Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 14, 1993 TAG: 9309140093
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jim Ducibella
DATELINE: ASHBURN LENGTH: Medium
Rypien, out three to six weeks with a torn medial collateral ligament, may personify this Redskins' season if things go badly in his absence.
Against the Cardinals, he was flexing his wings after an exhilarating performance the previous week against the hated Dallas Cowboys. Then, pressed from the pocket by a team the Redskins were supposed to trounce, he lurched down the field far enough for a first down.
But Rypien couldn't slide past 295-pound Eric Swann, who flipped him up, then over - "like a pancake" Rypien said - before falling on his knee.
The obligatory hush fell over the crowd as Rypien writhed in pain on the ground. But as he hobbled toward the Redskins' locker room, the JIM DUCIBELLA applause was, ah, polite. A ripple for Ryp, you might say.
Maybe 55,000 fans at RFK Stadium couldn't tear their eyes from the field, though that's stretching the boundaries of believability to the breaking point. Maybe they remained in shock at seeing Rypien and, possibly, their season of great expectations go down.
Or maybe - probably - they hold Rypien in such low regard that they would give the ball boy a bigger ovation if he went down.
It's shameful. Rypien deserves more, much more.
He has been a far different kind of quarterback than fans of this franchise are accustomed to seeing, though not necessarily the kind he'd have chosen to be.
But he looked around the room when he first arrived and saw Art Monk and Earnest Byner and the Hogs in their heyday and he understood that they were the leaders. Until they faded, he was a cog in the machinery.
It's a lesson Theismann never cared to learn, and it nearly cost him his career in Washington. So intent was he on making his mark, regardless of whether he had earned that right, that he charged onto turf overseen by Jurgensen and Kilmer, who couldn't stomach him.
Had George Allen been able to postpone or derailed Joe Gibbs' arrival in Washington a few years longer, Theismann might have been little more than a trivia answer.
Rypien led in a quiet manner, unnoticed by the fans, often even the press, which was fine with him. Months passed before anyone knew the story of Rypien strolling into the training room at halftime of the Super Bowl and innocently asking a trainer to look at his rib cage.
Rypien wasn't sure, but he thought he might have broken a couple during the first half. Seconds later, startled Bubba Tyer was wrapping Rypien's ribs while Gloria Estefan wailed away on the floor of the Metrodome. When she finished, Rypien went back and never missed a snap.
Then there was last year's postseason arm surgery. Rypien could have used that as an excuse for the lack of zip his passes possessed. And he could have said plenty about Gary Clark's slippery hands and Art Monk's sudden inability to get open and an offensive line that wore out the claims department at insurance companies.
Instead, he went before his accusers week after week and took the blame when things went bad. He made it his responsibility, even if it wasn't.
And when new coach Richie Petitbon opened competition for his position during the offseason, Rypien didn't blubber like Bubby Brister or Bobby Hebert and demand to be traded. He destroyed the competition.
Conklin received a rousing ovation when he took the field Sunday. By the end of his third series, the crowd was booing him as though he had a star on his helmet.
Conklin may turn out to be wonderful. He has the talent. However, the odds are he won't be nearly as good as Rypien. Not this season.
\ Jim Ducibella covers the Washington Redskins for Landmark News Service.
Keywords:
FOOTBALL
by CNB