Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 26, 1993 TAG: 9304260109
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
He might have been the only selection who listened to the draft on the radio.
"I was a little nervous after the first two rounds," said Ware, who was at his father's home in Mitchellville, Md. "I couldn't study, I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep. So, I went downstairs to play Sega-Genesis with my little brother."
Ware, who played at William Fleming High School in Roanoke, was listening to ESPN radio when he learned he had been chosen by the New York Jets in the fourth round.
"I wanted to go in the second or third round but I'm definitely not disappointed with the fourth round," said Ware, the first Roanoker to be drafted since Tom Pettigrew in 1980.
Ware was one of three UVa players to be chosen, joining defensive end Chris Slade and running back Terry Kirby. Slade, projected as an outside linebacker, was taken by New England with the second pick in the second round. Kirby went to Miami in the third round.
Although he hadn't expected to hear from New England, Slade quickly warmed to the idea of playing for new Patriots' coach Bill Parcells.
"He told me he didn't draft me to sit on the bench," said Slade, whose idol, Lawrence Taylor, played for Parcells with the New York Giants. "[Parcells] said he wanted somebody to rush the quarterback and I told him, `You called the right man.' "
If there was any letdown at not being selected in the first round, it didn't last long.
"I anticipated I'd go late in the first round if I went in the first round at all," said Slade, who broke an ACC record with 35 1/2 sacks in his UVa career. "I wasn't crushed."
New England's new defensive coordinator, Al Groh, is the father of one of Slade's college teammates, Mike Groh. Moreover, Al Groh was linebacker coach for Cleveland when the Browns' staff coached Slade at the Senior Bowl.
"He had seen me play," said Slade, monitoring the draft from his home in Tabb. " [But] if you had asked for four or five teams that might draft me, New England would not have been on the list.
"I heard from Pittsburgh on Sunday morning and the word was, they were going to take me or [Notre Dame linebacker] Demetrius DuBose. Then, they didn't take either one of us."
One of ESPN's draft reporters, Brad Nessler, reported during the first round that Kirby might go to the Dolphins. He did, but two rounds later than he had hoped.
"I was a little disappointed," said Kirby, the leading rusher in UVa history. "I don't know what happened. The draft's a funny thing.
"A lot of guys asked about my eyesight. For some reasons, a lot of scouts thought I was legally blind, which I'm not. I don't see as well with my right eye as my left, but it hasn't hindered me in any way. It didn't stop me from catching [105] passes."
Florida State linebacker Marvin Jones was the first of three ACC players to be selected in the first round, going to the Jets on the fourth pick. Clemson linebacker Wayne Simmons, twice arrested for assault and battery this past season, went to Green Bay on the 15th pick.
North Carolina defensive back Thomas Smith, chosen by Buffalo on the next-to-last selection of the first round, started a run of five ACC players in a span of nine picks. They included Slade and Wake Forest offensive tackle Ben Coleman, who played at Park View High in South Hill.
Tennessee defensive end Todd Kelly, who played at Bethel High in Hampton, was the only Virginia product to be taken in the first round. San Francisco used the 27th pick to take Kelly.
Ware said he may have dropped in some scouts' estimation after suffering a pulled hamstring at the National Scouting Combine in February. However, there was also a perception that he was underweight; in Friday's edition of USA Today he was listed at 269 pounds.
"The first thing the Jets asked when they called was, `How much do you weigh?' " said Ware, the third player chosen by the Jets, who did not have a pick in the third round. "I guess I've weighed 269 at some time in my life, but only on the way to 290."
by CNB