Despite Bad Timing, DeBerg Keeps Ticking and Earns Respect

The nicest compliment paid recently to Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Steve DeBerg was uttered by a young millionaire who knows a little something about throwing a football.

“You know,” said the eloquent Steve Young, “it’s not like he’s a spaz or anything.”

Yes, well, that’s one way of looking at DeBerg’s odd career. Traditional sources, observers who don’t use the word spaz, describe DeBerg, 31, as a well-respected, occasionally feared player in the NFL. His statistics confirm the opinions:

--In 1979, while in the employ of the San Francisco 49ers and under the tutelage of Coach Bill Walsh, DeBerg set single-season records for pass completions and attempts.

--With the Denver Broncos, DeBerg established the best three-year winning percentage the team has known.

--And now, with the Buccaneers, DeBerg has provided perhaps the most reliable and productive results since the departure of Doug Williams in 1982.

So naturally, DeBerg finds himself, three days before the Buccaneers’ meeting with the Rams in Tampa Stadium, glancing over his shoulder, only to discover another Hall of Fame candidate in the waiting.

Young, whose own career has been a bit on the strange side since he left Brigham Young University in 1984, is the latest in a long line of phenomenal young quarterbacks who have complicated DeBerg’s life with intrigue, high finance and controversy.

DeBerg has shared rosters with Danny White, Joe Montana and John Elway, besides Young. That’s fine if your career goals include holding a clipboard or, worse yet, holding footballs for placekickers. But for DeBerg, who would race you up a flight of stairs if it meant anything, a bench is considered a place for picnics, not his talents.

“Well, what am I going to do?” asked DeBerg, laughing. “I’m going to retire to get out of these bad situations.”

DeBerg is the movie star who never gets to kiss the girl, the what’s-his-name on the marquee. If DeBerg were a comedian, he’d deliver his punch lines first.

No timing, this DeBerg fellow.

His troubles began as early as high school, when he played for Savanna in Anaheim. The coach needed an offensive lineman. So DeBerg, tall for his age, became a junior varsity offensive tackle and center.

He stayed in a three-point stance until his junior year, when he was switched to quarterback. He also was shown a spot on the sideline and told to stay there until his senior season. He lettered only because there was nobody else who could snap for punts.

Despite his late start at quarterbacking, DeBerg played well in his senior year and was offered a scholarship by Washington State. He accepted the school’s invitation, but later changed his mind and went to Fullerton Junior College, then on to San Jose State.

There DeBerg toiled until the Dallas Cowboys, so impressed with his collegiate career, chose him in the 10th round of the 1977 draft. That was eight rounds after Dallas had taken quarterback Glenn Carano of Nevada Las Vegas. The Cowboys also had Roger Staubach, then one of the league’s ranking stars, and White, Staubach’s heir apparent.

“I knew I could throw the ball well but I didn’t know what I was doing,” DeBerg said. “Honestly, I think I made it in the NFL because Roger Staubach took me under his wing and taught me.”

The Cowboys waited until the final cut before requesting DeBerg’s playbook. By then, however, he had attracted the attention of several other teams, among them the San Francisco 49ers, who claimed him on waivers and immediately offered a three-year contract. DeBerg couldn’t find a pen fast enough.

The 49ers paid him $24,000 his first year, $32,000 the next season and $42,000 in 1979, he said. “I thought, ‘If I can stay in the NFL for three years I’ll be making $42,000 .’ It was great.”

Things went well until the 1980 training season, when a blow to the throat left him with a severed vocal cord and unable to call signals. Walsh found Montana willing and able.

DeBerg eventually returned to the lineup, equipped with an amplification system three times as powerful as a car stereo, but soon it became superfluous.

Walsh had decided on Montana.

“They brought Joe along perfectly,” said DeBerg, who roomed with Montana and still considers him a friend. “When he played, he was almost perfectly prepared. It was obvious from the time that Joe was drafted that he was being groomed to be the guy. At times it was frustrating . . . but I knew Joe was going to be a really good quarterback. It wasn’t any secret.”

