Hartford Courant du lieu suivant : Hartford, Connecticut • 22

Wist Eb. 1 2 THE HARTFORD COURANT: Sunday, Augutf 10. 1986 (lame Has Changed, Falcon in Middle Hasn't GregGarber Pro Football 'it SUWANEE, Ga. There are only two Atlanta Falcons da vers left NFL CAREER GAMES Player Pos. Games George Blanda OB-K 340 Jim Marshall DE 282 Earl Morral QB 255 Jan Stenerud 263 Fran Tarkenton QB 246 Ed White 241 Ron McDote DT 240 Mk Tingelhoff 240 JimBakken 234 Jeff Van Note 230 Jim Turner 228 from the 1978 college draft.

Tackle 1 wr i TA OLDEST ACTIVE PLAYERS itenn ana saieiy lom rriae- more, both 30, seem almost ancient by NFL standards. This will be their ninth professional season. Still, every team has a Mike Kenn or a Tom Pridemore. But no one has a Jeff Van Note. He was drafted by Atlanta in 1969, in the 11th round out of Kentucky.

He's there in the Falcons' 1969 media guide, listed between running back Jeff Stanciel and defensive end Denver Samples. Samples never made the team and Stanciel lasted only one year. Van Note, six months past 40, is working on his 18th season. He is the NFL's oldest player. And this is no 160-pound place-kicker who starts running the other way when the big people take the field.

Jeff Van Note is a 6-foot-2, 270-pound center who has made a career deftly steering and sometimes hat out blasting opponents aside for a role call of running backs from Team Atlanta San Diego Raiders Washington Raiders Cincinnati Player Age Jeff Van Note 40 Charlie Joiner 38 Jim Ptunkett 38 Mark Moseley 38 Oi Branch 37 Ken Anderson 37 "Jim Butler to Dave Hampton to Heisman Trophy winner, but he also owed the Navy five years of his valuable time. In 1969, Staubach joined the Cowboys and eventually became the greatest player in franchise history. The seventh-round pick in 1964 was someone named Bob Hayes. He might have been a first-rounder, but Hayes made it obvious the Olympics were more important After winning a gold medal, Hayes arrived in 1965 and later evolved into the league's most-feared receiver. In 1973, Dallas tried to do it again.

The Cowboys claimed that defensive end Ed Jones had used up his eligibility at Tennessee State. They were set to draft him a year early on those grounds, but the commissioner's office wouldn't allow it Fans of those 27 delinquent teams are wishing it had happened again in 1985. These are busy times for successful agents. Peter Johnson, an agent for the International Management Group, had this schedule last week: Saturday, Aug. 2 Johnson drives from his home in Cleveland to Canton, Ohio, where he negotiates a contract for the Patriots' second-round choice, Mike Ruth, the nose tackle from Boston College.

Johnson drives back to Cleveland after the Hall of Fame Game. Sunday, Aug. 3 Johnson meets with Giants General Manager George Young for five hours in his home. They discuss the contract for first-round choice Eric Dorsey, a defensive end from Notre Dame. Monday, Aug.

4 Johnson entertains Taylor Smith and Tom Braatz of the Atlanta Falcons in his office. They discuss a future contract for running back Gerald Riggs. Riggs, the NFC's leading rusher in 1985, is holding out. Tuesday, Aug. 5 Johnson flies to New Jersey and meets with Walker.

In the wake of the USFL's Monday demise, the running back is considering jumping to the NFL. Wednesday, Aug. 6 After attending a 90-minute meeting at which Trump promises to release Walker from his long-term contract, Johnson flies to Atlanta. Before the Giants-Falcons preseason game, he meets for two hours with Young. Later that night, Johnson watches the game on tape-delay at Riggs' home.

They discuss the Falcons' most recent offer. Thursday, Aug. 7 Johnson flies back to New York and attends a news conference with Walker. Yes, Johnson says, Walker will now negotiate with Dallas. Later, Johnson flies to Cleveland.

At about 10:30 p.m., he reaches Young at a pay phone in Suwanee, Ga. They close the Dorsey deal. The rookie will receive 11.375 million for four years. Friday, Aug. 8 Johnson arrives at his office and spends the morning answering three weeks of phone just have a good approach to my work, day in, day out" In January, Van Note sat down with Henning, just as he had the previous two years, to discuss the future.

