ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 4, 1996 TAG: 9608050125
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FROSTBURG, MD.
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF WRITER
``Can yoooou touch that?'' the child asked.
The boy was one of a group of children with Down's syndrome brought to the Washington Redskins' training camp at Frostburg State University. They were huddled in an alcove away from the rain to meet the players as the Redskins walked out of the locker room.
Most of the Redskins kept their feet moving as fast as their pens while they signed autographs for the youngsters. Rich Owens stopped to talk.
All the children could do when the 6-foot-6, 280-pound defensive end stood there was gasp. Finally, the boy asked Owens, ``How tall are you?''
Owens, holding his hand next to his forehead, answered, ``This tall.''
The boy continued, ``Can you touch that?'' as he pointed to a 7-foot door frame. Owens said, ``Sure,'' and smacked it with his hand. Then he said, ``I bet you can, too.''
Before the boy could stop shaking his head ``No,'' Owens was holding him up in the air, and the boy was grabbing the doorway. It certainly was a high point for the child.
``He's a beautiful, beautiful person,'' said Fred Mariani, who six years ago recruited Owens to Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa.
Owens is a man in his second year of what at times can be an ugly game, and not just on the field. He was Washington's fifth-round pick in the 1995 draft. He was taken based on potential and his awesome physical gifts. Since he's been a Redskin, Owens has shown a gifted mind and personality. In short, he's the coaches' pet, a man with a permanent 6-6 smile tabbed by his peers, ``Richie Redskin.''
``He's like everybody's little brother on this team,'' said Ron Lynn, Washington's defensive coordinator. ``They nicknamed him `Richie Redskin' because he kind of typifies what you'd like to have them all be. He's not a sociopath. This guy's the antithesis. He's got something unique to him.''
Among other things, the South Philadelphia native has a manic metabolism and a love for art and comic books.
Owens was 220 pounds during his senior year at Lehigh. He got up to 245 before his first Redskins training camp. By the end of last season, he was down to 225. During the winter, he shot up to 255.
``I'd get up to eat breakfast, maybe six or seven eggs, some toast,'' Owens said before being interrupted. ``Wait, I'm not done yet. A glass of milk, a glass of juice, bowl of cereal. Then I have a little snack. I'd eat lunch later around 1 or 2 o'clock. That's a burger or fries, whatever, a milkshake. Then I'd have another sandwich or two between meals. I wouldn't eat dinner until around 11 o'clock. Dinner's the time I really pack it on. I eat a lot of chicken, soda maybe, lots of water.''
Owens' wintertime routine often included eating 10 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches right before bedtime. ``I call it food coma,'' he said. ``When you eat a lot and you get that `Aaaah.' You sit back and go to sleep happy and satisfied.''
Owens' massive mass consumption has made them wonder, too. Coach Norv Turner ran into him in a Redskins Park hallway and whispered, ``Geez, you're going to be an offensive tackle next year. Is it steroids?''
``I said, `C'mon, Coach, you know me better than that!''' Owens said. ``I really can't explain it. It's just as much a mystery to me as it is to everybody else. But it hasn't seemed to slow me down.''
The Redskins are happy with his weight gain and his three-sack performance in three starts last season. They love the fact Owens has less than 9 percent body fat and outstanding speed. Now the fifth-rounder has turned into a phenom. He will be Washington's starting right defensive end when it opens the regular season Sept.1 against Philadelphia.
``It feels good to hear that,'' Owens said, ``but at the same time, I think in this quick-fix society now, everyone wants to see the end product before they see the actual work that goes into it.''
Until his senior year at Lehigh, Owens had put more work into his art than his football. That, not football, was the priority when he was choosing a college. His ninth-grade algebra teacher, A.W. Taylor, wanted him to go to the Ivy League, as did Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania, according to the letters they sent him. West Virginia and UVa looked at him, and Penn State offered him a full scholarship - as a hurdler.
``He had all kinds of potential written all over him,'' said Mariani, now an assistant coach at Fordham University.
Owens began his stay at Lehigh as an architecture major, but switched to graphic arts his sophomore year. He said his favorite disciplines are a ``three-way tie'' between drawing, painting and photography. Now football has entered as a fourth pursuit.
``They're two separate worlds,'' he said. ``Art is a more fluent, more relaxed type of world as opposed to a very violent, energetic sport. They're pretty much on equal planes in my life. Right now, art takes a back seat to football, but art is also important because it allows me to relax.''
Football must have been on his mind when Owens left his home in Ashburn, Va., for training camp. He remembered his art books, but forgot his drawing pads. He brought paintbrushes, but no paint. He did remember his ink, and said he hoped to do some black-and-white washes on off days.
Owens never has found perfection on an easel, although he came close in a model painting two years ago. He may never find perfection on the football field. Few ever do.
But the man who tells the disadvantaged ``they can'' has been achieving his whole life, as an academic star, as a graduate of a prestigious college and now as a football player believed to have a great future in the game.
``Some people are anointing him for Canton and I don't think he's quite ready, unless we play the Hall of Fame Game,'' Lynn said. ``He's got a lot, obviously, that he's got to do, but he's got all the qualities you're looking for.
``He's real bright-eyed, smiling, happy, smart, likes to play. Couple that with a guy that's 6-6, almost 280 pounds and can run fast, and you've got a real prospect.''
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DANIEL UTHMAN Staff. A fifth-round draft choice in 1995,by CNBRich Owens is projected as a starter Sept.1 when the Redskins
entertain Philadelphia. KEYWORDS: FOOTBALL