The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 14

D4 MONDAY, JULY 28, 1997 The Pantagraph 1 OIUD Old boys' don't want to be demonstrated on a 2 because Dick has that old-man strength left in him and he'll pop V-ff I Stanfel, who began his coaching career at Notre Dame 15 years before Naeole was born, said the Saints coaches have no problem relating to today's players. New Orleans assistants equate age with experience LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) Football is a game for young guys, you say? Not on the New Orleans Saints' coaching staff. True, there are three coaches in their mid-405 and a couple of assistants who are 30. But the rest are in the nifty 50s or older, guys who make 58-year-old head coach Mike Ditka look young.

We're talking coaches who remember single wings, drop kicks and "When you relate to somebody you tell them the truth," Stanfel said. "Sometimes they don't want to hear it, but you let them know what's going on." Offensive coor-d i a Danny SUNK two-way players. "We're nowhere near as old as the St. Louis coaches," Ditka said testily, referring to the staff of 60-year-old Dick Vermeil. "I have the best coaches V.

in the league and that's why I hired them, because they are the best." W- V' A Dick Stanfel j' 1 1 LTft v- 1S Abramowicz thinks the play ers relate to the coaches as well. "They see some gray hair and bald heads but they listen," the 52-year- old Abramowicz said "We may not have all the answers, but we've been around and seen some things and they can learn from that." Age doesn't matter when a coach has credibility, tight end Irv Smith said. "A lot of them played football; that's the important thing," he said. "Football is football. It hasn't changed, and they know football." On the other hand, six hours a day on the practice XX, I I Iron New one Ditka, I A Walt Corey -i Best or not, you don't have to look for the whistles and play sheets to find the coaches.

"When I first got here I thought about the guys Mike had brought in and their age, but now I just think about their experience," said 50-year-old wide receiver coach Harold Jackson, a player for 16 years and coach for eight. "Young guys were the trend a couple of years ago, but now maybe old guys are coming back into style. You have some great coaches who know the game, it makes sense to bring them back." The players say they welcome the change, although for 21-year-old running back Troy Davis anyone past 30 is a senior citizen. "They're all pretty old," said Davis, whose position coach is 58-year-old Tom Moore. "But they're in pretty good shape." There have been more than a few jokes at Saints training camp.

Coaches have to be awakened to make the 11 p.m. bed check, one goes. The team gets AARP discounts at hotels now, is another. When the Saints play the Rams where Vermeil has also assembled a "seasoned" staff there is to be a nap between quarters. Offensive line coach Dick Stanfel refuses to tell his age, although it is known that he last played college football in 1950 when he was an offensive guard and defensive tackle and was the Detroit Lions MVP in 1953.

He is the center of much of the ribbing, 22-year-old rookie guard Chris Naeole said. "Guys always ask him how old he is," Naeole said. "He won't tell us, but we know he's old." They also know Stanfel, who was retired for three years before Ditka lured him back to coaching, is in shape. They know he jogs a mile-and-a-half daily and that he can still personally show that football is a contact sport. "He'll demonstrate on you and some guys Mike and the boys Orleans Saints coach Mike Ditka (above) has assembled of the oldest coaching staffs in the National Football League.

who coached the Chicago Bears to victory in Super Bowl is 58, while many of his assistants, including Dick Stanfel, field and another Walt Corey and Rick Venturi, are over 50 years old. According to tags nd "offices Ditka' a9e is not imPortant football knowledge is. 'I have the isn't as easy as it best coaches in the league and that's why I hired said was several decades Ditka, 'because they are the ago. A Rick Venturi the salaries. "I tell them that in my seven-year including playoff games, championship games and the first Super Bowl, I grossed $63,000," the 59-year-old Corey said.

"It quiets everyone right down and makes them, realize how good they've got it." "Hell, Mike's back is hurting him, my back's hurting, Dick's back hurts, Tom's got a bad back, Walt's limping," Abramowicz said. "Our attitude is meet tonight, line up tomorrow." Defensive line coach Walt Corey, who started his pro career with the Dallas Texans in 1960 and is one of only two active NFL coaches to have played in a Super Bowl, said players love to hear about the old days. They eat up stories about training camps where rooms were without air conditioning and players headed to a bar right after practice. They also love to hear about NFL rookies show the money with new cars By NEIL HAYES Contra Costa (Calif.) Times Darrell Russell has a problem. He can't fit behind the wheel of his dream car.

