A LOOK AT TWO OF SUNDAY’S RAIDER, RAM OPPONENTS : Quick, Name Best NFL Receiver

Friendship--when it comes to National Football League draft day, anyway--does have its boundaries.

Dick Vermeil now says he was naive to think otherwise, but that didn’t soothe his feelings of betrayal in 1982.

Vermeil, then coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, went into that draft determined to get a bona fide breakaway wide receiver to complement Harold Carmichael. He was counting on Perry Tuttle, a speedster from Clemson, still being around when the Eagles drafted 20th in the first round.

That Vermeil coveted Tuttle was hardly a secret. In fact, he had told anyone who would listen that Tuttle was going to be Philadelphia’s No. 1 pick.

Chuck Knox, one of Vermeil’s closest friends--and also coach of the Buffalo Bills--was listening.

Tuttle was still available when Denver, picking 19th, was due to make its selection. The Broncos needed a running back, so Vermeil relaxed.

But just before the 15-minute deadline expired, Denver traded its pick to Buffalo.

And Knox picked Tuttle.

Vermeil reluctantly settled on Mike Quick, a receiver from North Carolina State.

The problem with Quick was that he didn’t live up to his name when running those 40-yard dashes. Tuttle’s time had been 4.4. Quick’s was 4.6. Four-sixes aren’t supposed to go in the first round.

“We had Tuttle and Quick rated the same in terms of ability, which goes to show how smart we are,” said Vermeil, now an analyst for CBS. “But my first thought was to go with the burner.”

As it turned out, it was the Bills who got burned. Tuttle failed to make it at Buffalo, then at Tampa, and finally at Atlanta. He was last seen on a playing field in Canada.

Quick, on the other hand, only leaves the continental United States to make annual appearances in the Pro Bowl in Hawaii. In the last three years, he has quietly become what many consider the best all-around receiver in the game.

“A couple tenths of a second doesn’t make the difference,” Quick said. “The most important thing any football player can have is heart, the will to play the game.”

Quick has found the way to make the most of his talents and has put together some impressive numbers to support his theory.

He had only 10 receptions in a strike-shortened rookie season but has gained more than 1,000 yards receiving every year since, becoming the first Eagle in history to surpass 1,000 yards in three consecutive seasons.

Last year, he led the NFC in receiving yardage with 1,247 and in touchdown catches with 11 while setting a Philadelphia single-season reception record with 73.

“I learned that there’s no such thing as a personal friend in the NFL, and Chuck learned never to listen to me again,” Vermeil said, laughing.

“Quick has no limitations that I know of. He’s got a 6-to-1 catch-to-touchdown ratio, which is better than any I’ve come across since I started breaking down and rating receivers like I do now (for CBS).”

Eagle quarterback Ron Jaworski has had the pleasure of watching Quick outsmart--and even out run --half of the defensive backs in the NFL.

“Mike was kind of raw in ‘82,” Jaworski said. “He didn’t have a feel for me, and I didn’t have a feel for him. He wasn’t even a starter because Vermeil was bringing him along slowly.

“But that off-season he stayed in town, and we worked out three and four times a week. That’s when we developed a rapport. He knew where I was going to put the ball and I knew where he was going to be.”

“That off-season he became a real pro. . . . When the game’s on the line, he’s the guy you look for.”

Jaworski looked for, and found, Quick last Nov. 10 in overtime against the Atlanta Falcons. The game was on the line, and so were the Eagles--their own goal line.

The play was just a quick--er, short--post pattern. Quick got a step on Atlanta cornerback Bobby Butler, then took the ball away from safety Scott Case, who went for the interception.

If Vermeil was watching what happened next, he probably noticed Quick’s 99 3/4-yard speed.

Butler watched. That was all he could do.

“I saw the man racing to the end zone like he was going to the ’88 Olympics,” Butler said. “I figured I’d might as well stop and see if there were any flags. We weren’t going to catch him.”

Butler wasn’t the first to come to that conclusion. In a little more than four seasons, Quick has found a way to get the ball into the end zone 35 times.

And nobody asks to see his time in the 40 anymore.

His speed might not have impressed Vermeil in 1982, but Quick figures he’s fortunate to have been blessed with enough talent to rise from a humble childhood in a tiny North Carolina railroad town to NFL stardom and handsome salary “just for having fun.”

“When I first came here, I kind of had the feeling I wasn’t wanted, that I was a second choice,” he said. “But I was happy as hell to be drafted in the first round. I was elated.”

The first thing he did after signing was buy his mother, Mary, a house in his hometown of Hamlet, N.C. He also persuaded her to retire from her job as a nurses’ aide, the job that had provided sole support for Mike and his eight brothers and sisters.

“We were very poor, but the house was always filled with a sense of love,” Quick said. “I saw lots of kids whose parents didn’t care about them the way my mom cared about me.”

Quick is a spokesman for the Philadelphia chapters of Big Brothers and Big Sisters, the Project Homeless Fund and the School Vote program. For the last two years, he has served as honorary chairman of the 7-Eleven/Coca Cola Freedom Run for Sickle Cell. He has done a number of television spots aimed at stopping teen-age drunk driving and made appearances at a local state prison.

“I feel like I’ve been blessed to be where I am, in this unique situation,” Quick said. “I don’t really give it a second thought when I can help people out, especially when you’re talking about kids who are without parents or abused or mistreated.”

Quick, 27, spends a great deal of time pondering business investments. As he puts it, “You get so much money so fast in this business, but you can be wiped out in one play and never play again.”

He’s part owner of a New Jersey health club, which was once owned by the Angels’ Bob Boone, and also part owner of 14 Arabian horses and the Grimes Canyon Farm near Thousand Oaks, where they are stabled.

“I’ve never been to a show, but the breeding has gone well,” he said. “It won’t make me rich, but it’s been a good investment.”

If Quick’s investments are a source of contentment, however, playing with the Eagles has been less so, he said.

“I think the lack of stability has been the biggest downfall of this organization,” Quick said. “Every year I’ve been here, it’s been something.

“First the strike, then Vermeil quits, then they’re talking about moving to Phoenix and everyone’s in an uproar about that. The next year (1985) Marion (Campbell, Vermeil’s successor) is fired, the next year it’s Buddy Ryan, and God only knows what can come after that.”

A win would be nice.

The Eagles are 0 for Ryan after three games, and considering that they rank last in the NFL in rushing defense, the chances of beating Eric Dickerson and the Rams Sunday don’t look good. One local sportscaster predicted that the Eagles would lose, 20-6.

Quick said it’s no fun to be 0-3, but even a lousy start can’t temper his enthusiasm for the game he loves. He wouldn’t trade his life for anything, he said, except maybe a career in the National Basketball Assn. He has long fantasized about dunking over Ralph Sampson.

The joy he gets from playing football is shared by his teammates, who are both awed by his ability and caught up in his joyousness.

“He’s the best there is,” said Kenny Jackson, the Eagles’ other starting wide receiver. “No one can do as many different things as well as he can. Defenses just try to control him because they know they can’t stop him.

“He’s a superstar on the field, but just one of the guys off.

“I’ll tell you what I like best about him, though,” Jackson said, smiling. “He’s double-teamed on almost every play, and that makes things a whole lot easier for me.”

Jaworski figures that Quick has made his job considerably easier, too.

“I’ve had the good fortune to work with some great receivers,” the 13-year veteran said. “Guys like Carmichael and Harold Jackson and Jack Snow out in L.A.

“But if Mike stays healthy, I can’t see him not being one of the best of all time.”