SMALL HAS MADE IT BIG IN THE NFL : Seven Quarterbacks Who Once Played for Small Colleges Have Shown Talent to Lead Pro Teams

On a November night a decade ago, Phil Simms became possibly the first high school football player ever recruited during a television interview.

A quarterback, later drafted No. 1 by the New York Giants, Simms had been unimpressive as a young athlete. In all his high school days, he never met a college recruiter. Never even saw one.

But his team made the Kentucky state football final his senior season at Louisville’s Southern High. And on the night before the championship game, Simms was interviewed for the first time on a local TV news program.

“It was one of those forgettable two-minute TV interviews where nobody says anything,” Simms recalled the other day. “The only unforgettable thing about it was that an assistant coach from Morehead State (Ky.) was passing through town and had turned on the news at his hotel. He thought I looked pretty cool for a high school kid.

“He called to say I handled myself well in the interview, and he invited me to join their team. That was the only college team that contacted me in high school.”

Thus, remarkably, did Simms launch a career that has carried him from a Division II environment at Morehead State to the National Football League.

He didn’t make the long trip alone, however. Of the NFL’s starting quarterbacks this year, no fewer than seven are from small-college teams. That’s 25%, which is unusually high when measured against public notions and perceptions.

It is popularly supposed that college football’s top teams pick off the best of the prep quarterbacks each year and that, subsequently, only the best of the best move on to the pros. From Joe Namath to John Elway and Dan Marino, there have been enough such examples to sustain the illusion.

But it is just an illusion. Two of the game’s greatest, John Unitas and Terry Bradshaw, played for unfamiliar if not obscure college teams--at Louisville and Louisiana Tech, respectively--and, today, small-college quarterbacks are all over the league.

Two are in New York, Simms and Ken O’Brien of the Jets, and another, Ron Jaworski is at Philadelphia. Two are on the West Coast, Dieter Brock of the Rams and Dave Krieg of Seattle. Two are in the Midwest, Neil Lomax of St. Louis and Bill Kenney of Kansas City.

Several more have started at least one pro game this year, among them Jeff Kemp of the Rams, meaning that more than 25% of the NFL’s top quarterbacks represent small colleges.

That isn’t true at other positions--where only 7% of the NFL’s 1,200 players are from Divisions II and III or NAIA teams.

Why are there so many small-college quarterbacks?

Veteran football coaches and scouts say this:

--Young passers are uniquely difficult to analyze. The Dallas Cowboys say their computers are almost worthless in evaluating quarterbacks.

--What puzzles scouts and computers alike is, first, that it takes more than talent to play this position well, and, second, that the required intangibles are hard to quantify.

Of these intangibles, NFL coaches say that self-confidence is as important to quarterbacks as their talent. They say that toughness--mental and physical--is at least as important as either talent or confidence. And they say that opportunity is the other critical factor--the opportunity to start and continue to play.

The consensus is that each of those factors--talent, confidence, toughness, and opportunity--is about 25% of what it takes to become an NFL quarterback.

Or as former quarterback Pat Haden said: “Hundreds of people walking the streets today have NFL arms. You see them throwing beautiful passes at the beach, at playgrounds, at office picnics. But only a tiny handful of them have the mental toughness and the other things it takes to be a quarterback.”

TALENT

Snow was falling in Kansas City on the winter day in 1979 when Bill Kenney reported for a tryout. He had already been cut by two NFL clubs, Miami and Washington. The Chiefs represented his last chance.

But how could he demonstrate his skills as a passer in a snowstorm?

The Chiefs’ offensive coach, Kay Dalton, who had faced such problems before in Kansas City, led him to the only possible place for an audition that day, the team’s weight room.

There, on a 20-yard straightaway, Dalton gave Kenney a football and told him to throw it.

Dropping back seven steps, Kenney turned and threw, hitting Dalton in his extended left hand. Then he dropped back and hit him in the right hand.

“You’ll do,” Dalton said.

“The Chiefs won’t regret it,” the young quarterback said.

By 1983, Kenney was in the Pro Bowl. In ’84 he experienced another big season. And this year the Chiefs completed a 3-1 first month when Kenney led them over the Raiders, 36-20, before he was injured.

The Chiefs fell apart soon afterward with more injuries, player dissension, and a drug scandal involving a starting defensive lineman. And eventually, conceding the season lost, the coaches began experimenting with young Todd Blackledge at quarterback.

Still, Kenney remains one of the NFL’s most respected at his position, and a probable starter next year.

