THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 1, 1994 TAG: 9409010707
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 142 lines
Heath Shuler has not come down from the mountaintop to save the Washington Redskins. But it's an easy mistake to make.
Bryson City, the North Carolina hamlet that ardently admires its young icon, is snuggled in a mountain cove in the southwest quadrant of the state. So Shuler descended only about half the mountain to begin his ministry.
But make no mistake: The former University of Tennessee star quarterback, the third pick in the 1994 NFL draft, was brought to Washington and given a club-record $19.25 million to save the team from what owner Jack Kent Cooke considers a fate worse than death - mediocrity.
With the season opener just three days away, the best that can be said of Shuler so far is that he has the potential to be worth every dime Cooke offered. A 13-day holdout retarded his development to the point that coach Norv Turner decided Tuesday that John Friesz would start at quarterback Sunday against Seattle. But Shuler will see playing time, and as soon as he's ready, he'll start, Turner vows.
The Redskins drafted Shuler on April 24, but they actually committed to him about five weeks earlier, on St. Patrick's Day. Scouts, coaches and team officials descended on Knoxville, Tenn., to see a workout Shuler was staging for the entire league. He was brilliant.
The night before, Shuler sat with Dan Henning, a former Redskins assistant coach and former head coach of the Atlanta Falcons and San Diego Chargers. He had been working for Shuler as a consultant, preparing him for an NFL workout.
Henning liked Shuler. Shuler was not some spoiled, smart-aleck kid who thought he knew everything because he'd played in a couple bowl games. Henning had worked with Joe Theismann, Joe Namath, Jim McMahon and others. Shuler impressed him as much as any of them had.
He was reviewing the game plan, the types of passes Shuler would throw, when the kid interrupted. He wanted to know what the NFL looked for in a quarterback.
And Henning smiled, because it was his opinion that he was sitting across from the answer.
``They want a strong, pure work ethic, how a guy handles himself, whether he's a blamer, whether he gets down on himself when he throws a bad ball,'' Henning remembers saying. ``They want to know if he takes a break during a workout, if he's willing to do everything that's necessary.''
Maybe Shuler smiled back. If not, he should have. Henning had just described his life.
Henning talked about having a singleness of purpose, of training the mind to look down a path so straight and narrow that what other kids saw as momentous, you would dismiss as trivial.
Shuler recalled the day he told his father he was giving up caffeinated drinks. He was a child, not even 10, but he had conducted an experiment on mice.
One he gave water to drink with its food. The other, soft drinks. After a week, the water-fed mouse was fine. The one drinking Coke and Pepsi had violent shakes and was practically dead.
Heath told his dad about his discovery and told him he'd never drink another soda. And he hasn't - not even the day he became acutely dehydrated and collapsed on a playing field. Desperately, his dad rushed 17-year-old Heath a soft drink.
``I told you I gave that up, Daddy,'' Heath said, turning away.
Today, if Heath Shuler became incredibly angry and somehow demanded that someone ``gimme a damn soda,'' he'd destroy two of the enduring legends about him in one breath.
That's right. Shuler has never uttered a profanity. His friends swear that last statement is true, no pun intended.
Henning talked about going the extra mile to improve - to tell a coach you wanted to study film another 30 minutes, then staying 60.
As training camp neared and negotiations had stalled to the point where it was obvious Shuler couldn't go to Dickinson College without compromising his position, Shuler nonetheless bore down.
At the two-day camp that preceded the team's exodus to Carlisle, Shuler attended morning study sessions with the rest of the squad. He did not, however, participate in contact work in the afternoon.
When the team had left and he was alone, Shuler pored through the playbook daily. Except he didn't just read it, didn't just memorize it and didn't just learn who was supposed to line up where.
``I wrote every play down - formation, left and right - and then turned around and talked into a tape recorder, just as if I would talk in the huddle,'' Shuler said. ``I was preparing myself so once I got (there), I wouldn't be behind.''
People laughed at coach Norv Turner when he praised Shuler for the smoothness with which he handled the offense in the exhibition opener against Buffalo, four days after reaching camp. Yet Turner insisted people didn't know what a special accomplishment that had been for someone so green.
It shouldn't have been a surprise. In college, Shuler spent each offseason studying films of successful pro quarterbacks. Long before he met them, he knew Dan Marino, Troy Aikman, John Elway and Joe Montana.
``The thing about people is, if they have a single-minded focus, they can be as successful as they want to be,'' Shuler says. ``I'll work hard. You can never be good until you have the whole package.''
Henning talked about being man enough to take the blame when things don't go right; how a team follows the lead set by its quarterback.
From the beginning, Redskins receivers have had trouble corralling Shuler's passes. His release is noticeably quicker than that of Washington's other two quarterbacks, veteran John Friesz and fellow rookie Gus Frerotte.
He also throws the ball harder. His first practice pass at Tennessee resulted in a punctured ball when it whizzed through the hands of an unsuspecting receiver and hit a helmet screw.
So Shuler developed the unusual ability to throw at varying degrees of speed. Sure, most quarterbacks can ease off the gas when they want. But few have his variety of velocities.
Anyway, it was more than Washington's untested receiving corps could handle. Against Kansas City in exhibition game No. 2, they dropped several throws.
``Listen, everyone here's trying,'' Shuler said when asked if such betrayal bothered him. ``No one's trying to drop passes. And the bottom line is that we'll get used to each other, and that as quarterback it's my responsibility to make sure the plays run successfully.''
And if there ever were any questions about Shuler's leadership abilities, they should have been laid to rest in his first game at Tennessee. He stepped into the huddle and started to call a play, only to find an upperclassman talking.
``One of the linemen called me `freshman,' and I told him to shut up,'' Shuler recalls. ``I told him it was my huddle to run, not his.''
Finally, Henning asked him where he wanted to play. Shuler hardly took a breath before replying, ``Washington.''
And the old coach told him not to get his hopes too high that he'd end up with the Redskins. Be happy wherever you go, Henning said, and stay excited each and every day, because the team that picks you will see you as the ideal person to take it into the next century.
On draft day, Shuler invited to his home 400 friends, relatives and others who had helped him through the first 22 years of life. When his name was called by the Redskins, the crowd roared so loudly the sound still may be reverberating throughout the Smoky Mountains.
``Every day I get up, I thank God,'' Shuler said. ``I can't believe how lucky I am. This is the most exciting time of my life, and I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be.''
Henning is happy for his young friend, but he thinks Shuler would fit in anywhere.
``Intelligence, physical stature, durability, escapability, arm strength,'' Henning said, as though making a grocery list. ``There's only been a few guys in the last 10 years to come out with all the tools he has.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
REUTERS
Heath Shuler won't start in Sunday's opener. But Washington fans
will be seeing a lot of him this season.
by CNB