The Raiders' rookie defensive tackle just signed a contract that will pay him $8,325,000 million guaranteed, but that isn't going to help him squeeze his 307-pound frame into a Ferrari. "We're going to have to get new seats for it," Russell explained. "Racing seats are a lot thinner." A handful of idealistic men gathered in Ralph Hay's Hupmobile showroom in Canton, Ohio, on Sept. 17, 1920, to lay the foundation for what would become the National Football League. Every year, NFL rookies honor those founding fathers by hustling down to their local car dealership and picking out the shiniest ride on the lot.

"Whatever player it is, when they get their signing bonus, the first thing they do is go out and buy a car," said 49ers vice president Dwight Clark, who bought an Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme with his $5,000 rookie signing bonus in 1979. "It was the same when I played. You've got to have wheels. The kind of wheels you get depends on the size of the check." Everybody wonders what it would be like to win the lottery, but NFL rookies actually live that dream. Agent Leigh Steinberg has made more people instant millionaires than Ed McMahon.

So what does an athlete from a lower-middle class background do when presented a fortune? They ask: What on earth is FICA? Running back Ki-Jana Carter received a $7,125 million dollar signing bonus after being the first-round pick of the Cincinnati Bengals in 1995. He soon learned how quickly that sum diminishes after the government takes its cut. "Ki-Jana once said 'Somebody stole my Steinberg said. "I said, 'What do you He said, 'It was supposed to be $7 million and it's only I said, 'Ki-Jana, that somebody is the Here's where the irony comes in. Rookies typically sign on the eve of training camp.

So how do they celebrate their new-found riches? They pack a pair of $5 dollar flip-flops and some ratty T-shirts into a duffel bag and head off to training camp, where they live in dormitories and stand in cafeteria lines. "I'm not used to being able to go out and do whatever I want to do but during the season, I don't have time to do anything, anyway," said 49ers rookie fullback Marc Edwards, who just pocketed a $650,000 signing bonus. After their cars have been paid for, complete with shiny mag wheels and a stereo system capable of shattering the rear window, a player typically buys a home for himself, his parent(s), or both. Then it's off to the mall for a trunk load of CDs and a big-screen TV "I'm 21 years old and I'm buying a house and a Ferrari," Russell said. "It's really, really weird.

What am I doing here?" Some players don't know what to do with their money. Steinberg said 49ers quarterback Steve Young can identify the serial numbers on the bills from his first check. When Young got his first payment for $2.5 million from the now defunct USFL, he pushed it to Steinberg without even a glance. "He was frightened by that much money," Steinberg said. "It represented almost a corruption of the low-key lifestyle he liked." Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe was getting his car repaired when a mechanic pulled down the visor and had a $100,000 check fall into his lap.

Teammates used to find uncashed game checks lying around Young's apartment. "The money fills players with a profound sense of contentment," Steinberg said. "That can be reflected in two ways. Some players, upon getting that check, lose their motivation. Suddenly, competition doesn't seem so compelling.

Suddenly, sticking their head into the line doesn't seem so necessary But most players play because they love the competition and the money doesn't change them." Sports View is a weekly column featuring various writers from across the nation. Former Illinois star looks for new life in George Oakland Agents causing teams, league many headaches 'mm ing up instead of doing what the Packers hoped he'd do compete with John Michels, last year's No. 1, for the starting job at left tackle. "I know what the problem is, but that doesn't mean I like it," says Ron Wolf, Green Bay's general manager. "The agent doesn't want to sign when the players in the slots around him aren't signed because he doesn't want to be badmouthed and lose his client to someone else." Injury report Want to know why the injury reports required by the league are a farce? Here's one that wasn't issued for any game last year by the Cowboys: "Emmitt Smith, broken right ankle, probable." "I played last year on a broken ankle," Smith says.

"Yet people said I was slowing down, that I had taken too many hits. How many people can play on a broken ankle?" That's not official. The Cowboys still say the surgery their star running back underwent on that right ankle after the season was to remove bone spurs. Smith was hurt last Aug. 17 in an exhibition against Denver when teammate Erik Williams fell on him.

The official diagnosis was sprained knee with some ankle complications. Smith played all season, but his 1,204 rushing yards were his fewest since his rookie season in 1990 and his 3.7 average per carry was the lowest of his career. Jimmy's legacy Jimmy Johnson has been gone from Dallas for four years, but his legacy lingers on in Dexter Coakley, a 5-foot-9, 215-pound rookie who could end up replacing free-agent defector Darrin Smith as the starter at weak-side linebacker. "He's the quickest linebacker I've ever been around," says Larry Lacewell, Dallas' personnel director. "He's a rocket.