"There's no sense in attempting it if there's no opportunity," Van Note says. "But Dan encouraged me to do it again." And so the six-time Pro Bowler suffers through two-a-day practices again, sweats as much as the rookies do. Van Note has changed over the years his muscles aren't wound as tightly as they used to be, but he's 95 pounds heavier than the 175-pound running back who entered Kentucky in 1966. He bench-presses 450 pounds, about 100 more than he could as a Huntsville (Ala.) rookie in the Continental League, the year before he stuck with the Falcons. Van Note isn't as fast as he was when the Huntsville equipment man would throw the team's few athletic supporters on the locker room floor and incite mayhem.

But who is? "It's not the same," Van Note says. "Not even close. The specialization we're all being fit into compartments. There aren't as many characters; there's a more homogenous blend of people. We work out year-round now.

The stars used to report to training camp out of shape. You can't do that now. "They test you now. 'How strong are you today? OK, let's see what you can do two months Everyone is scrutinized more closely. "You miss things.

Like the shoulder block. The shoulder block was an art and now you just don't see it anymore. Now, we're all padded up, with gloves on our hands, pads on our arms. We're like gladiators. I'm a head blocker now.

I block with my head. They've protected me enough so I can throw it in front of people imagine that! "That would explain the brain damage." yafl.Notg smjles. Clearly, he loves of this. After all, it is what he does. "The question everybody asks," Van Note says, is long are you going to How do you know? It could end tomorrow.

I mean, I don't see myself playing touch football in Central Park on Sundays. "How long am I going to play? Well, I'm going to play this week." -Bubba Bean to the immortal Haskel Stanback to William Andrews and Gerald Riggs. "I've been ready to retire two or -three times," Van Note says, white Chairs outnumbering black in that marvelous mane. "But I keep stretching. If you can still do what's of you, what's the point of quitting? So far, I haven't found any- thing better to do with myself.

That much hasn't changed." Of course, the challengers' names change all the time. This year's is "-Wayne Radloff. He was signed last season as a free agent. In 1983, Rad-. "toff was All-USFL when the Michigan Panthers won the championship.

He was supposed to be the starting center in Atlanta, but Van Note beat him out, taking advantage of Rad-loff's suspect upper-body strength. 1 Radloff watched Van Note start all games, his 214th-230th games in the NFL ninth on the all-time list. Radloff, 6-5, 277 pounds after intense offseason workouts, is unquestionably the Falcons' center of the future. Yet a broken bone in his back kept him out of practice until a week ago. Surprise.

Van Note has the early lead in training camp. That a 40-year-old man can with-1 stand the physical rigors of trench warfare in the NFL is incredible enough, but it's Van Note's attitude that amazes his peers. "Jeff Van Note may be one of the most remarkable players of his era," Jsays Falcons Coach Dan Henning, who is only four years older than the object of his amazement. "To com- pete in the trenches and not lose his intensity at this stage of his career is indeed unique." I i Van Note hears this sort of thing all the time. He laughs when some- on6 asks why he does it, even when investments and deferred money, not to mention his father's trucking business, would leave him comfortable and free to enjoy his family of five.

"I don't enjoy practice," Van Note Ssays, "but I've always enjoyed play-5 ing. Games are always interesting, always in doubt; both your ability and what your team can do. "I'm not exactly a Rhodes scholar or a really great golfer. I can't con-averse about the arts. I don't have many aesthetic qualities.

This is what I do. "Norm Van Brocklin head coach from 1968-74 used to look at me and say, 'Dutch Boy, at least with the amount of talent you've got you'll 2 never be able to let I'm not a gung-ho, loud kind of holler guy. I 'it Vf'r mi, ult.i A Mi 1 Associated Press ly a Rhodes scholar or a really great golfer. I can't converse about the arts This is what I do." "I've been ready to retire two or three times," Van Note says. "But I keep stretching I'm not exact- Eric Wright, San Francisco's Pro Bowl cornerback, is still ailing.

He missed the NFC wild-card game with what was diagnosed as a pulled abdominal muscle. Recently, it was discovered he had a fractured pelvis. three of the four wide receivers from their 1985 roster out with injuries, the Atlanta Falcons are courting Joey Jones. Like many other USFL players, the 5-9 wideout from the Birmingham Stallions is suddenly available. Watch for USFL quarterback Doug Williams to wind up with the Los Angeles Raiders or Washington Redskins.

Technically, his former team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, own his rights. But with millions of dollars worth of Steve Young, they'll, uh, pass. particularly brilliant choice. Walker, after all, was tied up in a multi-year, multimillion-dollar contract But Schramm knew that roughly half of the NFL's fifth-round choices fail to make their teams. He also recognized that Walker had the potential to be the greatest running back in the history of the game.

