Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 19, 1995 TAG: 9507190031
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: SPARTANBURG, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
So, who's this he's leading in your direction toward the media tent after practice? ``This is Sam Mills,'' the man says.
What? Has the training camp heat gotten to even the Panthers' front office staff? The roster says Mills stands 5 feet 9 and weights 225 pounds.
Even that's a stretch.
Mills has been fooling them for 12 years of pro football. The schoolteacher-turned-fierce hitter has started his 15th training camp with a new team. He's the Gray Panther, too, the oldest on Carolina's roster.
How old is he?
Mills is old enough for his son to be employed by the same business as him. Sam Mills III, 17, is in camp as a summer assistant with the Carolina equipment staff.
Mills, 36, signed a two-year deal with the Panthers for $2.85 million, leaving New Orleans, where in nine seasons he became as feared as any inside linebacker in the NFL.
``Two more years, if I make two, and that's it,'' he said. ``I don't want to be out there and have my skills diminish. In December, I want people looking back saying, `Hey, Sam Mills had a good year.'''
No matter what he does this season as the Carolina defense's play-caller, Mills' career already has been more than a success. He was a Division III player who's first pro football camp was a cutting experience with the CFL's Toronto Argonauts.
He was cut in the same year, but a different preseason, by Cleveland, although he led the Browns in exhibition-game tackles. So, the Montclair (N.J.) State alumnus got a job teaching photography in his home state at East Orange High School. Then he heard about a tryout for a new league, the U.S. Football League.
Mills went to a Philadelphia Stars' camp. The head coach was Jim Mora, who thought Mills was small, but tough. After practice, he was told to walk to a van parked on the other side of the field.
Inside that van, his dream came true.
``The offer was $25,000,'' Mills said. ``I signed on the spot. I was only making $13,600 teaching. Finally, someone was going to give me a chance, even though people still were telling me I was too short to play linebacker.''
The Stars won two USFL titles before the league folded. Mora went to the Saints. Mills followed. Mora's linebacker coach was Vic Fangio. The secondary coach was, like Mills, a man with a Division III pedigree, Dom Capers.
A decade later, Capers is the original Panthers' coach, and Fangio is Carolina's defensive coordinator. Any question as to why Mills is sweating in Spartanburg with everyone else?
``It's different because you're playing with different people,'' Mills said. ``What this team has is a bunch of guys, some with a lot of experience, who have learned in different styles and different systems.
``What's important is that it all comes together. I've been around, but I watch other guys out there and I still pick up things. Learning how your teammates play makes you a better player.''
Mora, who has had superb linebacking in New Orleans, says Mills is the best linebacker he's coached. Capers wanted Mills because he knew the veteran not only still could play - he led the Saints in tackles for the fifth time in 1994 - but because of the positive example he would set for a fledgling franchise.
``You don't find guys like Sam Mills very often,'' Capers says. ``He's dependable, accountable, responsible. He respects his job, maybe because of what he went through to play [pro football]. If you tell Sam you want something done, you don't have to worry about it.''
Mills ran with the fastest linebacker group in Saturday's 40-yard training session. He would have liked to finish his career with the Saints, who opted to spend their dollars elsewhere. ``It's a bad feeling,'' he said, ``but it happens.''
Mills may not be as quick or fast as he was, but he'll still play the run among the best in the league. Maybe it's because he gets lost among the behemoths up front.
Maybe it's because Mills, who certainly wouldn't come up short as a role model himself, paid attention to someone else who fought his way to the top of his game.
``The athlete I really admired was Muhammad Ali,'' Mills said. ``He was an awesome guy to me. Yes, he talked a lot, but he also got a lot done.''
by CNB