He's quicker than a hiccup." By Associated Press Paul Tagliabue has been making the rounds of training camps this month, positioning himself for talks with the NFL Players Association on extending the current labor contract beyond 2000. But the commissioner's attacks on rookie holdouts aren't attacks on the union, they're attacks on agents. And agents don't come under the collective bargaining agreement, although they must register with the NFLPA. "I thought when we did ROUNDUP the labor deal in 1993 that both sides assumed the rookie salary cap was going to end holdouts," Tagliabue said in LaCrosse, Wis. "Now we're getting back to the point where the agents are holding them out.

I think that needs to be addressed." How little have things changed? Not much, although 18 of the 30 first-rounders had signed by late last week, not bad by past July standards. But first-round signings are always slow. When Ike Hilliard, the seventh overall pick in the draft, signed with the Giants the day they opened camp, he was the first first-rounder the team had on time since Carl Banks in 1984. That was so long ago that Banks is now on the management side: He runs the personnel department at the Jets for Bill Parcells. The problem most often is competition among agents.

Even with a rookie salary cap, the practice of "slotting" continues just as it did in the pre-cap days each pick makes a little less than the player drafted one slot ahead of him. Example: Ross Verba, the offensive lineman the Packers took with the last pick of the first round, is still out of camp. When he finally arrives, he'll be catch fj fs NAPA, Calif. (AP) Jeff George is not concerned about his reputation as a selfish player aloof from teammates and coaches. He's not scared of the defenders who'll try to clobber him while he throws passes for the Oakland Raiders, the team that rebuilt its offense around his powerful right arm after he wore out his welcome in Indianapolis and Atlanta.

But changing diapers? Now there's something that really terrifies the 6-foot-4 quarterback. "I've only changed two so far, and only the wet ones," he said with a laugh. "Kids know when you can't do it. My son looks up at me and smiles. He knows." George got a rare chance to spend time at home with his family after being suspended for most of last season by the Atlanta Falcons after a sideline tirade against coach June Jones during a nationally televised game.

He got to see his 15-month-old son, Jeffrey, crawl for the first time. But he also was confronted by some of the messier aspects of fatherhood. "One time mom wasn't home and there was a big mess," George said. "So I just left him alone." Fortunately, the Raiders signed George to a five-year, $27.5 million free agent contract that has no stipulation about changing diapers. After missing the playoffs the past three years, Oakland wants to return to the big-strike passing attack that characterized Raiders teams of the past.

And the team thinks George has the arm to da that. "He's got a very unique blend of quickness, arm strength and accuracy That's a real good place to start," said offensive coordinator Ray Perkins. "I think he has excellent eyes, excellent field vision. And I think he's a smart guy." George, who has thrown for more than 18,000 yards with 91 touchdowns in seven NFL seasons, has wasted little time showing off his arm in training camp. "We've got a guy who can sling it 3-4 miles," said Harvey Williams, who is being converted from running back to tight end.

"Jeff George can throw the ball." No one has ever questioned George's arm. But his heart and his head have been criticized eyer since college, when he transferred from Purdue tolllinois after just one season. At Purdue, he was ridiculed when his mother rode off the field with him in a golf cart when he was injured. At Illinois, he became the school's third-leading career passer before bolting for his hometown Indianapolis Colts as the No. 1 pick in the 1990 draft.

He was plagued by injury and became a target of frustrated Colts fans. Then came a 36-day holdout in 1993 that soured his relationship with coach Ted New Oakland Raiders quarterback and former University of Illinois star Jeff George is trying to make a new start after failing to fit in in Indianapolis and Atlanta. Marchibroda. He was traded to Atlanta in 1994. Jones and the Falcons built a run-and-shoot offense around George, who threw for a club-record 4,143 yards while leading the Falcons to the playoffs in 1995.

But his laid-back attitude angered fans and baffled teammates. George, who in Atlanta often stood alone on the sidelines and was ridiculed as "Mr. Me," further angered Falcons fans with a 2V2-week contract holdout before last season. Then came the fight with Jones. "What went on in the past, that's over with.

I've been in two situations that were really tough, but I look at it as a learning experience," George said. "Some things you do as a young guy growing up you regret, but you learn from that." George just wants a chance to let his passing statistics get more attention than his sideline demeanor. "I'm glad they didn't work out there in Atlanta," he said. "I've always wanted to be a Raider. Things work out for a reason." I.