NFL PLAYOFFS : Williams Has Seen Ups, Downs and In-Betweens

Doug Williams has been close before. Of course, it seems he has been about everything before. He has been up before, down before, benched before, wrenched before.

He has been in another league before, with other teams before, in other decades before.

Looking back, you can remember Doug Williams as you wish: as the quarterback who led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the National Football Conference title game in 1979 or as the one who in 1985 led the Arizona Outlaws at Pierce College in Woodland Hills for that forgettable game against the Los Angeles Express.

Williams is up. Williams is down.

The week before the Nov. 23 game against the Rams, Williams replaced Jay Schroeder as the Washington Redskins’ starting quarterback.

At 32, forgotten by many, Williams had climbed back on top again. A week later, though, Williams was benched in favor of Schroeder. Williams wept openly in front of television cameras.

A few weeks later, tears barely dried, Williams was named the Redskins’ starter for the playoffs.

A week ago, he led Washington to a 21-17 win over the Chicago Bears.

This week, Williams readies himself for Sunday’s NFC championship game against the Minnesota Vikings.

And you wonder, with his track record, whether destiny and Williams will ever pass this way again.

Williams and the Redskins have approached the week as such, behaving as though it were a man’s last stand and a team’s last chance.

The Redskins, the precious few who are speaking at least, have said they are not going to allow this week to become a media mudfest. “A lot of players would rather concentrate on the game,” Williams said, explaining the ghost town ambiance of the Redskins’ locker room Thursday.

The Redskins, Williams a leader among them, seem a team on edge. On the edge of what has yet to be determined.

Last year’s 17-0 loss to the New York Giants in the title game comes to mind.

“The mood was serious last year,” Williams said. “We just ran into a team that was a lot more serious than we were.”

Not this time around. This is the week of soul searches, the time to tighten lips and focus minds.

Doug Williams has been close before.

In 1979, he led an upstart Buccaneer team into the NFC title game against the Rams. He left a loser, 9-0. Williams, in the kind of game people remember, was awful, completing 2 of 13 passes.

“That seems like a decade ago,” Williams said grinning, knowing it almost was.

Williams, only 24 then, didn’t quite know what he had gotten his team into against the Rams.

That isn’t the case this week.

“The feeling is different,” he said. “I feel like I’m going in with a better coach and personnel than we had in 1979. In ’79 we played off a lot of highs. We didn’t have the best personnel but we had a lot of guys that wanted to win. Here, we’ve got guys who know how to win and have won. It makes a big difference.”

And no longer does Williams feel the weight of a team on his shoulders. The burden of accepting total credit for a win or blame for a loss has lifted.

Williams, who perhaps can still throw a football farther than anyone else, doesn’t have to prove it anymore. He used to try, though.

“What makes me a different quarterback is the system, the people around me,” he said. “I don’t have to carry the team on my shoulders here. I don’t have to make the big plays to make something happen. Here, you can throw a five-yard out and Ricky Sanders or Gary Clark and those guys can turn it into a touchdown. You can go in relaxed and play your game.”

Well, maybe not completely. If the Redskins win Sunday’s game, Williams would become the first black quarterback to start in the Super Bowl, a fact he knows well and a question he quickly defuses.

“I can’t get around it,” he said. “The media has made it an issue. It’s news and it’s what people want to talk about it. But I don’t feel it’s an issue. Whether I’m white, green, blue, it doesn’t matter. I just happen to be black and that puts more tension on it.”

Williams said that trying to define his success in terms of black and white is wrong.

“I don’t think it’s a fair assumption,” he said. “I look at myself as one of the first black quarterbacks that had an opportunity in this league. Others have played, but I guess they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

A few thought the same of Williams after watching him play in June of 1985, when he appeared at Pierce College against the Express as part of the United States Football League’s Arizona Outlaws.

Williams, his contract having expired in Tampa Bay, joined the Oklahoma Outlaws in 1983. He went to Arizona when the Outlaws and Chicago Blitz merged after the 1985 season to become the Arizona Outlaws.

The game against the Express at Pierce, before fewer than 8,000 fans, was arguably the most embarrassing career moment for all players involved.

Afterward, even in victory, Williams compared the atmosphere at Pierce to his high school days in Zachary, La.

Williams was embarrassed. Williams was down.

Thursday, he recalled those days more fondly.

“The attendance didn’t bother me,” Williams said. “I didn’t get paid by the attendance. Most of the games I played in the USFL were in empty stadiums.”

Williams, approaching his 30th birthday at the time, said he never thought his football career was in danger.

Flop or no flop, the USFL had quality players. If you don’t believe it, Williams said, check your player rosters Sunday.

Former USFL stars playing for Minnesota include wide receiver Anthony Carter, defensive tackle Keith Millard and linebacker David Howard.

The Redskins boast Williams and starting wide receivers Gary Clark and Ricky Sanders.

“I never doubted my career,” Williams said. “I always felt I was in control of my career.”

No more so than this week. And maybe that’s why the Redskins are quiet. Williams is nervous. Williams is close.

NFC Playoff Notes The Darrell Green mystery continued Thursday. Will the Redskin cornerback play Sunday or won’t he? Is anybody here talking? Green separated rib cartilage last Sunday during his 52-yard punt return for a touchdown against the Chicago Bears. Thursday, he was in uniform but didn’t practice. He might have aggravated the injury dodging reporters, though.

A local television reporter got this much from Green: “It’s a question I won’t answer today,” Green said. “I don’t even want to get into it.” It’s a pretty touchy subject, of course, considering Green is an all-pro and was expected to play like one against Minnesota’s Anthony Carter, only the league’s hottest receiver. If Green can’t make it, rookie Brian Davis takes his place and cornerback Barry Wilburn draws Carter.

Redskin receiver Art Monk, who tore knee cartilage Dec. 6, will not play this week. He could be ready should Washington make it to the Super Bowl.

Although he gained only 13 yards in 6 carries last week, George Rogers will start at tailback Sunday for the Redskins. Rogers’ backup, Timmy Smith, gained 66 yards last week in 16 carries. . . . The Vikings practiced in Tampa this week and arrive in town this afternoon. On Thursday, tailback Darrin Nelson missed practice because of a virus.