Giants’ Meggett Finds Himself Coping With Fame, and Shame

Dave Meggett figures it’s time to clear the air. The 1990 season is just around the corner, but first he must close the book on 1989.

To do so, Meggett Wednesday talked for the first time about his incredible rookie season in which he went from long-shot draft pick to the Pro Bowl. He also talked about the disturbing way it all ended, being arrested Feb. 7 for soliciting an undercover police officer for sex.

Indeed, it was a season of extremes for the fifth-round draft pick from Towson State. He tasted fame and shame all within six months. “The Pro Bowl was great and so was the season,” Meggett said. “But the way it ended put a damper on things.”

Here’s what happened:

Four days after scoring a touchdown in the Pro Bowl, Meggett was arrested in Baltimore for offering an undercover police officer $40 for sex. It made the back page in New York and the front page in Baltimore. It also cost Meggett about $10,000 when several promotional appearances were canceled.

Two months later, a jury acquitted him of the charges after a three-day trial, but Meggett believes his image is damaged. “I know all this had a damper on my reputation,” he said. “That’s why I took the measures as far as going to court and clearing my name. But it’s still in everybody’s mind that, ‘Hey, he got arrested for soliciting a prostitute.’ ”

Living with those whispers is something Meggett says he can handle. But he wonders how long the incident will be remembered.

“Some things just stick with a player,” he said. “I don’t know if this will stick with me. But there are a lot of things written today about players that happened back in the ‘70s -- drug problems, drinking problems. Those things stick with a player.”

He isn’t sure how much of a role being a professional athlete had in his arrest. He said during the trial that he was just being polite to the woman. “I don’t know if that would have happened to Joe Blow,” Meggett said. “That’s really hard to say. Being a professional athlete, everything you do is under a microscope, especially when you have some success in the league. You have to be very careful with what you do.”

Meggett insists he never offered money to the woman.

“The conversation between me and her was very simple and down to the point. There wasn’t anything being offered,” he said. “It was just a matter of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. There was a drug bust going on at the time and these people were waiting, and look who drives up.”

Meggett says he cares what people think of him. “It’s all part of the business,” he said. “You’ve got to care about people and what the people think. We’re in the entertainment business.”

While shaping his off-the-field reputation may be beyond his control, Meggett is working to become better on the field. That will take some doing.

As a rookie he led the league in punt-return yardage (582) and average per return (12.7). Both were club records. But he made the Pro Bowl because of his big-play ability as a third-down back. It started with a 62-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown against the Washington Redskins on opening night and ended with a 76-yard punt return for a touchdown in the regular-season finale against the Raiders. In between he caught touchdown passes of 57 and 53 yards.

In all, Meggett generated 1,807 all-purpose yards, 1,159 of them as a return specialist. Not a bad return (pardon the pun) for a middle-round pick who was deemed too small (5-7, 180) to play in the National Football League. “His emergence was the biggest factor in the Giants’ season,” ABC broadcaster Dan Dierdorf says.

It was halfway through the season before Meggett noticed that maybe he was more than the average rookie. “I noticed that some of the teams were changing their defense on third down because of some of the things I’d done,” he said. “It was like, ‘Wow, if these teams are changing their defenses because of me, then I must be having some kind of impact and maybe I can compete.’ ”

Confirmation came when he went to the Pro Bowl and mingled with the best in the league. “Going over there I was nervous about being with Reggie White and those guys,” he said. “But everybody was saying they had seen me on Monday Night Football and was glad to meet me. It made me feel I really belonged with those guys. It was fun.”

Meggett made about $213,000 last year, $100,000 in bonus money. He will make only $105,000 in the final year of a two-year contract. Meggett’s agent, Tony Agnone, tried to get the Giants to renegotiate this summer, but the club refused. Meggett says he doesn’t mind waiting until next year before making money worthy of his production.

“Whether they renegotiate is totally up to them. I’m perfectly satisfied,” he said.