Injured Millard Wins Defense Title

Keith Millard lifted his left arm as high as he could, which wasn’t very high at all.

He uses the arm to do the tricks of his trade--rips and swims and all those other little moves that most spectators at an NFL game never see because they happen in the war zone known as the trenches.

“I haven’t been able to practice or lift weights for three weeks,” Millard said. “All I’ve done is play in games which, no matter how much it hurts, is something I’ve got to do.”

Despite a separated left shoulder that limited him to three sacks the last six weeks of the NFL season, the Minnesota Vikings’ All-Pro finished with 18, most for a defensive tackle in the eight years that the sack has been recorded as an official league statistic.

And even though line mate Chris Doleman and Green Bay linebacker Tim Harris passed him in the category, Millard was the choice of the nation’s sportswriters as the Associated Press NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

“Never in my life did I think I could be the defensive player of the year,” he said. “That kind of thing is so far out, you don’t even dare think about it. When I think of other guys who have won this, guys like Lawrence Taylor and Reggie White, I know it’s quite an honor.”

“He’s got a catalytic effect; he brings a certain energy to the defense that makes the whole thing work,” Vikings Coach Jerry Burns said. “He gets the fire in his eyes. He’s a scream-and-holler guy. He’s a leader. And he’s a hell of a football player.”

On a team of defensive stars--Doleman, strong safety Joey Browner, linebackers Scott Studwell and Mike Merriweather, cornerback Carl Lee--Millard is unquestionably the emotional leader of the league’s top-ranked unit.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever coached a player who brings so much energy and emotion onto the field,” said defensive coordinator Floyd Peters, who has made a name for himself by coaching sack-crazy teams in San Francisco, Detroit, St. Louis and Minnesota.

“Keith Millard is at the top of his profession,” Peters said. The idea of a defensive tackle getting 18 sacks is so wild it’s almost ridiculous.”

The line of Millard, Doleman, Al Noga and Henry Thomas has 59 1/2 of the Vikings’ 71 sacks, one shy of the league record set by the 1984 Chicago Bears.

The Millard-Doleman combination on the right side of the Vikings’ line has been especially hazardous to the health of the league’s quarterbacks for years. Doleman led the league with 21 sacks this year, many caused by Millard’s pressure.

“It’s difficult to double-team both of them,” Burns said. “There’s a difficulty in getting sacks from a defensive tackle position, where it’s much easier to slide-block and double than it is a defensive end.