SUPER BOWL XXI : DENVER vs. NEW YORK : Notebook : Ex-Bruin Cornerback Welch Makes a Little Bit Go a Long Way

When Herb Welch was playing football at Warren High School in Downey, he wasn’t considered a four-year college prospect.

So he went to Cerritos College for two years and played well enough there as a defensive back for UCLA to recruit him.

As a Bruin, he wasn’t expected to get much playing time, but when starting cornerback Lupe Sanchez broke his arm when he and Welch were both juniors, Welch got his chance to start.

The following season, an injury to cornerback Ron Pitts allowed Welch to remain a starter.

But Sanchez, a four-year starter and All-Pacific 10 performer, was the Bruin cornerback getting all the recognition that year, 1984.

Welch, generally, was not considered a pro prospect.

The New York Giants took a chance anyway, drafting him in the 12th round in 1985. Welch was the last player drafted that year to make a team.

Sunday, he will start in the Super Bowl at free safety.

It will be Welch’s fourth start as a pro. He took over for Terry Kinard, who suffered a knee injury with two games remaining in the regular season.

“When I was playing in high school, I never assumed it would lead to playing in college,” Welch said Wednesday. “And when I was playing in college, I never assumed it would lead to playing in the NFL.

“I was always told I had limited abilities.”

Terry Moore, a friend and former teammate at UCLA, disagrees with that assessment.

“I think because Herb was small (5-11 and 180), people didn’t pay too much attention to him.

“But at UCLA, he was a real fireball. He was full of energy and always going all out. He’s got great speed. He never let anyone beat him in the wind sprints. Just an incredible competitor.

“I’m not surprised by what he’s accomplished.”

New York’s offensive linemen are known as the Suburbanites. It’s not particularly sexy, but it beats being called the Hogs.

The Giant offensive linemen got the name from Coach Bill Parcells.

“These guys look like the kind whose mothers drove them to practice in a suburban wagon when they were kids and then took them to the Dairy Queen after games,” Parcells said. “She always made sure their uniforms were clean.

“I want guys from Toledo and Detroit, some of those tough towns. Instead, I’ve got guys from Lake Forest, Ill., and Watchung Hills (N.Y.).”

The linemen not only have accepted the nickname, they promote it.

“All of us have wives and small kids and grills in our backyards,” center Bart Oates said. “We mow our own lawns, shovel our own driveways.”

He said running back Joe Morris bought the offensive linemen watches after last season.

“This year, we’re requesting chain saws,” Oates said.

He has a degree in accounting from BYU and is enrolled there in law school.

There is not a physical education major in the bunch.

Guard Billy Ard is a stockbroker. Guard Chris Godfrey has a business degree from Michigan. Tackle Karl Nelson has a degree in electrical engineering from Iowa State. Tackle Brad Benson has a Jaguar dealership.

“We have a bunch of family men on our offensive line and a bunch of businessmen,” Benson said. “When they all get to be successful, I’ll sell them Jaguars.”

Godfrey has another reason for liking the nickname.

“When you call yourselves the Suburbanites, it’s not much to live up to,” he said.

John Madden visited the Giants’ locker room at Rams Park Wednesday and later told reporters at a CBS press conference what transpired inside.

“The Rams have this dog that lives in the locker room,” Madden said. “He’s sort of a mascot, and his name is Ofer.

“The Rams found him in a pound. He’d been in there four days, and no one had claimed him. One more day and pfffft, he was out of here.

“So they call him Ofer, since he’d gone O for 4 days.

“Anyway, Lawrence Taylor and Ofer are playing hockey. Ofer is standing in a doorway and Lawrence is trying to kick tennis balls past him.

“Lawrence gets 2 past him, and the dog stops 10. Hey, he’s pretty happy about it because he’d been shut out the day before.

“People wonder what’s going on in the Giants’ locker room. You’d think the Giants would be all serious and stuff, but, nah, their star linebacker is trying to kick tennis balls by a dog.”

