DATE: Tuesday, November 4, 1997             TAG: 9711040454

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   76 lines

SKINS LEAVING LIGHT ON FOR GILBERT HE MUST EITHER END HIS HOLDOUT TODAY, OR SIT OUT THE REST OF THE SEASON.

The Washington Redskins find out today whether they can win the NFC East or whether their postseason hopes are tied to a complicated race for a wildcard berth.

By 4 p.m., they'll know whether defensive tackle Sean Gilbert is rejoining the team, ending a holdout that is as much soap opera as anything the Clintons have done on Pennsylvania Avenue. The collective bargaining agreement states that a player must have a contract with his team by Nov. 4, or sit out the rest of the season.

Not that Gilbert seems all that concerned. By sitting out the Redskins' first nine games, he has forfeited $175,000 a week, or $1.575 million.

The Redskins have offered Gilbert a five-year deal worth 20 million. They say that's it. He'll take the five years, but only at $22.5 million. Attempts by the Redskins to get Gilbert to bargain face-to-face with them last weekend failed miserably. He wouldn't come.

In declaring Gilbert their franchise player last season, the Redskins were obligated to pay him around $2.78 million. That's the average salary of the top five defensive tackles in football. Gilbert may or may not be in that select company, though he is far and away the best defensive lineman on Washington.

Even though his play tailed off considerably in the second half of last season, in part due to a knee injury, the Redskins originally offered Gilbert $3.5 million annually, plus the $5 million signing bonus. It was summarily rejected.

While it's easy to fault Redskins management (see first-round draft picks), their offer to Gilbert was the definition of generous. A man with a realistic sense of his worth would have jumped on it.

Not Gilbert who, through agent Gus Sunseri, postures that he's stuck on $5 million because God has told him that's what he's worth and besides, he can use some of that money to build youth centers in the Pittsburgh area.

Such a suggestion might not rankle the Washington brass quite as much if those centers were located in their own backyard, where they are every bit as needed. Then again, the idea of any player trying to use God as leverage in contract talks is repugnant, even in this greed-driven era.

By the way, today is not the end. The Redskins vow they'll make Gilbert their franchise player again next season and make him an offer in line with the collective-bargaining agreement and challenge him to sit out a second season.

After the Redskins whipped Chicago Sunday in a game that was in no way indicative of the woeful state of the defensive line Gilbert was to have anchored, a couple of his friends said that there is a ``chance'' Gilbert will show up today, lunchbox in hand.

That seems highly unlikely at this point, leaving the Redskins with defensive linemen who are castoffs and rejects from other teams.

With Gilbert as anchor, players like Rich Owens, Jamal Duff, Chris Mims and Kenard Lang could have been mixed and matched and developed into a more than passable unit. Without Gilbert, those players are being asked to do more than they're capable of, and they aren't producing.

Owens, who had 13 sacks playing next to Gilbert last season, has three this year and is routinely shoved off the line of scrimmage. Duff was cut by the Giants and is strictly a situation substitution. Mims has had his moments and, in tandem with Gilbert, could have been a valuable asset swinging between end and tackle.

And don't forget Washington's revamped linebacking corps. Marvcus Patton and Ken Harvey both would have been more effective along the line of scrimmage with Gilbert occupying two blockers most of the time.

Patton has flourished without Gilbert; on passing downs, Harvey has received the double-team, and has a bum shoulder that caused him to miss his first game as a Redskin as a result.

With Gilbert in, healthy and happy, the Redskins had a legitimate chance at winning the NFC East, especially with Dallas down and Philadelphia dispirited. Without him, Washington is what we've seen the last nine weeks, consistently inconsistent one week to the next, and quite likely out of the playoffs again. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS

By sitting out the Redskins' first nine games, Sean Gilbert has

forfeited $175,000 a week, or $1.575 million.

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