Like Jaworski, Elway, Marino, O’Brien and the NFL’s other starting quarterbacks, Kenney said he has always been able to throw a football hard and accurately.

But, he added, he has always had a problem, too.

At 6 feet 4 inches and 220 pounds, he looks like a tight end, and his coaches have all wanted him to play that position instead. Born in San Francisco, where his father Charles was a guard for the 49ers, Bill began as a tight end, catching passes from his brothers.

He played both tight end and quarterback in high school at San Clemente, in junior college, and at Arizona State before finally losing a pivotal argument with Frank Kush, who wanted Danny White at quarterback.

Kenney, a quarterback at heart, moved along to Northern Colorado, a Division II school in the Rockies. He became a star passer there as a senior, and looked forward to a tryout with an Atlanta scout, who gave him a written test first.

“How’d I do?” Kenney asked afterward.

“Very well, for a tight end,” the scout replied.

“I’m a quarterback,” Kenney screamed.

But for years, he couldn’t prove it, to Kush, or to Don Shula in Miami, or to Jack Pardee in Washington or any other coach. One year, the best job he could get was selling stocks and bonds in Greeley, Colo.

Not until he got to Kansas City did the NFL find out what Kenney has known for most of his life: “I’ve always had the talent.”

Trouble is, that isn’t always enough.

CONFIDENCE

Ron Jaworski, the Philadelphia quarterback from Youngstown State in Ohio, has led the NFL in two respects for more than 10 years: No one can throw the ball harder, not even Elway, and no quarterback has more confidence in his ability.

Both traits were first demonstrated long ago when Jaworski began his athletic career as a baseball player in Buffalo. An 8-year-old catcher, he knocked in a couple of runs in his first start, and threw out an older lad at second base.

He was the only player under age 10 in the game.

“In those days, when I was 8 and 9 years old, the kids I played with were all 10 or 12,” Jaworski said. “But I always felt I was the best player on the field. My confidence is innate. I was just born that way.”

If so, he’s different from most other quarterbacks. Most have had to conquer some self-doubts.

In his Morehead State days, for instance, Phil Simms made a slow transition from prep to college ball. He realized that if no other college wanted him, he must have some shortcomings.

But one day Steve Walters, the Morehead quarterback coach, drew him aside and asked: “Do you know who Don Strock is?”

“Sure,” Simms said. “He’s the Miami Dolphins’ quarterback.”

Replied Walters: “Well, when he was your age, I was his coach, and let me tell you something about Don Strock and Phil Simms: You’ve got everything he’s got, and more.”

Recalling the incident, Simms said: “I could tell by looking in his eyes that Coach Walters meant it. And that’s what gave me the confidence I have to this day.”

He looks back on the scene as a turning point.

“Here’s what confidence does for you,” Simms said. “It makes you work harder. You actually enjoy hard work when you’re convinced that you have the talent to make it worthwhile.”

Simms and Jaworski, who both play in the NFC East, have had parallel careers since boyhood. Their schools, Morehead State and Youngstown State, are in the same conference, the Ohio Valley.

“They were Division II when we were there,” Jaworski said. “We got things upgraded to Division I-AA.”

As high school seniors, both players were small for either I-A or I-AA. Jaworski, 196 now, weighed 158 when he graduated from high school. Simms has grown from 170 to 214.

“You get a chance to mature in a smaller school,” Simms said. “They don’t rush you.”

Both began as baseball players in low-income families. Simms’ father worked in a tobacco factory in Louisville.

Jaworski, whose father worked in a Buffalo lumber yard, said: “Whatever I chose to do, he supported me. As a little kid, when I played baseball seven nights a week, he was there for every game. Looking back, that didn’t hurt my confidence.”

Hall of Famer Merlin Olsen hasn’t known many players like Jaworski.

“For most guys, it takes awhile for their confidence level to build,” said Olsen, the NBC broadcaster who used to make all-pro every year for the Rams. “Most quarterbacks have a lot to overcome before they can begin to feel confident. But if they’re (NFL) starters now, self-confidence is what they’ve all got. They may not have an NFL arm--but they think they have.”

TOUGHNESS

The big game was a baseball game during Seattle quarterback Dave Krieg’s senior year at Milton College in Milton, Wis., a school no longer in existence.

The opponent was a Big Ten team, Illinois, and, said Krieg’s coach, Rudy Gaddini: “We had them beat in the eighth inning, 3-2, but they loaded the bases on us.

