Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 17, 1994 TAG: 9408100021
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The one that will be crucial during the season is $3.
That's the price of a game program at RFK Stadium, and sales should be brisk for the game-day magazines around the league. That's also the price of free agency and a salary cap. The NFL's change-of-address record was snapped this summer, and some of the moves were almost as surprising as when Bob Irsay rode the Mayflowers from Baltimore to Indianapolis a decade ago.
As teams begin sweating down from 80 players in camp - the Washington Redskins begin workouts Thursday morning for the 32nd consecutive summer in Carlisle, Pa. - the NFL heads toward a season of stunning change. The two-point conversion is available. Kickoffs move back 5 yards to the 30. NFC telecasts switch with Pat Summerall and John Madden from CBS to Fox.
However, it's the new faces in new uniforms that will be most different about the 75th NFL season. About 200 players have moved via free agency and trades since last season. Sixty percent of the teams in the NFC East may have new coaches - and Buddy Ryan against Barry Switzer has all the potential of a nuclear-test site - but figuring out who's who behind center might take up the entire one-hour Fox pregame show.
Consider that since the last game in which Jerry Jones employed Jimmy Johnson - that would be Super Bowl XXVIII in January - so many quarterbacks have been dealt, released or moved through free agency that only seven of the 28 NFL clubs are beginning training camp with the same starting and backup quarterbacks who played last season.
Ten clubs figure to begin the season with new starters, including eight of the 14 NFC teams. Green Bay's Brett Favre is the only NFC Central starting quarterback who wasn't a packer in the off-season. The only NFC teams with the same two quarterbacks at the top of the depth chart are Philadelphia (Randall Cunningham and Bubby Brister) and the Packers (Favre and Ty Detmer).
Rodney Peete went from No.1 in Detroit to No.2 in Dallas. In Chicago, where Jim Harbaugh and Peter Tom Willis were a pair, the new duo is Erik Kramer and Steve Walsh. Jim Everett is gone from the Los Angeles Rams to New Orleans as a starter, displacing Wade Wilson. Scott Mitchell went from Dan Marino's backup in Miami to the Lions' starter. In New England, Drew Bledsoe still is backed up by a not-so-great Scott, but it's Zolak instead of Secules.
Warren Moon, who couldn't get Houston an AFC title, is starting over in Minnesota, where Sean Salisbury was the backup to Jim McMahon, who is now with Arizona, which used to be Phoenix. Salisbury switched rosters with Moon to back up Cody Carlson, who was Moon's backup, a position now held in Minnesota by Andre Ware, who departed Detroit.
Got that?
In Washington, new coach Norv Turner has handed the former roles of Mark Rypien and Cary Conklin to rookie Heath Shuler - when he signs - and John Friesz, respectively. The Redskins have a unique situation in a unique year. For the first time in the franchise's 57-year history, the Redskins begin camp with four quarterbacks - Shuler, Friesz, Pat Ryan and Gus Frerotte - who have not taken one snap for the club.
The NFL should get used to this. Free agency moved baseball's glamour performers away from clubs with which they built an identity and fan following. Quarterbacks figure to be shuffled perennially, especially backups, because under a hard salary cap clubs cannot afford to keep a high-priced reserve.
In the past year, the average quarterback salary has risen $1 million. At the same time, with the introduction of the cap giving the players 64 percent of the league's gross revenue, the average club payroll will fall more than $8 million, from $42.9 million in 1993. That's the reason Steve Bono will be backing up Joe Montana again, if in a different location.
To NFL quarterbacks, van lines have become as important as offensive lines.
Write to Jack Bogaczyk at the Roanoke Times & World-News, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, 24010.
Keywords:
FOOTBALL
by CNB