If Anyone Doubts Colts Are for Real, Ask Tobin

There is no shortage of criminals, hot-dogs and superstars playing in the NFL, but it lacks great characters.

This of course explains the amazing success of the Indianapolis Colts, who have no business winning but continue to do so because of their charismatic leaders.

Bill Tobin, the Colts’ vice president and director of football operations, wanted to deliver this personally to everyone, but he has both a hot-dog and a superstar in Jimmy Johnson to contend with Monday night. Tobin knows every Colt doubter by name, and the man who built this fairy-tale team is looking for the opportunity to get right into your face.

“Hell no, this is no fluke,” Tobin grunts.

“There are no doubters here. We might have had some on our plane to Dallas last week because we had some sponsors aboard, but there aren’t any in our locker room.

“Are we cocky? Hell no. It’s just a matter of doing it, and we’re doing it.”

No cliches, no Public Relations 101 personnel talk, no baloney. A true-blue character, who believed in Jim Harbaugh as a top-flight quarterback, and to hell with the rest of the world.

Tobin cannot talk about Harbaugh without shoving a Bear media guide in your face. He has underlined the 16 records posted by Harbaugh while in Chicago.

“It is my job to see and know things before they happen,” Tobin says. “What did I see in Jim Harbaugh that made me want to bring him to Indianapolis? Everything this town has seen of him since.”

Most football fans recall Harbaugh being scolded on the sideline by Bear Coach Mike Ditka after calling an audible, which turned a 20-0 Chicago lead into a 21-20 Minnesota victory.

“Everyone sees Ditka undress him on the sideline, the coaches, the players, the whole world,” Tobin says. “That one play is etched vividly in everyone’s mind, and now why do you think Mike Ditka [as a TV commentator] is singing his praises? Ditka now is man enough to tell the whole world he made a mistake.”

How about everybody else who continues to show no faith in the Colts, including their own fans, who didn’t sell out the Hoosier Dome in their first home game?

“My wife is so tired of people like Cris Collinsworth on TV picking against us, and my daughter can’t understand why nobody ever gives us a chance,” Tobin says.

A lot of people just don’t like Tobin because he’s one of those characters who will say what he thinks and do as he feels, such as forcing popular Ted Marchibroda out as coach a year ago.

Marchibroda took the Colts to within a complete pass in the end zone of advancing to the Super Bowl, and then received a one-year contract from Tobin with no raise and 17 days to decide if he wished to remain with the team.

Marchibroda left, and Tobin, the talent scout for those great Bear teams in the mid-’80s, made the move he wanted to make: He promoted offensive coordinator and former Packer Coach Lindy Infante to Marchibroda’s position.

“When I left the AFC championship game in Pittsburgh last year I walked around the stadium three times, thinking things through,” Tobin says. “I wanted to keep the players and the assistant coaches together. And it all worked out fine.”

But Tobin, in effect, fired the nicest guy in football in Marchibroda.

“The guy I hired is a nice guy too,” Tobin says. “My owner told me to do whatever I thought necessary.”

Tobin took a 4-12 team that has finished 8-8 and 9-7 the last two seasons and is off to a 3-0 start in 1996.

“When I get fired again, I will have done it my way,” Tobin says. “I don’t worry about what everybody else thinks. I’m not going to let anyone else make my decisions. One of my biggest idols is Harry Truman. He never had an education, but told people, ‘I’d rather show them than tell them,’ and ‘The buck stops here,’ and ‘If it’s too hot in the kitchen . . . ‘

“That’s the attitude you have to have, and you have to say your prayers at night too.”

WHAT THE MARKET WILL BEAR

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley has unveiled a proposed $358-million renovation of Soldier Field, including a retractable roof.

The funding is pretty much already in place. In fact, there could be more than required--$160 million from the McCormick Place-Navy Pier tourism-related taxing authority, $60 million from bonds paid off through stadium revenues, and $175 million from the Bears.

That last amount could be a problem--and imagine an owner being asked to come to Los Angeles and put up $175 million to help refurbish the Coliseum.

The Bears are worried that naming rights and personal seat licenses will be a hard sell in a renovated Soldier Field, roof or not. All they have to do is look at what’s happening in a renovated Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.

FOCUS ON JETS AND GIANTS

David Letterman and Jay Leno can’t wait for the outcome: The winless Jets versus the winless Giants, and on the line a whole week’s worth of monologue fodder.

