He Gives Lip Service to the Events at Hand

Last Monday was the first time I ever saw Troy Aikman smile. I was beginning to think he couldn’t. I haven’t known him all my life or anything like it but I have seen him in locker rooms after games in which he either won or lost. From Troy Aikman, you can’t tell which.

I didn’t even know if he’s got all his teeth. He always looks as if he considers all life to be third and long-yardage, or as if someone asked him what he thought about the Middle East situation. Troy is major league serious. For a blue-chip football player, he’s a world-class worrier.

Now, Rodney Peete, over at USC, he smiles a lot. Like, all the time--probably even now, with the measles. Rodney always looks as if he just heard the best joke of his whole life. Rodney looks as if he’s just about to break into a soft-shoe dance at any time. Troy looks as if he knows the next card will be a trey.

One of them may be the No. 1 football player in the United States of America this year of Our Lord. Aikman doesn’t look as if he’s looking forward to it. Rodney probably already has his speech and tuxedo ready.

Troy Aikman is a fascinating study. At 6 feet 3 1/2 inches and 217 pounds, golden-haired and blue-eyed, he’s probably Hollywood’s idea of a football hero right now. Robert Redford in cleats. Lancelot with a football. He’d get the part, the girl, the ball, the touchdown, the gold watch and everything.

You’d figure a big man on campus like that would spend his summers posing at the beach, riding the waves, or sitting in a lifeguard’s chair in a pith helmet, letting the girls get a look at his rippling muscles.

Troy Aikman spent his summer laying pipe in the broiling heat of Riverside. I guess the diamond mines of Pretoria were full up, or they didn’t have any oil-well fires in the North Sea to put out. Aikman loved it. He got $8 an hour and all the water he could drink.

Aikman is such a spotlight-shunner, he even chose Oklahoma as a school to play football at. Now, for a passer, Oklahoma is the football equivalent of joining a monastery. You could take vows of silence. You’re never going to be heard from again.

Oklahoma uses the wishbone formation, which is a form of attack based on the invasion of the killer ants. The quarterback gets to throw the ball backward a lot.

“They said they were going to put in the I-formation for me,” says Aikman, somberly.

They didn’t. They didn’t put in a new system. They put in a new quarterback.

Aikman threw the ball 47 times in his varsity career at Oklahoma. He threw the ball 44 times in the Washington State game alone this season. He completed 27 passes in his entire career at Oklahoma. He completed 27 in 1 game--against Washington State again--this season.

At UCLA, they let Aikman throw the ball forward. As often as he wished. Or as often as anyone was open. With UCLA’s fleet corps of receivers, this was 177 times this season--versus 279 passes thrown.

So, here he is, on the verge of becoming the Heisman winner, All-American, the No. 1 draft choice. He doesn’t have to spend his time sliding down the line of scrimmage looking for somebody to hand the ball to, or to have to keep it and ram his helmet into the belly of some bad-tempered 275-pound tackle who hasn’t eaten all day and try to make first downs through him.

Shouldn’t he be dancing on the tops of cars, discoing all night long up on the Strip, going around with this big, silly grin on his face, giving autographs and enjoying life in the big city? After all, he was born here. Why not profit with honor in his own hometown?

Troy Aikman looks at you poker-faced. His brow furrows.

“I’m not a guy who needs the spotlight,” he tells you. “It’s not something I have to have. I’m content to sit at home.

“I think it’s nice to win awards but my goal is not to win the Heisman, it’s to get to the Rose Bowl. I don’t try to please anybody. I try to win. I’m a drop-back passer and those seldom win Heismans. Rodney runs in all his plays and that’s more dramatic, has more visual impact.”

So, what made him smile?

Well, someone asked Troy if he planned to play a different game against USC Saturday from the (losing) one he played last year. Suddenly, Aikman’s face softened. And he smiled broadly. He has a nice smile.

“Yeah,” he grinned. “This time I don’t plan to throw 3 interceptions.”

But, he was asked, wasn’t his team struggling? Wasn’t he? After all, he had thrown for 20 touchdowns in the first 8 games but only 1 in the last 2 games.

Aikman’s face was a stern mask again. “The bottom line is, we won them,” he rebuked his questioner. He looked dangerous.

UCLA’s chore Saturday would seem to be to wipe that smile off Rodney Peete’s face, whether or not he plays. But USC’s would seem to be to wipe the frown off Aikman’s.