The Giants are unique among NFL teams in that they don’t award game balls for outstanding play.

“One man doesn’t win the game; 45 do,” Coach Bill Parcells said.

But he made one exception this season after Raul Allegre kicked five field goals in a 22-20 victory over Minnesota in the 11th game.

Special teams captain Gary Reasons decided that the Giants should do something special for Allegre after spotting the kicker eating alone the previous night in a restaurant.

Allegre, who joined the Giants after the third game, told Reasons he still didn’t feel that he was part of the team.

Denver backup quarterback Gary Kubiak said his father wants a souvenir hat from the Super Bowl.

He wants it signed by John Elway, the Broncos’ starting quarterback.

New York Coach Bill Parcells said that running back Joe Morris discovered three years ago that he has a problem with his eyesight.

“The doctor told me that what I could see from the end zone, Joe had to go all the way to the other seven-yard line before he could see it,” Parcells said. “Joe always thought that was the way people were supposed to see.”

Parcells said Morris corrected the problem with contact lenses.

Asked what it is that a running back has to see, Parcells said, “The ball, for one.”

Ottis Anderson, twice a Pro Bowl performer for the St. Louis Cardinals, said he still can’t figure the trade earlier this season that sent him to the Giants.

“To send me to New York was stupidity,” Anderson said. “When you send a guy away, send him out of your division. Send him as far away as you can.”

Anderson, who broke numerous Cardinal rushing records, said he doesn’t know how to describe his role with the Giants other than that he’s Joe Morris’ backup.

“I’ve been in games in different situations,” he said. “In some situations, I’m in on passing plays. In some situations, I’m blocking. There are some plays when I sit on the sidelines and do nothing.”

But Anderson said he’s not complaining.

“I feel very fortunate,” he said. “The Cardinals gave me the opportunity to fulfill a dream,” he said. “If they hadn’t traded me, I wouldn’t be in the Super Bowl.

“I always thought I would be in the Super Bowl. I just thought I would be wearing red instead of blue.”

Al Flannes flew into town from his vacation home in the Cayman Islands in the British West Indies Wednesday. But the distance Flannes traveled is not what makes him different.

He believes he is one of the few fans who have attended every Super Bowl.

“Most people who have a streak going probably didn’t go to the first Super Bowl,” Flannes said. “Remember, there were 30,000 tickets not sold.”

Flannes, 69, spends most of his time in Jackson, Miss., where he is involved in banking and real estate.

He said he went to the first Super Bowl because he was a financial adviser to Lamar Hunt, owner of the Kansas City Chiefs. “I helped Lamar start the American Football League,” he said.

He said the closest his streak came to being broken was in 1982, when the game was played at Pontiac, Mich.

“We got the wrong kind of parking pass, were turned away and had to walk two miles in a blizzard,” Flannes said. “I would have said the heck with it, but we had to continue on to get someplace where it was warm.”

Denver linebacker Karl Mecklenburg on New York running back Joe Morris: “I think Joe Morris has as much straight-ahead explosion as anyone in the league.

“The key (to stopping Morris) is to get penetration into the backfield. He waits until he sees a crack, then accelerates through the hole as well as anyone. If you get to him before he sees the crack, you’ve got a chance.”

It’s been said that the 5-7 Morris is hard to see.

“That’s true,” Mecklenburg said. “He waits back there, and all of a sudden he squirts through a small hole.”

Bronco running back Sammy Winder, on blocking Giant linebacker Lawrence Taylor: “With Taylor, you have to be aware he can run over you, throw you down, use his arm-over technique. So you have to concentrate on all those things. And yell for help.”

Winder, on the Giants’ relatively simple defense: “They line up in one or two defenses, and they just play ball. I like to run against a team like the Giants. I don’t like the defenses that do anything and everything.”

Times staff writer Scott Ostler contributed to this story.