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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesdav. August 16. 1995
23B
Preseason easy for Lions' star player
The Associated Press
PONTIAC, Mich. — It is a mist morning at the Lions' training camp. The ball is snapped. The quarterback hands off to Barry Sanders. Almost at once, the coach's whistle blows.
Wayne Fontes is no fool. He doesn't want the Detroit defense to even think about laying a hand on Sanders.
Yes, the star system is alive and well in the NFL. In some camps, it may seem unfair. But it works very well for Sanders and the Lions. The shifty little running back is no good to the team if he is injured.
New England fans, who paid as much as $40 to see the Patriots exhibition game with the Lions, were more than a little miffed last week when Fontes held Sanders out of the game. The NFL also frowns on holding stars out of pre-season games.
But a heavy rain had left the field soft and Fontes wasn't taking any chances.
"Barry had the flu," Fontes said with a wink and a chuckle. "The fact that he was able to take part in practice this week only speaks volumes about his amazing recuperative powers."
The absence of Sanders gave backup running back Ron Rivers a chance to shine. Rivers gained 47 yards on 12 carries and caught a team-high five passes for 48 yards.
"I was stunned when the coaches told me, just before the game, that I was starting," Rivers said. "I thought Barry would play a lot. But I wasn't here for the preseason last year. I just didn't know."
He could have looked it up. Since being drafted by the Lions in 1989, Sanders hasn't logged even two full quarters of exhibition time. He was a holdout his rookie season.
"I guess they figure I know the plays," Sanders said with a shrug.
Football players, almost to the man, dislike training camp. The weather is almost always hot and humid. The routine of twice-daily practices keeps in a hurry.
It would be natural if some of the players were jealous of the preferred treatment accorded Sanders. But they're not.
Sanders has always been one of the big favorites on this team. He is treated like everyone's favorite little brother. The hulking linemen take him home to dinner. When the season is over, and the rushing yardage again totals over 1,000 yards, Sanders buys them watches.
Even the defensive linemen like Sanders. Henry Thomas, the free agent defensive tackle who signed with the Lions in February, got used to the NFL's star system during his years with the Minnesota
Vilkings.
"I'm told that some teams have a fine system for laying hands on the quarterback and such," Thomas said. "They don't tell us we can't touch Barry, but you know they frown on it. You see how quick Coach blows the whistle after Barry gets the ball."
Because they have been careful with their star property, Sanders has missed only seven games in his NFL career. He had missed only two until a knee injury forced him to sit out the final five games of the 1993 season. He returned for the playoffs and ran for 169 yards in a 28-24 loss to the Green Bay Packers.
"We just think keeping Barry in one piece is smart business," Lions center Kevin Glover said. "There is nobody else like him in all of football. It only makes sense to have him healthy for the regular season."
Probation halts Crimson Tide's postseason roll
The Associated Press
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Nearly 700 victories. Forty-seven bowl appearances. Six national championships.
And one probation.
The team that has won more bowl games than any other will not be attending one this season after the NCAA handed down a sentence of three years' probation for rule violations.
A team that is disappointed — no, insulted — not to be playing for a national championship will be home on New Year's Day, as well as the day before and the day after.
"There's a lot of doubt in our players' minds right now," said defensive lineman Shannon Brown. "We're taking this in and not knowing where to go, what to do, what to play for."
At the recent Southeastern Conference kickoff news conference, Coach Gene Stallings tried to keep the focus on football. It was no use.
He called the NCAA investigation a distraction, said he wanted to learn the Tide's fate and get it over
with.
That was before the sentence was read. Then, melancholy turned into rage.
"I'm not a detective," Stallings said, answering the NCAA's charges that he should have known that star player Antonio Langham was ineligible after signing with an agent. "And I don't want the NCAA to make a detective out of me."
Alabama embarks on this season like it never has before — gripped by major NCAA penalties and stricken with a scarlet letter that signals infamy.
The penalties include a postseason ban this season, a loss of about 30 scholarships over three years and the forfeiture of 11 games in which Langham played while he was ineligible.
I think that's a pretty stiff stiff
I, Stallings said. "I really do."
The question for Alabama is whether the team can turn the cloud of doubt into a motivational force. It was done in a tiny hamlet called Auburn, where Terry Bowden
snatched up a losing team and damaged program and did for a while what you're supposed to do in sports—win every game.
