THE NFL / BILL PLASCHKE : Football World Starting to Notice Special Teams

Kevin Williams hears the voices when he is running off the field after running the ball up some poor kicker’s jersey.

“Out of the corner of your helmet you can hear everybody saying, ‘Yeah, yeah, that’s it, that’s just what we needed,’ ” said Williams, the Dallas Cowboys’ kick returner. “You can sense that sigh of relief. You can feel the whole game change.”

Bobby April, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ special teams coach, hears the voices in restaurants.

“Two different people came up to me the other night and said, ‘Great game Sunday, coach, great game,’ ” April said. “Then they said, ‘Yeah, our special teams really whipped their special teams.’ They were talking specifically about me and my guys. It was unbelievable.”

Danny Abramowicz, special teams coach of the Chicago Bears, hears the voices in his head. Late at night. When the only sound in his closet-sized office is the whirring of his VCR.

“Sometimes, you just get a feeling about something,” he said. “You’re sitting there thinking about trying a different kind of fake, and all of a sudden something tells you, ‘Hey, this could work.’ ”

The special teams used to be called suicide squads. Now they are a life-support system.

They used to be manned by flunkies and guys too dumb to be afraid. Now they are filled with Pro Bowl players.

There was a time when nobody remembered blocked kicks or long punt returns. Now nobody can forget them. Just ask the Rams’ Robert Bailey.

One of the biggest changes in this new NFL is that football’s special teams are suddenly, well, special.

Players such as Mel Gray of the Detroit Lions, who has returned kicks for more yardage than any man in NFL history, are becoming as famous as running backs.

Coaches such as the Cowboys’ Joe Avezzano have their own radio shows.

Coaches such as the Raiders’ Steve Ortmayer are being lauded for having some of the league’s sharpest minds.

And April, whose sideline sprints and exhortations have become a favorite of network camera men, is a regular Pittsburgh celebrity.

The good teams do it well. The poor teams barely do it at all.

The first-place Dallas Cowboys and Cleveland Browns are two of the top three ranked kickoff receiving teams in the league.

The first-place Bears have already won one game with a fake field goal, clinched another victory with a stunning onside kick, and lead the league with three blocked field goals.

Then there are the last-place Houston Oilers. They haven’t blocked a punt or a field goal. Al Del Greco has managed only one touchback on his kickoffs.

And Houston’s kick return team ranks last in the AFC with an average start at the 26-yard-line, seven yards behind the conference-leading Browns.

Many of the important special teams statistics--such as blocked field goals--are still not kept by the league, but by special team junkie Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News, who hears from coaches regularly.

But finally, the rest of the football world is starting to notice.

“This has become a new frontier,” said April, a former USC assistant coach.

There are two reasons: The rules and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

With kickoffs being moved back to the 30-yard line this year, the kick return has become as much a weapon as the pass.

The average team has returned the ball to the 29-yard line, five yards farther than last year.

The number of touchbacks has been reduced by more than two-thirds, from 390 last year to 110 this year, even though there have been 25 more kickoffs this year.

There have also been fewer field- goal attempts because of the rule that returns missed kicks to the spot of the kick, as opposed to the line of scrimmage. So every pooch punt that is attempted instead of a field goal is far more important.

“When I played, it was like, ‘OK, boys, we’re gonna punt the ball, so get down there and cover it,’ ” said Abramowicz, a former star receiver for the New Orleans Saints. “Today, with the shorter field, special teams play is truly one-third of the game.”

Last season, the Steelers were Exhibit A of the importance of special teams. They lost their first-round playoff game to the Kansas City Chiefs last year when they allowed a punt to be blocked late in the game.

The Steelers would not have had to play that game on the road if they had not allowed Eric Metcalf to return two punts for touchdowns in a loss to the Browns earlier in the season.

John Guy, the Steelers’ special teams coach, was fired. Amid much hoopla, April was hired away from the Atlanta Falcons to replace him.

This year the Steelers have yet to suffer a blocked punt while their punter, Mark Royals, leads the league in putting the ball inside the 20-yard line.

