Esteem Heat : Self-Effacing Art Monk Has an Eye on NFL Reception Record--and Far Beyond

After a long workout last month in the stifling heat of Ashburn, Va., most of the Washington Redskins dragged themselves slowly over to the bench and lined up at the water coolers.

Most--but not Art Monk.

Heading the other way, Monk, the Redskins’ senior wide receiver, walked briskly up to the referee who had been brought in for the day to discuss the NFL’s new rules.

Then, ignoring the heat and his aching muscles, he strode vigorously toward the club’s headquarters building--the new one, which isn’t far from his old Virginia home--and disappeared at the locker room door.

At 34, standing 6 feet 3, the 210-pound Monk might be the NFL’s best-preserved physical specimen.

“He’s our premier guy as far as fitness and preparing himself to play the game,” Redskin Coach Joe Gibbs said.

When he makes his 820th catch, Monk will become the most prolific pass receiver of all time. It might happen during the Redskin-Denver Bronco game Monday night at Washington. With seven catches, he would break the NFL record set by Steve Largent of the Seattle Seahawks in 1976-89.

“As far as those kind of records, that’s maybe in the (top two),” Gibbs said, noting that only two baseball players have hit 700 home runs, and that only two football players have caught 800 passes.

But 820 won’t be enough for Monk.

“Art has had (1,000 catches) as a goal for some time,” said Hall of Famer Charley Taylor, a Redskin offensive coach.

That would be an accomplishment in a league that Raymond Berry left after 631, Fred Biletnikoff after 589 and Lance Alworth after 542.

Yet, as unlikely as it seems to many old-timers, Monk could get to 1,000 in two years, sometime in 1994. He has averaged 74 catches throughout his 30s, 67 lifetime. In 1994, he won’t turn 37 until Dec. 5.

Despite Monk’s success, many fans aren’t exactly sure who he is. On the field, he never draws attention to himself. Off the field, his first order of business is to duck attention.

After the Redskin game last weekend, Monk was asked about his success several times--near his locker, near the shower room door, near the Redskin bus outside, and at the airport, but he didn’t answer.

Last summer, at a hastily arranged news conference, Monk, with his record bid imminent, was goaded by the Redskin publicity department into replying briefly to a few questions. But he hasn’t spoken with reporters before or since.

Apparently, it isn’t that he dislikes or distrusts the media. Those who know him say that if he dislikes or distrusts anyone, it is Art Monk. He rates himself as merely another receiver on a team with superb receiving, they say, and he believes that he isn’t good enough to deserve the focus that has been increasingly on him at the expense of the others.

And his attitude is nothing new.

At Syracuse in 1980, he was surprised when the Redskins drafted him during the first round, he told college friends at the time. And since then, apparently, he has continuously undervalued himself.

But in his many doubts about himself, Monk stands alone on the Redskins.

“Art can do anything he wants to do,” said teammate Gary Clark, who has caught more than 500 passes in slightly more than seven years.

“We all want to be the (best receiver), but we know he’s the best. He’s the best because he works the year around on catching and conditioning.”

Among other things, Clark said, Monk watches his weight despite a lifelong weakness for candy bars.

Only once last season, according to Washington writer Richard Justice, did Monk go out to lunch with Clark and the other receivers. There were double cheeseburgers all around, except for Monk, who ordered an apple.

“Made me sick,” Clark said.

As Clark sees it, there are two unusual things about his quiet friend:

Monk thinks of himself as a good musician more than as a top receiver.

Brought up in a musical family to play trombone, he also plays tuba, guitar and drums. Once at a National Symphony Orchestra concert, he was on stage as a children’s program annotator. His sister is a professional gospel singer. His second cousin was the late jazz pianist Thelonious Monk.

“I just don’t see myself on that level (with the best receivers),” Monk said during last summer’s news conference.

These feelings of insecurity prompt Monk to work at football year-round and then to play every game at the top of his game.

And if in time he catches 1,000 passes--almost 200 more than anyone else has ever caught--it will be evident that the talent he denies made it possible, and that his sense of inadequacy made it inevitable.

Some say it is inevitable because:

--Although he isn’t the best receiver in the country today, among those who play his position, he is by far the best football player.

--He is the NFL’s most complete receiving package. Others have specialized as short-pass possession receivers, or third-down experts, or deep threats. Monk has the speed to do it all.

--He is willing to go anywhere to catch the ball. Many of the so-called “pure receivers” drop the ball when running over the middle or fail to run the pattern out, or, as the defensive backs say, short-arm the ball. Not Monk.

“It takes a tough guy to go in there,” Gibbs said. “Some of them will go in, but they won’t really look for the ball. (Monk) does.”

--Monk also has the work habits to maintain his physical condition into his late 30s and 40s.

--As a Redskin receiver, playing alongside such good fellow receivers as Clark and Ricky Sanders, Monk is rarely double-covered.

--He is a pro’s pro on a pro’s pro kind of team. Everyone respects the Redskins.

*

In Great Falls, Va., Monk lives as quietly as he plays and works, avoiding neighbors as if they were sportswriters.

He lives on a lake in a three-level contemporary house with his wife, who was a Syracuse classmate, and their three children.

For Monk, it isn’t like the old days in White Plains, N.Y., where he and his sister spent their early childhood in an apartment above a church rented by their father, a welder, and mother, a housemaid in nearby Scarsdale.

The lake that edges the Monk property is stocked with the fish that he and his son go after regularly and devotedly. Fishing has always been Monk’s primary avocation. During the week before the Super Bowl in Minneapolis, he made time for ice fishing.

Monk also has a big room full of computers.

His multi-year Redskin contract, paying more than $1.1 million per year, will expire after the season. It was negotiated by his lawyer, Richard Bennett, who joined him in the Syracuse days and now lives nearby.

They are expected to seek $2 million per year next year. But as always, Monk probably will take what the Redskins give him. In 13 years, he has never held out.

He probably never has thought of it.

Catching On

All-time leaders in receptions in the NFL: PLAYER: NO. 1. Steve Largent: 819 2. x-Art Monk: 813 3. Charlie Joiner: 750 4. x-James Lofton: 718 5. Ozzie Newsome: 662 6. Charley Taylor: 649 7. Don Maynard: 633 8. Raymond Berry: 631 9. Harold Carmichael: 590 10. Fred Biletnikoff: 589 x-Active.

How Monk Rates

Most Receptions, Season

106--Monk, Washington (1984)

101--Charley Hennigan, Houston (1984)

100--Lionel Taylor, Denver (1961)

Jerry Rice, San Francisco (1990)

Haywood Jeffires, Houston (1991)

Most Seasons, 50+ Receptions

10--Steve Largent, Seattle (1976, 78-81, 83-87)

9--Monk, Washington (1980-81, 84-86, 88-91)

8--James Lofton, Green Bay (1979-81, 83-86) Buffalo (1991)

Receptions, Most Consecutive Games

177--Steve Largent, Seattle

150--Ozzie Newsome, Cleveland

132--Art Monk, Washington