"I'm sure a lot of people thought about going for him," Schramm said. "We just dove first." In their brief history, the Cowboys have developed a reputation for taking the plunge first with spectacular results. In 1964, the Cowboys used a 10th-round choice to land quarterback Roger Staubach. Sure, he was the that at some point it was worth the gamble to take him." After the 1984 season, Dallas had divested itself of wide receiver Butch Johnson. He was dealt to the Houston Oilers for a fifth-round draft choice.

Thus armed with two picks in that round, Schramm felt the fifth might be the spot to make the move. The Cowboys chose Michigan defensive end Kevin Brooks in the first round, followed by Jesse Penn, Crawford Ker and Robert Lavette in the succeeding rounds. With the first pick in the fifth round the one they got for Johnson Schramm chose Walker. On the surface, it didn't look like a by New Jersey Generals owner Donald Trump last week. The Cowboys own his rights because they chose him in the fifth round of the 1985 draft.

That was the year Walker would have been eligible after a four-year career at Georgia, but he left school early to play for Trump. Any of the league's 27 other teams could have had Walker if they had taken the calculated risk, for more than 100 players were taken ahead of Walker. Tex Schramm, the Cowboys president and general manager, was the man who pushed the button. "All along, we thought about drafting Herschel," Schramm said Friday. "We just made a decision Whatif? Fans of 27 NFL teams are wondering just that about Herschel Walker, even as the Dallas Cowboys are negotiating for the talented running back's services.

Walker, whose 1985 yardage total was the best single-season mark in professional football history, was freed from his USFL commitments 49ers Waiting for Crawford NFL Roundup THE WEEK THAT WAS BUDDY RYAN QUOTE OF THE WEEK After his team practiced against the Detroit Lions in Rochester, the Eagles' new and often abrasive coach said, "The tempo was terrible and we didn't really get a lot out of it. Our players were up-tempo. It was no problem with our players. It's just that they Lions ruined our tempo because they just laid down and wallowed." A COMPLETION. AT LEAST Steve Bartkowski, the former Atlanta Falcon, completed his first pass as a Los Angeles Ram for a touchdown.

Unfortunately, it was caught by Houston linebacker Avon Riley, who returned it 97 yards for the score. IT MAKES A MAN HUMBLE Tampa Bay's 1 0th-round draft choice, defensive end Ben Reed, after working against former Jets offensive tackle Marvin Powell: "After going against Marvin, I wonder why they even drafted me." A CONTACT SPORT Dallas public relations man Greg Aiello successfully set up a hotel room for Herschel Walker, who may be playing for the Cowboys in their Sept. 8 opener against Dallas. But somehow, Aiello slipped and broke his collarbone in the process. BLITZES THE BUFFET LINE Erik Howard, the Giants' second draft choice, has yet to establish himself on the field, but he may already be All-Pro at the training table.

Cafeteria workers at the team's camp in Pleasantville, N.Y., say Howard hits the buffet line "at least 1 5 or 20 times a meal." SENTENCE OF THE WEEK Alan Hamilton, writing in the Times of London following last week's 1 7-6 exhibition victory by Chicago over Dallas at Wembley Stadium: "It was the sacred turf of Wembley curiously lined and painted with strange numbers and symbols, playing host to the Chicago Bears and Dallas i Cowboys in a game of American football, in which helmeted carnivores looking like extras in a low-budget space epic run headlong into each other like rival stags at the rut." SECOND-BEST SENTENCE OF THE WEEK Hamilton, again: "American football is an occasion at which dancing girls Cowboys cheerleaders, bands, tactical huddles and television commercial breaks are interrupted by short bursts of play." GREGGARBER Giants Jump On Dorsey'sCase SUWANEE, Ga. If it worked for Buddy Ryan, maybe it will work for Bill Parcells. Last summer, Ryan called William Perry "a wasted draft pick" shortly after The Refrigerator reported to camp in Chicago. Saturday the Giants' coach lit into first-round draft choice Eric Dorsey. The defensive end struggled in his first full workout, against Atlanta at the Falcons' training facility.

"He's got a lot to learn in all directions," Par-cells said. "He won't catch up for a long time maybe next year, maybe never. He missed all the fundamental technique work. "We'll try to get him ready. If he can't, maybe he won't have a job.

