UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, August 23, 1993
118
Free agency changes teams' faces
NFL's new rules, rosters may bring playoff surprises
By Dave Goldberg
Associated Press writer
Associated Press writer
A lot of familiar names are in unfamiliar places in
the National Football league.
National Football League
Reggie White is in Green Bay. Joe Montana is in Kansas City. Anthony Munoz is in Tampa Bay.
Welcome to free agency in football.
Still others were lured out of retirement.
The NFL's 74th season begins Sept. 5, and for the first time, many of its players were free to change teams. A total of 126 players took advantage of the opportunity.
o inmers were firmed but will look
As a result, a lot of teams will look markedly different.
- three titles in Washington. Mike Ditka, fired in
Chicago after a 5-11 season. And one is back: Bill
Also, some big-name coaches are gone. Joe Gibbs,
who stepped down after four Super Bowls and
three titles in Washington. Mike Dika, fired in
Gibbs to step up 4.500gr. And one账本, Bill
" Chicago after a 5-11 season. And one is back! BM Parceles, who won two Super Bowls with the New York Giants. Parceles is in New England after two years in broadcasting.
How much will all the changes affect the product?
For one thing, free agency seems to be lengthening careers
Munoz and Taylor, two future Hall of Famers, decided to return to the game even though both sustained severe injuries last season. Taylor is back with the Giants, while Munoz joined his old Cincinnati coach, Sam Wyche, in Tampa Bay.
Ronnie Lott, another free agent, signed with the New York Jets, delaying his entry into the ball. And
trades influenced by free agency sent Mohtamil adda Marcus Allen to the Chiefs and Eric Dickerson to the
But whether the balance of power has changed is unclear.
It's possible that some clubs have improved themselves more than others for the time being.
San Antonio office. Laguna
This year, free agency has both hurt and helped teams. Next year's planned salary cap will have a leveling influence.
The Dallas Cowboys, who won the Super Bowl last season with the league's youngest team, signed no free agents, lost just two and remain strong
favors to repeat.
On the other hand, one of their biggest challengers will be the Packers, who haven't had back-to-back games. Virus Johnson's teams
ANALYSIS
winning seasons since Vince Lombardi's teams won the first two Super Bowls more than a quarter-
But both teams may find themselves in trouble next year, when the salary cap will probably take effect.
century ago.
lammates' pay — or even to cut their teammates. It's already having an impact this year — Emmitt Smith, who led the league in rushing the past two years, was a holdout because the Cowboys are offering $1.4 million less than the $4 million he wants.
"You've got to look ahead," said Jerry Jones, who bought the Cowboys in 1989 and rebuilt them in five years under coach Jimmy Johnson.
"If I pay Emmitt what he wants and renegotiate with Troy Aikman, I've already used up a third of my salaries. As it is, we may have to fit $50 million worth of players into a $30 million cap."
Smith or no Smith, the Cowboys enter the season as prohibitive favorites to win the NFC East, although the Cowboys have been hit hard by pre-season injuries.
Both the Giants and Redskins, two previous Super Bowl winners, are rebuilding.
White makes the Packers a favorite in the NFC Central, where they figure to compete with Minnesota and perhaps Detroit. That's another division where free agency has had a big impact — the defending champion Vikings lost three offensive linemen, and the Lions, who slipped from 12-4 to 5-11 last year, have added three offensive linemen plus linebacker Pat Swilling.
San Francisco, which wins Super Bowls when NFC East teams do not, is probably the only National Conference team that can seriously challenge the Cowboys.
The favorite may be Miami, which has added four former Eagles to Dan Marino and a young defense that should keep getting better. Miami probably will deprive Buffalo, losers of the last three Super Bowls, of a dubious "fourpeat." No team has ever
No American Conference team has won a Super Bowl in a decade, and whoever wins the conference this year will be the underdog in the Super Bowl. But AFC teams keep trying.
But Houston and Pittsburgh in the AFC Central and San Diego and Kansas City in the West also figure to have a shot.
made it four straight years.
The Oilers, who blew a 35-1 lead in a playoff game in Buffalo last year, hired Buddy Ryan as defensive coordinator and added Pro Bowl linebacker Wilber Marshall, one of Ryan's favorite players, in a trade with Washington.
Montana, traded by the 49ers after losing his job to Young, is a curiosity.
"It's his presence as much as his ability," said wide receiver Willie Davis, who hopes Montana turns him into the next Jerry Rice. "It's like playing with a legend."
Even at 37 and coming off a two year elbow injury, Montana has raised impossible thoughts in Kansas City — nearly 80,000 people turned out for the team's first home exhibition anticipating nothing less than the four titles he brought to San Francisco.
The players in New England also think they're looking at a legend in Parcels.
Perhaps the third most successful coach of the eighties behind Gibbs and Bill Walsh, Parcels takes over a 2-14 team that has little prospect of immediate improvement. He arrives with Drew Bledsee, the Washington State quarterback, who was the top pick in April's draft, and with the bark that made him so successful in New York.
The other new coaches: Dan Reeves with the Giants, succeeding Ray Handley, who was 14-18 as Parcelc's successor in New York; Richie Petitbon, the longtime assistant head coach to Gibbs in Washington; Wade Phillips, up from defensive coordinator in Denver for Reeves, who was fired because he couldn't get along with quarterback John Elway; and Dave Wannettd succeeded Ditka in Chicago. Wannettd had been the defensive coordinator for Johnson in Dallas.
They will be operating with only two major rule changes; reducing the time between plays to 40 seconds, instead of 45 seconds, and allowing some intentional grounding by a quarterback if he is both out of the pocket and propels the ball beyond the line of scrimmage. The latter change is intended to cut down on quarterback injuries that have plagued the game.