“Fortunately, we had a good relief pitcher ready, Dave Krieg. Dave set them down, and we won it, 3-2. He’s always at his best when the pressure is hottest.”

He’s mentally tough, in other words. He plays well in pressure situations, and that this is the No. 1 virtue of a quarterback, in the view of many old pros.

Said Olsen: “The hardest thing about football, and I’m thinking of quarterbacking in particular, is adjusting to the mental and emotional pressure. The pressure is enormous in those big games.”

Pat Haden, who led USC and the Rams through some of their finest hours, said: “Mental toughness is most of what you need. The best quarterback I saw was Roger Staubach--who was a long way from being the best passer. Staubach simply refused to lose. So did Bjorn Borg and Jack Nicklaus. So did Terry Bradshaw.”

So did Haden, who in a memorable matchup of 10-4 and 11-3 teams one year brought the Rams from behind to beat the Raiders, 20-14.

“Physical toughness is really quite common,” said Haden, who stood under 5-11 and weighed about 185 when he was facing opponents weighing 250 and up. “Most normal, healthy males are tough enough to play football. A physical beating is comparatively easy to absorb--if you’re willing to take it.”

Not nearly as common as physical toughness, Haden said, is mental toughness, which he defines as the willingness to take it. “To hang in there when you’re worn out and every muscle hurts. To keep coming back. To refuse to quit.”

Or as Krieg’s coach, Gaddini, said: “When a break feels like a bruise, you’ve got a player. When a bruise feels like a break, you’ve got a problem.”

Long ago, Gaddini predicted a bright future for Krieg. “Nothing fazes him,” he said. “Dave can stand anything. And (at Milton), we didn’t taint him by pampering him like they do in Division I.”

Football people, including most NFL coaches and scouts, as well as Haden and Gaddini, all make the same points about quarterbacks:

--There aren’t many naturally great ones. Generally speaking, runners, receivers and defensive players are born, but quarterbacks and offensive linemen have to be manufactured.

--The best quarterbacks aren’t necessarily football’s best passers. Winning quarterbacks tend to be those who operate on a full tank of confidence and mental toughness.

--Successful quarterbacking is something like telling jokes in public or singing on stage. Many comedians and singers don’t bring much to their craft aside from guts, the mental toughness, to stand up and do it.

--Various kinds of passes don’t take much ability, anyway. Most good athletes can learn to throw a swing pass to a fullback or a quick pass to a tight end. The nerve to release the ball when it should be released is the essential thing in completing most NFL passes.

--Quarterbacking is a perfectible art. Whereas running backs, for example, don’t improve much from year to year, quarterbacks can. Those with discipline and patience usually continue to improve indefinitely in the big intellectual aspect of the job: reading defenses. A good Division II defense baffled them when they began. After years of study, they can read good NFL defenses.

--Except for the characteristic known as mental toughness, almost everything a quarterback needs can be learned. Mental toughness seems to be inborn.

For a while, that was almost all Krieg had. Although he averaged two touchdown passes a week for Seattle last year--and made the Pro Bowl--he couldn’t even make all-conference in high school.

And as a Milton College passer in his senior year, Krieg was nationally ranked only seventh in what has been called the basement of football, the second division of the NAIA, which is several floors below the NCAA’s second division.

Krieg, however, had several things going for him.

“His daddy is a state patrolman and his parents came to all the games. They were very supportive,” said Julie Gaddini, the wife of his coach.

“And Dave was as proud of Milton College as we were of him. Milton was the oldest school in Wisconsin when it closed, I’m sorry to say, and it had given Dave his chance. He paid his own way, you know. It cost $6,000 a year in those days, and we only gave $500 scholarships.”

Julie’s husband, who talked the Seahawks into giving Krieg a tryout six years ago, knew his protege had it made in the pros when Krieg wrote back from Seattle’s training camp the first summer.

“Dave said he and several others were sleeping on the floor because there weren’t beds enough for all the rookies,” Gaddini said.

“I told his mother that he must have thought he was back in the dorm at Milton. Those Division I guys wouldn’t take kindly to the floor, I’m sure of that, and the key to football is how you handle stress. If Dave didn’t learn anything else at Milton, he learned that.”

OPPORTUNITY

Neil Lomax of the St. Louis Cardinals agrees with the critics who said he wasn’t a very good quarterback 10 years or so ago at Lake Oswego High School in Oregon.

The son of a high school music teacher, Neil played the trumpet about as well as he played quarterback.

“I was considering a musical career,” he said.

