friday, October 31, 2003
sports
the university daily kansan 3R
KC Chiefs believe in their coach
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. —The third-year charm of Dick Vermeil seems to be running full throttle for the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs.
At every stop in his NFL coaching career, Vermeil's teams make dramatic breakthroughs in his third season:
Philadelphia, 1978. The Eagles, who hadn't had a winning record since 1966, go 9-7 and reach the playoffs.
St. Louis, 1999. After winning just four games in '98, Vermeil's Rams emerge to capture the Super Bowl.
Kansas City, 2003. The Chiefs at the midway point stand 8-0, the league's only unbeaten team. It's a franchise-record winning streak and matches their victory total of the entire 2002 season
And it's Vermeil's third year.
Two of the eight victories were not decided until the final play. Two others could easily have gone the other way. Their run
defense and third-down efficiency haven't been good.
Vermeil
But the Chiefs have yet to lose.
"I don't think anybody on this team really believes
Indeed, a bond has developed between this team and its emotional 66-year-old leader that is rare in athletics. In football, where intimidation often forms the cornerstone of a coach's style, it may be unparalleled.
Vermeil's message to his players is simple. He trusts them. He is genuinely concerned for them. And they return his trust with a passionate zeal not to disappoint him.
"He cares about you first as an individual person and then as a
"I don't think anybody on this team really believes anything strange is going on here. But we do believe in coach Vermeil."
Eric Warfield cornerback
football player," wide receiver Johnnie Morton said. "When I made my 500th catch, he sent my parents a ball. Most coaches don't want to get emotionally involved with their players. He is just the opposite."
Defensive end Eric Hicks added, "There is not a player in this room who has not been in coach Vermeil's home."
A softie he's not. Vermeil's practices are lengthy, demanding and tough. Anyone unwilling to be coached and worked is soon shown the door.
"He instills a belief in you which translates into your believing in yourself more," defensive tackle Ryan Sims said. "He's like a parent. He really cares."
But those who meet his expec
tations thrive.
Tuesday is the usual day off for all NFL players. But the Chiefs after every victory are also given "Victory Monday" off. Anyone who wants to jet out to Las Vegas and party for two days is free to do so.
But Vermeil encourages them to come in on their own for unsupervised film study and conditioning work. So that is what they do.
"From the superstars all the way to the backup players, everybody shows up on Monday," Hicks said.
Vermeil believes it's important for the Monday routine not to be a requirement.
"I don't make it mandatory, because I want it to come from them," he said. "We haven't averaged more than two guys miss per week. It's never been the same guy twice."
Olympic committee may retest for steroid
The Associated Press
LONDON - The International Olympic Committee is looking into whether drug tests at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics can be rechecked for the recently discovered steroid THG, IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch said Wednesday.
"We are reviewing all these different issues, of course. Once we have all the information on the potential legal issues, my proposal will be to ask our president, and he will decide."
"The samples exist. Now we have to look into all the juridical issues," Schamasch said in a telephone interview from IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.
safety university. IOC lawyers are studying the legality of retroactive testing of frozen urine samples taken to Los Angeles from the temporary Olympic drug-testing laboratory at the University of Utah's Research Park.
The IOC also is asking scientists if the frozen 19-month-old samples are viable.
"We want to be sure that the quality of the sample is still good in order not to face any legal issue with a potential degradation," he said. "It's a very sensitive issue.
Dr. Don Catlin, who heads the Olympic drug-testing laboratory at UCLA, where 200 to 300 samples from the 2002 Winter Games are stored, said in a telephone interview Wednesday that retesting was still possible for THG, a previously undetectable drug.
"It's not a simple process for a long-term storage sample. It's easier when you have to go into an event which took place three or four months ago. When you have to go to an event that took place almost two years ago, it's more complicated."
The IOC's doping rules only require drug testers to keep backup samples of positive tests for 90 days, while backups of negative tests must be kept for 30 days.
James making transition from prep star to pro team player
The Associated Press
To really live up to his hype, LeBron James will have to score 30 points a game, lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to the NBA title and walk across Lake Erie.
Absent that, he showed in his dazzling debut Wednesday night why so many millions of dollars and the hopes of a city and a league were riding on his young, muscular shoulders.
James
James brought the full package to his first game; the alley-oop and no-look passes; the soft rainbow jumper; the steal and breakaway LeBrontosaurus dunk; the finger-roll drive; the running one-handed flip; the switching-hands-in-air scoop layup.
he could leap tall buildings in a single bound. He shot right and left, looked both ways before crossing, blew by defenders. He had power and grace and the rare gift of
He was Jordanesque and Magic-like, seemed almost as if
court presence. He let the game come to him and showed he can take it over.
Even at 18.
and Tracy McGrady came close to matching that.
King James, indeed. The prodigy said hello to the NBA with 25 points, nine assists, six rebounds and four steals. None of the other prep-to-pro hotshots like Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Amare Stoudemire, Jermaine O'Neal
One watched and wondered how many double-doubles, triple-doubles, maybe even quadruple-doubles lie ahead in his career?
James suffered only one slight bump — his Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Sacramento Kings, 106-92. That's something he's going to have to get used to. The Cavs will lose a lot of games this season on the way to getting better.
They will get schooled by older, wiser, deeper and more cohesive teams, like the two-time defending Pacific Division champion Kings, who won even without Chris Webber.
But the Cavs, with James running the show, will give lessons of their own. On Sacramento's court
in the opener, the Cavs erased a 19-point deficit and pulled ahead by a bucket early in the fourth quarter before fading. It was a noble defeat that held a glimpse of future victories.
If performance is judged chiefly by winning and losing, then No. 3 pick Carmelo Anthony had the more successful debut on the same night, his Denver Nuggets beating San Antonio 80-72 with his 12 points and seven rebounds.
James wouldn't disagree. His numbers may have impressed everyone else but didn't satisfy him. Asked if he surpassed his own expectations, he said, "I try not to think about that with a loss."
That's a pro attitude and James has it down quickly.
There was an unselfishness in
his first game that suggested a player who puts his team ahead of his stats. It could be seen when he passed up an open drive to toss the ball to a trailing Ricky Davis for a highlight-film dunk.
"I'm a team player," James said. "He's a scorer. I'm the point guard."
It could be seen, too, in the way James restrained his shooting, taking mostly good looks and hitting 12 of 20 attempts from the floor. When he was double-teamed, he passed the ball rather than force a shot.
If anything, he was too shy about shooting his first game out. He didn't take a shot in the second quarter and didn't drive enough through the lane. He went to the free-throw line only once, hitting one of three tries
when he was fouled on a three-pointer.
James, 6-foot-8, 240 pounds, looks and plays at least four years older than he is, putting him on the same plane physically with the college grads. It's scary to contemplate what he will be like when he's their age.
"I didn't expect him to have this kind of night," Cavs coach Paul Silas said. "But I knew he was capable of it."
The city of Cleveland, the NBA, ESPN and an array of companies were banking on it. LeBron parties gathered to watch him on national TV and got their fill, despite ESPN blowing the coverage of his auspicious first quarter by staying with the overtime of the atrocious Orlando- New York game.
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