Falcons’ Miller Had an Out After Giving Up Baseball

There was a time when Chris Miller gave serious thought to a career in baseball.

That was before he batted against John Candelaria.

Like John Elway of Stanford and the Denver Broncos, Miller, who attended Oregon, played minor league baseball between college football seasons. Once Candelaria and others gave him a sample of major league pitching, he had no trouble reaching the decision that his future lay in football.

Miller’s move panned out so well that the Atlanta Falcons made him their first-round choice--the 13th pick overall--in the 1987 NFL draft. Now he is the No. 1 quarterback of the long-struggling Falcons, and one of the main reasons they will carry a rare 2-game winning streak into Sunday’s meeting against the Chargers in Atlanta.

Miller, 23, had the misfortune to run into Candelaria--plus several other pitchers with major-league experience--when he was playing shortstop for the Seattle Mariners’ Salinas farm club in the Class A California League in 1986. At the time, Candelaria was on rehabilitation assignment from the California Angels to their Palm Springs affiliate.

Asked about his baseball career in a telephone interview, Miller said, “Which baseball career? The most positive thing I can look back on was playing American Legion ball back home in Eugene, Ore.

“In the minor leagues, my defense was fine, but on offense, I was in over my head. Like facing Candelaria. His curve balls and sliders were too mean.”

Asked if the Candy Man’s pitches were as mean as an NFL pass rush, Miller said, “Well, I wouldn’t say that.”

Miller was born in Pomona, but moved to Eugene at the age of 7. He was an all-around athlete at Sheldon High School, and was drafted in the 17th round by the Toronto Blue Jays when he graduated in June 1983. He turned down the Blue Jays’ offer and accepted a football scholarship at Oregon.

After Miller’s freshman year of college football, the Blue Jays tried again--in the third round of the secondary phase of the January 1984 draft. He said no a second time.

Finally, in June 1985, Miller was drafted in the fifth round by the Mariners. Since NCAA rules permit an athlete to represent his school in one sport and play professionally in another, he signed with the Mariners between his sophomore and junior football seasons at Oregon. He missed the 1985 baseball season because he suffered a broken hand while wrestling with a friend, but played in 1986.

At first, Miller showed signs of coping with minor-league pitching. He was so impressive in his pro debut at Bellingham, Wash., in the Northwest League (a summer Class A league for players with little or no experience), that he was promoted to Salinas after just 3 games. In 9 at-bats, he had 5 hits.

At Salinas, however, Miller found himself overmatched. He batted .101--8 for 79--and struck out 30 times. After that, any doubt he might have had about his profession was gone.

“Candelaria’s curve ball, man,” Miller said. “He would put it on the outside corner, and I wouldn’t come close. That was enough of that. And it wasn’t just Candelaria. I hit against Mike Norris, Steve Howe, Steve McCatty and Gary Lucas, all of whom had pitched in the majors. It was just too much for me.”

As good as he was in baseball--up to a point--Miller never considered being a 2-sport pro, a la Bo Jackson.

“No way,” Miller said. “It had to be one or the other. It’s funny, though. In high school, baseball and basketball were my 2 main sports. I quit the football team when I was a sophomore, and I was hurt in my junior year, yet I ended up playing football.”

Despite having handled only 10 snaps in his first 3 years in high school, Miller took over at quarterback as a senior and led his team to the state playoffs. He passed for 1,617 yards and 12 touchdowns.

From there, he went on to a college career that made him one of Oregon’s all-time football heroes. Miller’s time covered three big seasons, during which he broke most of the school records set by Hall of Famer Norm Van Brocklin and later eclipsed by Dan Fouts.

Miller climaxed his career with a spectacular senior season in which he set school records for completions (216), completion percentage (60.7), yards gained (2,503) and total offense (2,549 yards). He finished with 13 records all told.

Fouts wasn’t drafted by the Chargers until the third round, but his great 15-year career in San Diego makes him a sure bet to follow Van Brocklin into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

“He’s definitely a legend at Oregon,” Miller said of Fouts.

Inevitably, Miller has been mentioned in the same breath with Fouts, but he considers this premature.

“He’s a future Hall of Famer and I’ve started just 4 games,” Miller said. “There are a lot of comparisons going on because I broke some of his records, but that’s really the only valid reason.

“We’re two different types, for one thing. He was a drop-back passer, and very tough. He stayed in the pocket and absorbed an awful lot of punishment, which I don’t think I could do. I like to think I’m a pocket passer, too, but I like moving around if the pocket breaks down so I can make something happen. I can roll out or sprint out, which Fouts didn’t do, but he was so strong that he didn’t have to.”

At 6-foot 2-inches and 200 pounds, Miller has good but not great size for a pro quarterback. One of his biggest assets is his mobility, which is almost a must in this era of all-out assaults on passers.

With a 3-7 record, the Falcons have an outside shot at UCLA quarterback Troy Aikman, who is considered a cinch to be the first player drafted next year. However, Miller has developed so fast that Coach Marion Campbell insists that he is their man.

“There’s absolutely no doubt in our minds about Miller,” Campbell said. “He’s strong, he has a great passing touch, he has great poise, he loves to win, and he’s a leader and a fighter. He’s an escape guy, and he finds the guy who’s uncovered. He also has the attention of the players--they like him--and that’s the key to it. He has all the qualities it takes to win in the NFL.”

Without saying so, Campbell even makes it obvious that he considers Miller the equal of Vinny Testaverde, whom the Tampa Bay Buccaneers made the first pick in the same draft in which the Falcons took Miller 13th.

Asked if he would trade Miller for Testaverde, Campbell said, “I don’t want to compare. We still play Tampa. But I will say this: I’m pleased with our guy.”

Miller has completed 100 of 188 passes (53.2%) for 1,327 yards and 9 touchdowns with 8 interceptions. He has led the Falcons to victory in the last 3 games he has started and finished--the only 3 they have won. He engineered the 34-17 upset of the San Francisco 49ers in Game 4, the 27-24 squeaker over the Philadelphia Eagles in Game 9 and the 20-0 rout of the Green Bay Packers last Sunday in Game 10.

The streak might have been longer if Miller hadn’t suffered an ankle sprain in Week 5 after rallying the Falcons from a 14-0 deficit to a 20-14 lead over the Dallas Cowboys in the third quarter. With him out, the Cowboys came back to win, 26-20.

Returning in Game 8, Miller had the Falcons ahead of the New York Giants, 16-6, only to suffer an elbow injury in the fourth quarter. Again the Falcons collapsed, losing, 23-16. There is a big dropoff from Miller to his backups, ex-Rams Steve Dils and Hugh Millen.

“Miller in reality is a rookie,” Campbell said. “After he held out last year (until Oct. 30), we played him in the last 2 games, just to get him knocked around a little bit and see what life in the NFL is like.

“Now he’s doing things that make us confident he’s going to be an outstanding quarterback. Our future definitely rides with him.”