THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 8, 1994 TAG: 9408080144
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. LENGTH: Long : 141 lines
Tonight, Desmond Howard returns to the scene of the crime, one he swears was committed against him.
Nov. 1, 1993. Monday Night Football. Redskins at Buffalo Bills. A rare competitive performance against a tough opponent ends in a 24-10 loss for Washington.
In frozen rain, Mark Rypien throws four interceptions, including one in the Buffalo end zone and another deep in Bills' territory. Afterwards, Redskins assistant coaches pull the press aside: two of the interceptions, they advise, weren't Rypien's fault.
In a rare display of either candor or blatant manipulation, the coaches point a collective finger at a lithe figure wearing burgundy No. 80.
Desmond Howard.
They insist he ran the wrong route on the end-zone pass. Rypien put the ball where it was supposed to be, when it was supposed to be thrown.
They say on another occasion, Howard broke off a pattern designed to go across the middle.
Howard saw the papers Tuesday. Suddenly, the sparkle faded. The billion-dollar smile he had flashed bravely through 18 months of underachievement was buried for the rest of the season. He shut down.
Even now, more than 9 months later, Howard has obvious disdain for a media he says was sucked into spreading a lie. But he's talking again.
``You believed everything they told you,'' he said recently.
The inference is clear: You idiots were duped.
That's open for debate. Ask Howard if he ran the wrong route on the end-zone interception and he admits he didn't run it as deeply as designed.
And, yes, he says, there were problems with the route on the other interception, too.
Howard also bristles at the notion, disseminated by the club, that he replaced Washington icon Art Monk as a starter last season. Howard says it was Tim McGee he replaced, not football's all-time leading receiver.
``It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that if Tim McGee and Ricky Sanders start one week, and Ricky Sanders and Desmond Howard start the next, Desmond Howard has replaced Tim McGee,'' he says. ``Write the truth.''
OK, here it is. The truth is that the Redskins told everyone they wanted Desmond Howard to replace Art Monk as a starter last season. To their dismay, Howard wasn't good enough, so McGee got the job.
The truth? In his two seasons since winning the Heisman Trophy at Michigan, Desmond Howard has 26 receptions for the Redskins, less than half his total as a Wolverine senior.
The truth? There isn't a soul on this planet who predicted Desmond Howard would enter Year 3 of his NFL career without a single touchdown reception. There isn't a soul on any other planet, either.
The truth? There were people inside the Redskins who wondered last season whether Howard would have made the team had he not been the fourth player taken in the 1992 draft.
And, the truth is that even some of his coaches on the Redskins wonder whether Howard ever will reach his potential.
``I think the jury's out,'' says quarterbacks coach Cam Cameron, who knows Howard better than anyone on the Redskins. ``I'm not ready to jump up.''
Cameron was previously receivers coach at Michigan. He met Howard when Howard was 17 and the scourge of the Cleveland prep scene. It was Cameron who suggested that Howard move from his high school position of tailback to receiver after the first week of Howard's freshman year.
Cameron was among those Howard phoned for support last season as the Redskins stacked one loss atop another until they reached 12, more than the Wolverines suffered - combined - in Howard's four seasons.
``He never complained,'' Cameron recalls. ``But maybe that was because he knew I wouldn't let him.''
Cameron isn't timid about discussing what has befallen the player former Redskins coach Joe Gibbs once bragged ``had no holes.''
``He was the greatest thing since sliced bread coming out of high school, and he didn't do a thing for us for two years,'' Cameron recalls. ``His third year, when some older guys left, he stepped up. He had the great senior year. Maybe that'll happen here.''
Cameron suggests that Howard was relatively untested when he left Michigan. The Big Ten doesn't produce pro-style cornerbacks at nearly the same rate as the Southeast Conference, or the Pacific-10.
``If a team had one good cornerback, they definitely didn't have two,'' Cameron says. ``You could always get your good guy matched up on their worst guy every single snap, if you wanted to. . . . Receivers coming out of the Big Ten don't (see) the day-in, day-out speed.''
Howard attributes his lack of productivity to the Redskins' old offensive system, one in which he was often odd-man out.
``The year before, we had a lot of injuries and we barely made the playoffs,'' he says. ``Coach Gibbs was doing what was best for the team just to get into the playoffs and it was a plus. Then he retired.
``Last year. . . . phew, basically, our offense was unproductive. That's just a fact. You lose a game 3-to-zip, you're not producing. No matter whose stats you look at, none of the receivers were lighting up. No matter who was in at quarterback, either.''
The player perhaps least disappointed to see Richie Petitbon's brief tenure end was Howard. When Norv Turner was hired from the Dallas Cowboys, it was inevitable a new offensive system would be implemented.
Although he describes this season as a ``stepping stone'' in the staircase that will be his career, Howard obviously felt refreshed, rejuvenated, by the change.
He worked out daily with Monk, running the hills at George Mason University, lifting, striving to improve. He knew Monk was having contract woes with the club. He knew Ricky Sanders had rejected the team's 2-year, $4 million offer, and was dickering with the Falcons.
He saw the Turner playbook and knew this year was his chance.
``It's not a situation like a Sterling Sharpe, where it's all centered around you and you have to make all the plays,'' Howard says, referring to the Green Bay All-Pro who singlehandedly represents the Packer passing attack. ``It's a very well-balanced offense with the ball evenly distributed. That can keep teams off-balance, which will enable the offense to score points.
``I think we have several guys who will make good plays, rather than one guy who makes great plays. That's what I like about this ballclub, what I like about this offense.''
Monk and Howard did more than run hills together. Howard says he learned volumes about football, playing receiver, philosophy and coping with life from Monk and Earnest Byner, Charles Mann and Tim Johnson.
``To be the leading receiver on a 4-12 team, I don't think that'd be that great,'' he says. ``But to be the starting receiver on a Super Bowl team, I think that would be excellent. That's the direction I'm aimed.''
The night before camp opened, Turner said he was looking for consistency from Howard. Ten days into practice, Turner conceded that Howard had had just one bad practice, and had followed it with a couple of beauties.
Nothing can change the truth. Howard still is 5-foot-9, still about 180 pounds. He still seems to have occasional problems getting past the line of scrimmage, particularly if the cornerback challenges him at the snap.
But he had a touchdown grab in the scrimmage against the Steelers. And he's caught practically everything thrown his way.
``No one will do a better job with him than (receivers coach) Terry Robiskie,'' Cameron says, ``and Norv has coached receivers for a long time when he was with the Rams. He's not going to get coached any better. Now, it's up to him. If you looked at our practices, you'd say he's got a heckuva chance. A heckuva chance.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff color photo by BILL ABOURJILIE
[Desmond Howard]
Graphic
The Desmond Howard File
For copy of graphic, see microfilm
by CNB