DeBerg suggested a change, and the 49ers obliged by trading him to the Broncos for a fourth-round draft choice. “The best thing for me,” DeBerg said. “It looked like the perfect situation.”

Oh, DeBerg would show them now. Craig Morton was nearing the end of his career, and Denver needed a starting quarterback. After two seasons of creditable performances, DeBerg positioned himself for stardom in 1983.

“Then Elway came along,” he said.

Elway didn’t merely come along; he arrived. There was pomp and circumstance as Denver awaited his royal hutness.

And how does that country-western song go?

If today was a fish, I’d throw it back in. DeBerg had just finished playing in a charity basketball game in Wyoming that May evening when someone told him that the Broncos had just traded for the rights to Elway, who had been picked first in the draft by the Baltimore Colts but was living up to his threat not to sign with them.

“Yeah, right,” DeBerg said.

Later, while pondering his selection at a hotel bar, another person informed DeBerg of the trade.

Couldn’t be, thought DeBerg. Hadn’t the Broncos chosen offensive linemen in the first and second rounds, and a wide receiver in the third? And hadn’t Craig Morton retired, too?

“I was the happiest guy in the world,” DeBerg said.

Then reality sucker-punched him. Elway! It was true.

“I’ll have a double Scotch,” DeBerg told the waitress.

Elway became to the Denver media what Princess Di is to the London tabloids. Read about John getting a haircut. Read about John eating his vegetables.

DeBerg could have become a Hare Krishna and no one would have noticed.

Elway was named the starter at season’s beginning. Opposing defenses weren’t impressed. By the sixth game, Elway was on the bench and DeBerg was leading the Broncos to four consecutive victories. A shoulder injury ended DeBerg’s regular season, although he did return in time for the Broncos’ playoff loss to Seattle.

According to the team’s own statistics, DeBerg produced nearly twice the number of points per drive as Elway. DeBerg also threw more touchdown passes and committed fewer interceptions.

Denver Coach Dan Reeves later spent the off-season admitting his error.

Said DeBerg: “I just don’t think John Elway was ready to start in the first regular-season game of his rookie year. It was just a little bit too early. It was extremely difficult for him.”

Since then, Elway has prospered, in part, he says, because of DeBerg’s departure from Denver after the 1983 season.

DeBerg has benefited, too. He arrived in Tampa with a legitimate chance to unseat the incumbent, former first-round choice, Jack Thompson. Had DeBerg gone to Washington State, as he had first planned, he would have found Thompson on the team his junior and senior seasons.

Tampa also rewarded DeBerg with a reported four-year contract worth about $2.5 million. DeBerg said thanks by overtaking Thompson in the third game of the 1984 season and leading the Buccaneers to six victories. That doesn’t sound like much until you remember that Tampa Bay had won just two games the previous year.

“The perfect situation, I thought,” DeBerg said.

Except, before the 1984 season had even begun, DeBerg learned of the NFL’s supplemental draft and Tampa Bay’s intention to choose prized USFL quarterback Steve Young of the Los Angeles Express.

“I’d never heard of it before,” DeBerg said of the supplemental draft.

Still, DeBerg didn’t worry. “I thought that if (Young) came to the Buccaneers it would be after my contract was up,” he said. “He was signed for a long-term contract with the Express. I didn’t worry about it. No big deal.”

That was before Express owner Bill Oldenburg ran out of Monopoly money and the USFL ran out of patience and pride. In early September, Young signed a six-year contract worth, with bonus included, a reported $6 million.

You do not pay someone $1 million a year to play cheerleader.

Still, on each of the four Sundays that Young has been in uniform, he has spent his afternoon excitedly waving a clipboard, or chattering away like some hyperactive pompon toter.

“I’m going nuts,” Young said.

Unless DeBerg falters dramatically--he passed for 346 yards and 2 touchdowns against undefeated Chicago last Sunday--or Coach Leeman Bennett reverses an earlier stand, Young will remain an observer.