While on probation, Auburn won 20 straight before a tie and a loss in the final two games last season.
"You definitely have to look at somebody like Auburn and get some advice on how to handle a situation like this," said Brown. "It's ridiculous."
Interviews and team meetings have focused on the NCAA for much of preseason practice, but there has been some talk about football.
Stallings said he expected to have a superb defensive team. And despite the departure of quarterback Jay Barker and running back Sherman Williams, who combined for most of Alabama's offense last season, Stallings said he thought the offense would be better this year.
Last season, Alabama was winning all its games, ever never got to No. 1 in the rankings. The way the Tide won left doubts about how dominant a team it was.
"We didn't play very well," Stallings said. "If you're not playing very well, even though you're winning games, you're not going to be ranked very high."
In place of Barker will be either Brian Burgdorf, a gritty scrambler, or Freddie Kitchens, an rifle-armed thrower who is sometimes erratic. A big question is the offensive line. Center John Causey was hurt in the Citrus Bowl, and his status is uncertain.
A bigger concern to Stallings is whether the team will rally or self-destruct under the weight of NCAA probation.
Auburn rallied around the idea of winning the national championship without playing a bowl game, only to find out that all it takes is one slip-up and you're done.
"At the end of the season, it hurt when they finally realized that they weren't taken seriously," Bowden said. "You don't play a Jan. 1 game, you can't win a national championship."
Oakland welcomes former L.A. Raiders
The Associated Press
OAKLAND, Calif. — After playing for years at the half-empty Los Angeles Coliseum, the Raiders were stunned by the crowd that surrounded their buses as the team returned to its roots in Oakland.
"I'll tell you, the greatest feeling was coming off the bus and hearing the crowd cheer," said defensive tackle Chester McGlockton. "This is a day I never forget."
Hundreds of fans wearing silver and black jerseys, many of which had been hidden in closets since the Raiders left town in 1982, cheered wildly as the team arrived two hours before Saturday's preseason game against St. Louis.
The Raiders won the battle of Los Angeles deserters 27-22 in their first game at the Oakland Coliseum since announcing their return to the town in which they spent their first 22 seasons.
"It's a rebirth," McGlockton said. "We're coming out of a drought, and this city is going to help us do it. The guys were all up and excited."
Raiders wide receiver Tim Brown said it was impossible to compare the atmosphere in Oakland with that in Los Angeles.
"It's night and day," Brown said. "These people appreciate a football team. We've been looking forward to this ever since the announcement that we were coming back here."
Both Raiders coach Mike White and Rams coach Rich Brooks said Saturday's noisy crowd, about 5,000 short of a sellout at the 50,000-seat Oakland Coliseum, gave the game the atmosphere of a regular-season contest.
A marketing snauf hurt ticket sales. At first, fans were required to buy tickets for both Raiders home preseason games — the second, on Aug. 25 against New
England, has been moved to Stanford Stadium because of a conflict with the Oakland Athletics.
Some fans did not want to travel to Stanford, about an hour from the Coliseum, and refused to buy the package.
In the days leading up to Saturday's game, tickets were sold separately and some were discounted up to 40 percent to boost disappointing sales. Other seats were offered free to season ticket holders.
Despite the lack of a sellout, Saturday's preseason game still outdrew three of the Raiders' eight regular-season home games last year at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
The Raiders averaged 52,719 fans per game in Los Angeles last season. The team said Saturday that seating capacity at the Oakland Coliseum this year will expand to 53,000 once the baseball season ends. An expansion to 65,000 seats is planned for the 1996 football season.
Jim Otto, a former Raiders center now in the Hall of Fame, has represented Raiders owner Al Davis in negotiations with Oakland officials throughout the last few months. He was an honorary captain and went out for Saturday's coin toss.
"We came here with the idea that we would be in a community where we can win and be appreciated. We have that, you saw it today," Otto said. "I had lumps in my throat. I was choked up there for a while. What I learned today was there's still a love affair between northern California fans and the Oakland Raiders."
The Raiders had an 88-24-3 record, for a .786 winning percentage, at the Oakland Coliseum from 1966-81. They were 68-40, a .630 winning percentage, at the Los Angeles Coliseum from 1982 to 1994.
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