It’s Better They Don’t Specialize

Football gets more specialized every year, and John Madden wonders if it’s getting out of hand.

“There is a package for every down--short yardage, long yardage, goal line,” Madden told Jack Craig of the Boston Globe. “Then the defense counters with its packages. The athletes are bigger, faster, stronger, but not necessarily smarter.”

He said the weakness of specialization is that the best athletes play less. Also, specialists tend to lose skills in other areas.

“I’ve never seen such poor tackling in the league as this season,” he said. “If an NFL coach would dare to cut back on special units and let his best players play more, the results might be surprising.”

Add Globe: Of the switch from Jay Schroeder to Doug Williams at Washington, Will McDonough quotes a National Football League coach as saying: “What has happened to Schroeder is that other teams have adjusted to him. He likes to throw deep. Everyone knows that now. They didn’t know that a year ago.”

Says General Manager Bobby Beathard: “Jay has to work on his touch and throwing the shorter patterns. That comes with time.”

Didn’t they say the same thing about Williams at Tampa Bay?

Add McDonough: Predicting that Napoleon McCallum will go public with a request of the Navy to allow him to play for the Raiders this year, he wrote: “McCallum has hired a prominent attorney, who knows his way around political circles in Washington, to work on his behalf.”

Trivia Time: What black quarterback for the Denver Broncos later played in the Super Bowl for another team? (Answer below.)

Would-you-believe-it Department.: In a feature on Jennifer Beals in the Hollywood Reporter magazine, the actress is quoted as saying, “I love the Boston Celtics, especially Michael Jordan.”

From former National Basketball Assn. coach Dick Motta, now doing commentary on Detroit Pistons telecasts: “I’m listening to the national anthem for the first time in 33 years. When you’re coaching, you’ve got a tunnel mind.”

Winnipeg Jets defenseman Randy Carlyle, on why he doesn’t wear a helmet: “The guys tell me I have nothing to protect. No brain, no pain.”

Add Hockey: Ever listen to a game on radio? Clipper Coach Gene Shue once said, “It’s like listening to one continuous mistake.”

Think about it.

From Wallace Matthews of Newsday: “Perpetually out-of-shape Tony (Incredible Bulk) Tubbs is training with Lou (Incredible Hulk) Ferrigno, so he’ll at least look like something against Mike Tyson March 21 in Tokyo. Tubbs probably doesn’t want to be mistaken for a sumo wrestler.”

Dirk Minniefield of the Boston Celtics, on Larry Bird: “I’ve been fortunate to play with a lot of great players, and I’ve played against the likes of Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson. I think Larry Bird is the best player in the league after seeing him day-in day-out. Perhaps if I played with one of the others every day, I’d feel differently, but, to me, Larry’s the best player in basketball.”

Trivia Answer: Marlin Briscoe. He played quarterback for Denver in 1968. He then switched to wide receiver and played in the Super Bowl for Miami in 1973 and 1974.

Quotebook

Denver Broncos Coach Dan Reeves, asked if he had imposed a curfew: “We’re a one-man team, so John Elway has a curfew. The other 44 guys can do what they want.”