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Rich man's game Determined Gannon succeeded without NFL 'silver spoon'Posted: Thursday January 23, 2003 5:52 PM
SAN DIEGO -- I have it on very good authority that the man Tampa Bay’s defense is out to stop at all costs this Sunday is Charlie Garner. Understandable. With 962 rushing yards this year, a 5.3-yards-per-carry average (1.8 yards better than any Bucs rusher) and 91 receptions (for an enormous-for-a-running-back 10.3 yards per catch, which is 1.2 yards fewer than future Hall of Fame candidate Tim Brown), any team would be foolish not to pay a massive amount of attention to Garner. But if I were a Bucs player, the man I would want to wound Sunday is Rich Gannon. He’s the guy I’d spy and send the cavalry out to hit early and often. Why? Because he means everything. He’s the maddeningly accurate distributor, the 68-percent thrower with so many great weapons. I’m the pool reporter for the Pro Football Writers of America at Raiders practices this week, and the one thing I noticed Wednesday, the first day of practice, is what a beautiful ball Gannon throws. Tight spiral. Soft to catch. Right on target. It’s an amazing thing to watch, really, when a quarterback lofts a ball 25 yards in another direction and a receiver, time after time, catches the ball effortlessly, as if it was meant to be in that precise place at that precise time. I mentioned this to Dan Marino before taping the HBO Inside the NFL show Wednesday night, and he said: “People really have no idea how long it takes for you to perfect something like that.” He should know. I was thinking, while watching Gannon, of a conversation I was a part of on the first day of player interviews on Tuesday. A bunch of media members surrounded Gannon to ask about his past. I was curious how it came to be that the Patriots drafted him in the fourth round as a defensive back out of Delaware 15 years ago.
Why, then, has Gannon succeeded? “Because I didn’t come into the league with a silver spoon in my mouth,” he said. Let that be a lesson to everyone who plays this game: You can get there from here, if you work like a dog. Like Gannon has.
For seven straight seasons, from 1992 to 1998, the winning quarterbacks in the Super Bowl were big stars, drafted high and working with big contracts: Troy Aikman, Steve Young, Brett Favre and John Elway. The following four championship quarterbacks have been, shall we say, from more modest backgrounds. The winning quarterback in the 2003 Super Bowl will be either Gannon, a former fourth-round pick who has been the property of five organizations, or Brad Johnson, a former ninth-round pick who has been the property of three. Looking back at the last three Super Bowl-winning passers and their checkered pasts: 2002: Tom Brady, New England. Sixth-round pick in his first season as an NFL starter. 2001: Trent Dilfer, Baltimore. First-round failure with the Bucs who landed in Baltimore after going largely unwanted in free agency. 2000: Kurt Warner, St. Louis. Undrafted, unsung, unloved ... well, you know this story.
Don’t let anyone tell you it doesn’t get chilly here. Last night, on the Inside the NFL set, Cris Collinsworth’s teeth were chattering. It was 51 degrees, according to the reading on my car’s dashboard. But when I called home to New Jersey last night, I heard it was 11. Never mind.
WHO HAS THE COACHING EDGE? From Charles Ro of Seattle: “The short week -- who does that help most? Bill Callahan or Jon Gruden? And does Gruden’s knowledge of his former players give him an edge that amounts to anything significant?” Good question. Very good question. I say: How can’t it? Gruden knows 80 percent of that roster as well as Callahan does. Now the question is, What can Gruden do about it? Well, I really like the way he capitalized on the knowledge he gleaned from his first game against Philadelphia to help him game-plan for the second. Don’t ask me what he’ll do, but I assume he’ll throw three or four things at the Raiders that they won’t expect. For instance, he'll identify one weak link in the Raiders secondary, or one flaw in the defensive structure of the team, attack it and then attack it some more. The Raiders' edge? It could be just as big. I like the fact that they have so many guys who’ve played in a lot of these games, such as Bill Romanowski, Jerry Rice and Rod Woodson. Charles, this game should be one of the all-time great Super Bowls.
1. I think I hear New England defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel has created a very favorable early impression -- thanks to his toughness -- on the group, led by 49ers GM Terry Donahue, that is interviewing candidates for the franchise's head-coaching vacancy. 2. I think the Nice Guy of the Week Award must go to Lincoln Kennedy. He has mentioned several times how his high school coach from San Diego saved his football career by, essentially, creating it. Nice to see a big man who is not too big to give credit where it’s due. 3. I think Brad Johnson will be just as cool Sunday as Rich Gannon. Neither man will succumb to nerves. 4. I think Hall of Fame voting time is drawing near -- ballots will be collected Saturday morning, local time -- and I’ve never seen a class with as many he-could-get-ins as this one. From Art Monk to Randy Gradishar to Claude Humphrey, a bunch of guys will be very close this year. My gut feeling is that Marcus Allen’s probably the surest thing. 5. I think I speak for the 58 or so people who’ve commented to me about him since I arrived Monday: Will McDonough, it’s not a real Super Bowl without you. There will be a moment of silence in the press box for him before Sunday’s game. Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. He will file daily for CNNSI.com throughout Super Bowl week. Click here to send him a comment. |
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