“I think Steve DeBerg is a good quarterback,” said Jimmy Raye, Buccaneer offensive coordinator. “It’s not like you’re playing with Elmer Fudd here.”

Evidence of Bennett’s hard-line stance was presented early in the second period of the game against the Bears. Needing just four yards for a touchdown, DeBerg dropped back to pass. The Bears, who consider touchdowns a personal insult, blitzed.

DeBerg’s pass fell incomplete, as did DeBerg. “Uh, DeBerg just had the wind knocked out him,” said the pressbox announcer. Sure. The wind and perhaps his spleen. “I blacked out for a few moments,” DeBerg said.

As DeBerg was being helped off the field, Bennett chose second-team quarterback Alan Risher as a substitute. Before he could find Risher, though, Bennett had to peer past Young, who had rushed to the bench, grabbed his helmet and was making a nuisance of himself.

“I just thought maybe I’d just be ready and he’d look around and not realize it was me and I’d sneak in there or something,” Young said. “He’s too smart for that.”

Bennett, who with a 0-5 team finds his quarterback policy occasionally questioned by the Tampa-area media, said: “(Young) definitely wants to play.”

Will Young play?

“That’s going to be difficult for him because he never gets the chance,” Bennett said.

Later in the conversation, Bennett said there is a chance that Young may play this season.

“I’m not complaining,” Young said. “The worst thing to do is walk in here and say, ‘OK, play me.’ ”

DeBerg, meanwhile, does what he can. He makes himself available so Young can pepper him with questions. Just last week Young learned some of the signaling system the Buccaneers use to call plays from the sideline. “He’s smart enough to know what questions to ask,” DeBerg said.

Young stays late after each practice and throws passes to second-team wide receiver Theo Bell. He learns and bides his time.

“I want to be in a spot where I can compete,” he said. “There’s going to be a point very soon where I feel like I’m prepared.”

Young expects no favors from DeBerg. “He’s not just going to walk out and say, ‘Here, you play,’ ” Young said. “I’ve got to fight like crazy to play. That’s the way I want it. You want to earn it.”

DeBerg asks for nothing more than an equal chance. He says he enjoys and respects Bennett and finds Young likable and friendly. “He’s a good guy,” he said of Young. “He’s kept me going throughout this losing thing.

If we weren’t both playing the same position, we’d probably become great friends.”

Inevitably, though, Young will become the starting quarterback and DeBerg must again make a choice: Continue the search for the elusive “perfect” situation or become tutor and part-time help. For the first time, DeBerg is wavering.

“Always before I wanted to move,” he said. “When a franchise quarterback came along and my role was to back them up, I’ve always moved in that situation to a better situation where I had more of an opportunity. Now, I don’t know.”

For the moment, DeBerg is making the most of his starting status. You can find him in advertisements for a local clothing store as well as an area car dealership. He is comfortable in front of crowds, which explains his many speaking appearances.

Last Monday, in nearby Orlando, DeBerg and defensive back Ivory Sully were guests at a function called the Monday Night Huddle. A local broadcaster served as emcee.

“Guys, why couldn’t we win the game?” asked the emcee, insinuating himself onto the team. “I mean, why couldn’t we get it in there?”

The crowd became quiet. DeBerg and Sully smiled, embarrassed, and glanced at one another.

“He was looking at you,” Sully said.

DeBerg stared down at his boots. He knew what they were thinking: Why is Tampa Bay 0-5?

Is it his fault?

When will Young be available so he can pretend that the rest of the NFL is just like the Western Athletic Conference?

DeBerg finally answered. He asked the audience for patience and reminded of the team’s weekly progress. He promised improvement.

The emcee rushed to his aid.

“Steve, you’re not a bad quarterback,” he said. “You’re a good quarterback.”

The crowd clapped and Sully picked up his microphone and gestured toward DeBerg. “This guy is a class act right here.”

So he is. Appreciated at last. For DeBerg, that’s the nicest thing anybody has said about him since Young said he was not a spaz.