“Everyone understands how big a game like this is,” Jet Coach Rich Kotite said. “I don’t think you can overplay that. That’s real world stuff.”

The Jets haven’t scored a first-quarter point in their last seven games and have only one first-quarter touchdown in their last 16.

“Everyone is telling the Jets they are the worst and telling us we are the worst,” Giant tight end Aaron Pierce said. “I guess whoever loses this game, everyone is going to agree is the worst.”

IN QUOTATIONS

Harbaugh on the Colts’ success: “It’s like that Billy Joel song: ‘We ain’t too pretty, we ain’t too proud . . . we might be laughing too loud and having too much fun.’ ”

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A 49er quarterback has not thrown a touchdown pass in the last 4 1/2 games. “If you take the post route we threw the first week [against New Orleans] to Jerry Rice and he catches it two yards deeper, we’re not even having this discussion,” offensive coordinator Marc Trestman said. He didn’t, so we are.

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Detroit Coach Wayne Fontes on what losing has done to him. “Look at me. What do I look like? Do I look like Omar Sharif?”

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So how’s that sore right elbow, Steve Walsh, Ram quarterback? “I’m not going to talk about it anymore. I’m sick of talking about it. So don’t even ask me.”

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How true: “I can’t save this franchise. I’m not good enough,” said Tampa Bay quarterback Trent Dilfer.

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Kevin Butler never got a call when the Bears went looking for a new kicker this week. “Since it came down to a flip of a coin in training camp, loyalty must mean nothing because I wonder why my phone is not ringing today,” Butler said. “There is something personal.”

Or, maybe it was those burning bridges that are still smoldering after Butler was cut earlier.

“They could have improved themselves,” Butler said then. “Winning is not the most important thing to the Bears now. It’s getting a new stadium and saving money.”

EXTRA POINTS

--Green Bay has won 20 of its last 21 games at Lambeau Field. “We want to make this the worst place in the NFL to come and play,” said Ron Wolf, Packer general manager.

--Carolina fans take note: The 49ers are 3-4 coming off bye weeks.

--In the last 10 NFL seasons, 34 of the 43 teams that began the season 3-0 have qualified for the playoffs.

--Oiler owner Bud Adams made no move to greet Baltimore owner Art Modell at last week’s game in Houston. Adams said he had a new pair of boots and didn’t want to walk across the stadium.

HONOR ROLL

Just how much money do you pay the best player in the game?

“It will be a big number,” Packer quarterback Brett Favre said.

Favre, who signed a $19-million, five-year contract in 1994, wants to surpass the eight-year, $50-million deal that quarterback Troy Aikman signed with Dallas in 1993.

“I just think I deserve it,” Favre said. “I think right now I’m playing as well as anybody in the league. I should be paid. And they know that too.”

DETENTION

Jacksonville Coach Tom Coughlin needs to take another look at those game films. Running back James Stewart, who had 51 yards in eight carries against Oakland, began the first drive in the third quarter with two rushes for 34 yards, then did not play again.

Running back Natrone Means replaced an uninjured Stewart and gained 12 yards in eight carries.

Said Coughlin: “We wanted to get Nate some plays.”

And another loss.

TIME TO PUNT

By starting a sore and weak-armed Walsh, the Rams have put wide receiver Isaac Bruce on notice: Don’t bother going deep because Walsh can’t get you the ball.

“I guess I’m taking one for the team,” Bruce said. “If I have to block more, or catch shorter routes and get my yards that way, I think I have the ability to do that. We’ll have to have more of a controlled-type offense. A lot of underneath stuff. It’ll probably be hard to get people to back up off us.”

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Arizona quarterback Boomer Esiason completed 12 of 30 passes for 79 yards and threw three interceptions, prompting Coach Vince Tobin to say: “I thought long and hard about it, and I slept on it.”

What’s to think? Bench Boomer and play anybody with a healthy arm, which is what Tobin did in assigning Kent Graham to start Sunday.

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Last week’s game against Baltimore in Houston attracted 20,082 fans, the team’s all-time low.

“This is a divorce,” Houston tackle Irv Eatman said. “I’d rather have somebody just tell me to get lost. This is like a husband and wife staying together until the kids get out of high school.”

Owner Adams, who has agreed to move his team to Nashville, offered a different explanation.

“If [the opponent] had been the Cleveland Browns, it would be a different story,” Adams said. “People don’t know who the Baltimore Ravens are.”

Wait until the Nashville Whatevers go on the road.