The impact of free agency? Can be argued either way.
Miami, which added such premier free agents as wide receiver Mark Ingram and running back Keith Byars, should win the AFC title. But Dallas, which added nobody, should win the NFC.
Even with free agency, it's likely the NFC will win the Super Bowl.
Because it always does.
Future Hall of Famers continue to succeed
Football greats still key to team success
The Associated Press
Next stop: Canton.
Joe Montana's itinerary has taken him from San Francisco to Kansas City. Next stop: Canton.
Lawrence Taylor's resume includes just one stop, in the New Jersey Meadowlands.
Next stop,
Anthony Munoz spent 13 years in
Cincinnati establishing himself as
one of the greatest tackles in NFL history.
He has made a side trip to Tampa
this year. Next stop: Canton.
No one is saying this is the final season for pro football's quarterback, defender and blocker of the 1980s. Nor is anybody claiming that Ronnie Lott, now a New York Jets safety after starring for the 49ers and Raiders, is ready for retirement. Or that Eric Dickerson, playing for the Falcons this season after building his reputation as a game-breaking runner and back-breaking complainer with the Rams, Colts and Raiders, has nothing left
What all of them will have left when their now-ebbing NFL careers conclude is a date at Canton, Ohio, for entry into the Hall of Fame.
"We know we're closer to the end than the beginning," notes Taylor,
who said last season he was retiring, then tore his Achilles' tendon a week later and missed the second half of the schedule. "But that doesn't mean we can't play, or we wouldn't be back out here."
Taylor, who decided to come back when Ray Handley was fired by the Giants and Dan Reeves took over as coach, is the only member of the surefire future Hall of Famers who stayed with the same team. He isn't the only All-'80s player who came out of a planned retirement, though.
Munoz saw all the dollar signs being waved in front of free-agent offensive lineman with one-tenth his credentials. He figured he could earn a cool $1 million or so for another year — but certainly not from the stingy Bengals.
“Initially, it was just a matter of choice to go play where you want to play,” Munoz says. “For 13 years, it was basically. ‘You've got to play here or you don't play the game.’ All of this kind of started before all the salaries were printed. But then the salaries came out, and maybe that's when talked got a little more serious.”
Wyche was serious about adding "the best tackle I've ever coached or seen."
With the freedom to name his new employer and, basically, the price, Munoz contacted Sam Wyche, his former coach in Cincinnati. Soon, he no longer was retired and was in Tampa.
"He's got the juices flowing. I've been around him for eight years and I can read him. "Wyche adds. "He is tremendously disciplined, so when he tells you he is determined to play, you can count on him doing everything necessary. There are no downsides to signing Anthony Munoz."
Or to signing Lott. The Jets desperately need veteran leadership. In the NFL, you spell that L-O-T-T, says Jays general manager Dick Steinberg.
"One of the big motivating factors for who we signed was that we were looking for guys with leadership ability." Steinberg says. "They bring credibility. These are guys who played in Super Bowls and won them, and in Pro Bowls. They've been around a long time, and they know how to prepare themselves to compete for a championship.
Dickerson has been through all the pluses and minuses in his decade as a pro. Recently, as he moved into second place on the all-time rushing yardage list, the negatives — fines, suspensions, injuries, criticism from coaches and teammates — have outweighed the positives.
Still, there was a demand for him in Atlanta, where the Falcons hope Dickerson can recapture the speed, cuts and moves that made him the most feared runner in football.
"They know how to react to good things and bad things, because they have been through both."
"This whole change to Atlanta and an offense I like, it is had me feeling like a young colt again," he says. "I don't feel 32, and when people see me on the field, they won't believe I am. I know what the calendar says, but I think under the right conditions, I could still gain 1,000 yards or more."
The Chiefs aren't looking for 1,000 yards from another likely Hall of Famer, Marcus Allen. But adding the former Raider as a free agent after they traded for Montana gave the Chiefs an enticing new look. And, perhaps, the spark the offense desperately needs.
"You don't get many opportunities to acquire people like Marcus Allen," says Chiefs president Carl Peterson. "The intangibles he provides off the field are as important as the skills he brings on the field. You need people who have been there, who understand how it's done."
No one has been there more often and knows better how to get it done than Montana.
"Wherever we've been in the past, there have always been a lot of expectations," Montana says. "It's not a big deal with us. At the 49ers, they expected us to go to the Super Bowl every year. With the talent on this team, they've got a chance to do that, too."
which would be just another impressive stop for Montana en route to Canton.
Learn to Fly
Lawrence Air Services Instruction•Charter Service•Rental 842-0000
Welcome Back Students &Faculty
Gifts, Houseplants, and Flowers
Recieve 10% Off With This Coupon (local purchases only)
841-2999
1-800-622-2999
939 Massachusetts
Plus, I Can't Believe It's Yogurt offers Nonfat and Sugar Free flavors that have No Fat or Cholesterol!
50 $ \ncircled{c} $ OFF a medium or large serving!
Louisiana Purchase
23rd and Louisiana-843-5500
Orchards Corners
15th & Kasold-749-0440
EXPIRES 9-15-93
Campus Parking Permit ...
FREE! lock & cable with every GIANT bicycle. Promo ends 9/4/93.
RICK'S BIKE SHOP Inc. 916 Mass., Lawrence, KS (913)841-6642
ARE TEAMING UP! NOW YOU CAN HAVE THE BEST OF BOTH FOR ONE LOW PRICE! Student Discount of $140 per semester (aerobics only for $95) (gym only for $100) come try us outfirst class always free
2223 Louisiana Louisiana Purchase Shopping Center 842-BODY
2329 Iowa Suite H Dickinson Plaza Shopping Center 842-1442