a good team.

But some of our players fook it for granted." After Kansas State tailback Eric Gallon crumpled with a pulverized knee last spring, he was inconsolable. Gallon, who in 1991 became just the third K-State player to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season, had suffered a torn ligament. Such injuries normally require six to nine months for recovery. "He felt that everything dear to him was taken away," K-State coach Bill Snyder said. "To him, it felt like he had lost a family member.

He was just trying to run away from it all." Overwhelmed with emotion, the gimpy Gallon immediately packed his truck and planned to drive home to Florida. "I told them it's over with, I'm over with," said Gallon, the Big Eight Conference offensive player of the week. Snyder, hearing of Gallon's plans, dashed from practice and caught Gallon as he was leaving the parking lot. "I turned up my radio, because I didn't want to hear him," Gallon said. "But then he kept yelling, 'Eric, Eric' I had my radio blasting.

But then I let him in. We talked for I'd say 30 minutes. And I was crying." But he stayed. Two weeks later, he was bending his knee to a 90-degree angle something he wasn't expected to do for two months. Gallon, who zealously rehabilitated, did not wear a brace when he went to the doctor six weeks later.

tell the doctor what I was doing, Nebraska coach Tom Osborne reported Lacewell's actions to the College Football Association, which filed a protest with the National Football League. Veris Cashes In On Freedom Former New England defensive end Garin Veris signed a two-year contract with the San Francisco 49ers, becoming the first of four former holdouts to take advantage of their court-ordered free agency. The ruling that gave the four players Veris, Keith Jackson, Webster Slaughter and D.J. Dozier their freedom had come in the aftermath of a federal court striking down the NFL's Plan system. "I just felt the Patriots had a grasp on me and that I couldn't go any where," Veris said.

"The court was the only way I could win my free agency." Veris will receive a pro-rated salary of $650,000 for this season and $730,000 in the second year, plus incentives. New England's best offer was $525,000 for the first year and $575,000 for the second. Meanwhile, the Miami Dolphins made a contract offer to Jackson. By The Associated Press IRVING, Texas A scout for the Dallas Cowboys has acknowledged he tried to circumvent new scouting restrictions imposed by some college programs by offering to buy videotapes from an unidentified assistant coach at the University of Nebraska. The scout is Larry Lacewell, formerly head coach and athletic director at Arkansas State.

"I was wrong I didn't think it was that big of a deal. Maybe it is," said Lacewell, first year director of college scouting for the Cowboys. "I simply called there to find out when we could visit and in the course of a conversation with this assistant coach whom I obviously don't know very well he expressed the fact other teams had tried to get film from them," Lacewell told The Dallas Morning News. "There appeared to be other teams trying to get tapes, so ignorantly or innocently I said, 'Well, if they're buying tapes count us in, Lacewell denied a CBS-TV report that he offered $200 for the videotapes, insisting no specific financial arrangements were discussed. By Vahe Gregorian Ot the Post-Dispatch Staff With his team 0-3 after Saturday's 20-10 loss at Indiana, Missouri football coach Bob Stull is Marshall-ing forces this week.

Stull is closing practice sessions as Mizzou prepares for the Marshall Thundering Herd, ranked No. 1 in NCAA Division I-AA and coached by former MU assistant Jim Donnan. Former MU assistant Tim Billings is on Donnan's staff, and Stull is fretting about leaks. "They have a lot of friends around," said Stull, who noted that someone had called Illinois with information before the opener. "We kind of wanted to close ranks and regather, pull out all the distractions." Mizzou had tried to move the game with Marshall, which falls just five days before MU's Thursday, Oct.

8, game with No. 10 Colorado. The Buffaloes will be idle Saturday. "It wasn't whether to play Marshall, it was whether we could get Marshall from this spot to the beginning of the season," Stull said. "We tried all the different possibilities.

We didn't like the back-to-back situation." Neither did Kansas coach Glen Mason, whose Jayhawks encountered the same situation last week in their game with California. The Golden Bears had Jieen off the previous Saturday, while the Jayhawks had to contend with Tulsa. Cal beat Kansas 27-23. Missouri "will be at a definite disadvantage," Mason said. With Marshall looming, though, Stull said the Tigers can't afford to dwell on the Colorado game..