But in his senior year, he got a break that he hadn’t expected. Lake Oswego isn’t far from Portland State University, where one of the most innovative college coaches of his day, Mouse Davis, perfected the run-and-shoot formation.

“Mouse came out to see our high school team play a few times and I know we turned him off,” Lomax recalled. “But one night I saw him watching me warm up on the sideline, and afterward he came up and said he liked the way I handled myself. No other college showed any interest in me. When Mouse offered a scholarship a few weeks later, I grabbed it.”

Lomax is a good example of an NFL quarterback who might not be in football today if opportunity hadn’t knocked so loudly:

--If he’d played high school football in the next state, Mouse Davis probably wouldn’t have bothered to check him out.

--Davis certainly wouldn’t have bothered to study him on the sideline.

--On a run-and-shoot team, the Portland coach could make room for him because he kept five quarterbacks on scholarship.

--With places for only two freshmen, Davis preferred two others to Lomax. Only when one of them turned down a Portland scholarship did Lomax become the team’s fifth quarterback.

--It was the flashy run-and-shoot offense that eventually showcased Lomax and converted him into a nationally celebrated passer. On a conventional college team, he might never have won a real NFL chance. Even on a passing team, Lomax failed to impress some scouts. Despite his extraordinary college record, he wasn’t drafted until the second round.

Ram quarterback Dieter Brock took an entirely different road to the NFL. Son of a steel company welder in Birmingham, Ala., Brock always wanted to play for Bear Bryant at Alabama, but settled for a scholarship at Auburn.

Disenchanted there, he moved along within two years, choosing Jacksonville State in Alabama. His reasons: By stepping down to Division II, he wouldn’t lose a year’s eligibility. Second, the coach, Charlie Pell, wanted him.

When it was time for pro football, Brock made his own opportunities.

“My college goal was to play pro ball,” Brock said. “Not just to try out for a pro team--but to play. Winnipeg (of the Canadian Football League) offered me that chance--and then raised their offer just before the NFL draft--and I took it. I wasn’t sure what the NFL would do with me.”

By 1985, Brock was confident that he had the credentials of an NFL starter.

“I don’t know what would have happened if the Rams had drafted me out of college,” he said. “But with my Canadian experience, I knew I could play in the NFL. As a free agent, the opportunity was mine, and I chose a team that wanted me as a starter.”

Jet quarterback Ken O’Brien had also been cautious several years ago in his approach to college football. Judging by what he has shown the pros as a young starter this season, O’Brien, a Sacramento prep product, could have made it big at nearby Stanford or as a USC quarterback.

And as the son of an orthopedic surgeon, he could have afforded to walk on if he’d had to.

Instead, O’Brien chose a Division II career at UC Davis. “I’d do it again,” he said. “No school is more oriented toward the pro style than Cal Davis. I was perfectly prepared there for the NFL.”

The Jets thought so, too, drafting him in the first round.

The thread that binds O’Brien, Brock and Lomax together--binding all other NFL starters, as well, Division II or Division I--is that somebody gave them an opportunity to play.

“There are a bunch of quarterback candidates every summer in every pro camp,” said New England executive Dick Steinberg. “And most of them have some talent. Sometimes I think the hardest thing about the (quarterback) job is getting the job.”

A high percentage of the new candidates each year are from Division II schools, and NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle said there are many reasons why good quarterbacks keep enrolling in small colleges.

“Some want to play near home, where their family and friends can watch them,” Rozelle said. “Some are late bloomers. For some, big schools are scary. They don’t want to get lost in the crowd. And some want the opportunity to play immediately and extensively.”

It was because Jaworski wanted to play immediately and extensively that, as a young high school graduate, he took Youngstown State’s offer over offers from Syracuse, Boston College and Pitt.

Jaworski didn’t get his big break, however, until his final season at Youngstown, when Lou Saban, then coaching in the NFL, reached down to Division II and invited him to play in the Senior Bowl.

A projected 12th-round NFL choice going into that game, he performed so well, before a distinguished crowd of pro coaches and scouts, that the Rams drafted him No. 2.

Why did Saban want Jaworski?

“The Buffalo papers were saying a lot of good things about my play at Youngstown State,” Jaworski said. “And that year, Coach Saban also lived in Buffalo.”

To a quarterback, in other words, opportunity can be more vital than talent.

Said Gaddini, Krieg’s old coach: “As a small-college coach for many years, I’m convinced of one thing. The nation is full of small-college quarterbacks who could play in the NFL. They just never get the chance.”