Jamie Morris Is Better Than Joe, Says Brother

Joe Morris, one of the New York Giants’ Super Bowl heroes, is not the best athlete in his family--not even the best football player--says younger brother Mike.

Those honors belong to the youngest of the four Morris brothers, Jamie, according to Mike, a standout sprinter, who ran in the 60-yard dash in the Millrose Games Friday night at Madison Square Garden, provided a sprained right knee does not sideline him.

“Jamie is the best football player in the family--better than Joe,” Mike said while standing on the Garden track, wearing a football jersey with the No. 20, the number made famous by Joe.

“Joe’s a better runner, but Jamie’s a better all-around player. He has better hands, he’s a more diversified player. He’s the best athlete in the family.

“He doesn’t run track, but I think he’d be better in track than in football.”

Jamie, 21, will stick with football, a sport in which he is excelling at Michigan.

During the 1986 season, his junior season, he was the Wolverines’ leading rusher, with 196 carries for 1,039 yards, a 5.3-yard average per carry, and five touchdowns. He also caught 29 passes for 240 yards and one touchdown for Michigan’s Big Ten champions and Rose Bowl participants, and was named to Associated Press’ honorable mention All-American team.

Jamie is the shortest of the Morris brothers at 5-foot-7, and the second lightest, at 179 pounds. Joe, 26, is 5-7 1/2 and 195. Mike, 23, who like Joe played four years of football at Syracuse, as a wide receiver, is 5-9, 161, and Larry, 24, is 5-7, about 200.

Joe, because of his fame, has been singled out more than any of the other brothers for his lack of size. For much of his NFL career, critics have said he was too short to play professional football, a source of much irritation to him.

“Definitely, he’s aware of his height,” Mike said. “It’s always been Little Joe this, Little Joe that. But he’s proved he can play in a big man’s game.”

Joe is not the only Morris brother concerned about his height. All of them are conscious of it.

“We don’t like when people say, ‘There goes Little Joe, or Little Mike, or Little Jamie,’ ” Mike said. “It should just be, ‘There goes Joe.’ ”

The Morris’ are a close-knit family, and Joe’s contract problems with the Giants last year--after he had set a single-season club rushing record of 1,336 yards in 1985--upset the other members.

“People were saying he should take what he gets,” Mike said. “They (the Giants) threatened him. They told him they don’t need him. But the family was willing to stand behind him.

“Now, we’re so proud of what he did. I told him I was very proud of him. I told him, ‘You deserve everything you get.’ ”

Though Joe didn’t get what he wanted for 1986, his persistence paid off in a lucrative contract for the future. He repaid the Giants by breaking his club rushing record with 1,516 yards in 1986. He also gained 67 yards and scored once in last Sunday’s 39-20 Super Bowl victory over the Denver Broncos.

The triumph “was the biggest thrill in the family’s life,” said Mike, who watched the game on television, with Jamie, at Syracuse. “I was happy for Joe, because he’s been through a lot.

“They say football is a big man’s game, that you have to be six feet to play it. He’s stuck with it and proved it’s not so.”