“We impress upon the guys that special teams is not just something that happens a couple of times a week on Sunday,” April said. “Special teams is something that you live every day.”

The attitude is not only one of aggressiveness, but of deception. The hardest thing for a special teams players or coach is to remain outwardly calm moments before a trick play.

That’s because from the press box or sidelines, somebody on the other team is always watching.

“Teams will watch you for any sort of smile, any sort of motion that shows you are excited about what’s about to happen,” said the Bears’ Abramowicz, whose fake field goal against the Miami Dolphins on Nov. 13 became a bizarre touchdown that fooled even Don Shula.

“One of the most important assets for a coach is a poker face,” Abramowicz said. “Before that fake against the Dolphins, I walked over to Coach (Dave) Wannstedt, kept looking at the field, and said, ‘Let’s try it.’ If I’m talking to him any longer, or looking funny, they would have figured something was up.”

Check out midfield after a game. Two sets of coaches seek each other out. The head coaches . . . and the special teams coaches.

“We compete directly against each other, we understand each other,” said Abramowicz.

They hear the same voices.

THE BEST

This season’s five best special teams plays, in ascending order.

5. Vernon Turner’s 80-yard punt return for a touchdown for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers against the Detroit Lions. No big deal, it was only the Buccaneers’ first return of a kick for a touchdown in the franchise’s 281-game history.

4. Randall Cunningham’s 80-yard surprise punt for the Philadelphia Eagles against the Dallas Cowboys. Wouldn’t you know that the league’s longest punt in two years would belong to a quarterback?

3. Tom Tupa’s three two-point conversions for the Cleveland Browns. That is more two-point conversions than all but four other teams .

2. The fake field goal by the Bears against the Dolphins that resulted in a 23-yard touchdown pass from receiver Curtis Conway to receiver Keith Jennings off a deflection from offensive lineman Jerry Fontenot.

Shula still doesn’t know what happened. Neither, we suspect, does Conway.

1. What else? Bailey’s 103-yard punt return for a touchdown for the Rams against the Saints. We’ll forget that there were about a dozen rule violations on the play if you will.

WE’RE NOT MAKING THIS UP

Leaving the Astrodome after their Monday night victory over the Oilers, the New York Giants’ three team buses got stuck in traffic around 1 a.m. on their way to the airport.

“We didn’t move an inch for 20 minutes,” Giant Coach Dan Reeves said.

Because they had not eaten since 4 p.m., Reeves, three assistant coaches and a team security official left the bus and walked nearly a mile up the road to a McDonald’s.

When they got there, they were told it would take 15 minutes to fill their order. They were waiting for the food when traffic started to move.

Reeves panicked, and climbed up an embankment to a freeway overpass to locate his buses. He didn’t see them, but he did see a transient who said, “I ain’t never seen nobody under this bridge with a coat and tie before.”

Reeves returned to McDonald’s, grabbed 10 hamburgers and hailed a cab with the others. But when the cab got to the airport, only two of the buses were there.

The third had stopped by McDonald’s to pick them up.

“I said, ‘This may be the worst play I called all night,’ ” Reeves said.

HEY BUDDY, ONE WORD--DISGRACEFUL

Luis Sharpe, former UCLA star and one of the classiest athletes in pro sports, suffered what may have been a career-ending injury last week when he tore a major ligament in his right knee while playing tackle for Buddy Ryan’s Arizona Cardinals.

Sharpe has started at tackle for the Cardinals since 1982, and was the only remaining player on the Arizona roster who played in St. Louis.

So what did Buddy say when asked later about injuries during the game?

“We ain’t got anyone hurt that counts,” he said.

Sharpe, a three-time Pro Bowl player, was furious afterward.

“My stance on that is, basically, when idiots make idiotic statements, it’s best not to comment,” Sharpe said Wednesday.

Of course, he then commented.

“Here you are seriously injured, you are out there busting your butt, trying to win football games and you wake up Monday morning and read that,” Sharpe said. “That adds insult to injury.”