Dorsey knows nothing, except where the hotel is." Parcells' outburst probably was a calculated attempt to motivate Dorsey, who signed a contract Friday afternoon. Lamar Leachman, the defensive line coach, held the party line. "I don't think he's been any shining light," Leachman said of the player he hopes will start at left end by season's end. Dorsey smiled when those comments were relayed to him. "I know I've got a lot of work to do.

This the criticism will make me concentrate more." That's the whole idea. Halfback Lee Ronson did hot practice Saturday after complaining of irritation under his left knee cap. The Giants say the injury isn't serious. Meanwhile, fullback George Adams is still sitting out with a strained groin muscle. Nose tackle Jim Burt left the field during the morning practice with back spasms.

Tight end Zeke Mowatt took a big psychological step, casting aside the bulky brace' for his tender post-surgery knee. He wore a smaller brace for practice that will afford him more mobil- 1 GREGGARBER Associated Press Derrick Crawford doesn't have the visibility of schel Walker or Jim Kelly, but he's the man the San Francisco 49ers hope to have under contract in time to bolster their roster for the NFL season. 3 Crawford, the USFL's No. 5 receiver with the Mem-'. phis Showboats last season, has reportedly agreed to a tone-year deal with San Francisco, but is waiting until his .7 old team is compensated before he signs.

j. Showboats President Steve Ehrhart said his club wouldn't demand further compensation than the $30,000 '4 Memphis has paid Crawford. But he said a lawsuit would result if the 49ers signed Crawford before the Showboats are compensated. .4 Crawford caught 131 passes for 1,760 yards in two seasons with Memphis. He scored 21 touchdowns and averaged 13.4 yards a catch.

The 49ers appear confident of signing Crawford, mak-i ing room for him by waiving wide receiver Keith Baker. San Francisco Coach Bill Walsh said he isn't that concerned about the Showboats. "We're not going to be 1 talking to them," he said. 3 Walsh said Crawford will receive a salary about on the -j level of a first-round draft choice, although his bonus i won't be as large. I BRONCOS' KAY ARRESTED i Denver Broncos tight end Clarence Kay was arrested in Greeley, early Saturday on charges of speeding and driving with a suspended license, police said.

He was released on a $250 bond. Authorities said Kay was stopped about 2 a.m. for -going 37 mph in a 25-mph zone. While checking his 2 license, officers found it had been suspended in Kay's I home state of Georgia after he was stopped and refused a blood-alcohol test. 1 A blood-alcohol test taken Saturday morning showed Kay's level at .043, less than the level Colorado law i deems driving while impaired, police said.

isEAHAWKS 21, COLTS 14 FRIDAY NIGHT Sean Salisbury, an undrafted rookie from Southern Califortife, fired two sWbnd-quarter touchdown passes Friday night to lead the Seattle Seahawks to a 21-14 victory over the Indianapolis Colts in the exhibition opener for both clubs in Seattle. Salisbury, battling with veteran Paul McDonald for the No. 3 quarterback spot, connected with Gordon Hudson on a 2-yard touchdown pass and with Byron Franklin on a 20-yard scoring toss to give the Seahawks a 14-0 halftime lead. Seattle got its final score on a 2-yard run by Rick Parros that gave it a 21-7 advantage with 2:50 left in the third period. The Colts registered points on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Gary Hogeboom, who was acquired in the offseason from Dallas, to Ricky Nichols in the third quarter, and on a 1-yard run by Albert Bentley late in the fourth quarter.

Salisbury, who entered the game after Seattle starter Gale Gilbert injured his left thumb on Seattle's opening possession, completed 9-of-17 passes for 87 yards in a little over two quarters. Indianapolis, using both Hogeboom and rookie Jack Trudeau at quarterback, showed very little offense in the first half. The Colts were outgained 194 yards to 51 in the first two quarters. Indianapolis totaled minus-7 yards in passing offense in the first half as the two Colts quarterbacks were sacked four times. AROUND THE LEAGUE Detroit Lions Coach Darryl Rogers apparently wasn't pleased with anything in his club's 17-9 preseason loss to Philadelphia Friday night "We need a lot of work," Rogers said.

"We had some people we tried to get into the game. They got in, but they didn't do anything. We've still got a long way to go to figure out how some of our people are going to play." The Lions passed for 197 yards but were limited to 47 rushing on 21 attempts. Seattle Seahawks Guard Greg Naron was acquired from the Philadelphia Eagles for an undisclosed draft choice. Naron, who spent last season on injured reserve with a damaged knee, was the Eagles' fourth-round draft choice In 1985.

The 6-4, 270-pounder played four seasons at thp University of North Carolina, the last three at guard..