Sharpe added that no member of the team’s front office or coaching staff had even called him since the injury.

QUICK HITTERS

* THE LEGEND LIVES: During Coach Barry Switzer’s news conference after the Dallas Cowboys’ Thanksgiving victory, a reporter with a foreign accent haltingly asked a question.

“Sir,” Switzer interrupted, “have you been drinking?”

After the press conference, several photographers asked Switzer for one last photo.

“Only if I can pose with a girl,” he said, promptly grabbing a female reporter and draping his arm over her shoulder.

* OR, AS MANY AS THE RAMS GO THROUGH IN ONE SEASON: In his NFL career, Reggie White of the Green Bay Packers has sacked 55 different quarterbacks.

* BLOOD BATH: The last time the Pittsburgh Steelers visited the Raiders at the Coliseum, in 1990, a Steeler fan was beaten into a coma by Raider fans.

The last time the Steelers met the Raiders in Pittsburgh, last summer, Steeler Rod Woodson and Raider Jerry Ball were thrown out for fighting, and Steeler tackle Leon Searcy pulled the helmet off Raider defensive end Aundray Bruce.

And Sunday?

Said Searcy: “I’m pretty sure tempers will flare.”

Said cornerback Deon Figures: “The (Raiders’) mystique is not like it used to be. But I think the Raiders are trying to uphold the image. The preseason game was heated. I think this one will be even more heated.”

* TOUGH ROAD: Before conceding AFC home-field advantage to the Steelers, note that they must play at the Coliseum and in San Diego in the final five weeks.

Since 1985, the Steelers have won two of 13 games at West Coast sites and in Arizona.

* ON SECOND THOUGHT, THE STEELERS SHOULDN’T FEEL SO BAD: Forgive the Chicago Bears for being a tad worried about earning a playoff spot while playing their next three games on the road.

They haven’t won a road game after Thanksgiving since 1987.

Anywhere.

* BLESSING IN DISGUISE: Jeff Fisher, new coach of the Houston Oilers, was born with a birth defect that left him deaf in his right ear.

“Being deaf in one ear was beneficial in Philadelphia,” Fisher said. “I’d make sure Buddy (Ryan) was standing on my right. I’d cover my left ear so I wouldn’t have to listen to him.”

* MORE FISHER: If you don’t believe Fisher is facing an uphill climb with an undisciplined team, check this out:

In Fisher’s debut against the New York Giants last week, receiver Webster Slaughter was so angry about being benched in the new two-receiver offense that he sneaked into the game without Fisher’s permission.

Sorry, Slaughter said, but he could not stand there and watch an $898,000 playing-time bonus disappear.

“I feel like I’m being brutalized,” Slaughter said. “I had to insert myself a couple of times. Haywood (Jeffires) just came off the field. He shouldn’t have been surprised because I told him what I was going to do.”

Said Fisher, “It sounds to me like Webster’s more concerned with Webster than the team. I won’t tolerate a player going into a game on his own.”

* KNOCK IT OFF, GEEKS: During the first 20 minutes of business hours on a Wednesday, the Seattle Seahawk switchboard fielded 32 calls from fantasy football fans wondering if tailback Chris Warren was going to play that Sunday.

* TOUCHE: The Cowboys, fined $10,000 by Commissioner Paul Tagliabue for failing to list Troy Aikman’s sore thumb on the injury report two weeks ago, submitted 26 names on the list this week.

Twenty-one of those players played on Thanksgiving against the Packers, including three of the four who scored Cowboy touchdowns.

* PRAYER OF THE WEEK: This was recited by the Chicago Bears’ Chris Zorich to volunteers preparing to deliver 197 boxes of food to families in Chicago’s poor south side.

“Lord, let them be safe while driving in the ‘hood.”

* AND HE’S RIGHT: The Cowboys’ Nate Newton, when asked if he thought they could continue winning with Rodney Peete or Jason Garrett at quarterback.

“Hey man,” he said, pointing to a reporter, “we could win with you. “