THE NFL / T.J. SIMERS : BUST BY THE BAY

In most cases there would be no reason to rush it--you know, fly to San Francisco, rent a car, drive more than two hours across Interstate 80 into a July oven beyond Sacramento and onto a construction-ravaged Sierra College campus five weeks before the start of the NFL regular season just to watch J.J. Stokes drop the football.

But to watch a truly great bust at work you must seize the opportunity before everyone comes to his senses and moves forward with someone more productive.

Right now, J.J. Stokes is the starting wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers opposite Jerry Rice, which is kind of like the NFL’s version of the Bob Hope Classic, in which amateurs are paired with pros.

Now, J.J. Stokes has the football body to dominate the game and witnesses claim to have seen him catch the ball in practice, but you might not know the real scoop: He is the 49ers’ starting wide receiver because they had to put a screw into the foot of Terrell Owens, and there’s no one else beyond Iheanyi Uwaezuoke, who has been even a bigger waste than Stokes.

Terrell Owens? No, not your every-down Art Monk budding superstar but, shoot, good enough to play ahead of Stokes eventually, even with a screw in his foot.

You probably remember J.J. Stokes playing like Superman at UCLA, where he was so highly regarded that he could have left school early to make millions in the NFL but instead won admiration from eggheads and criticism from sports junkies for staying another year to graduate. Nice kid and you wished him well.

Too bad he didn’t stay to pursue a master’s, then a PhD. Maybe a teaching assignment, even tenure.

Two years into an NFL career, and beginning a third with the 49ers, all you have to do is listen to the guy who determines if the ball will ever be thrown to Stokes to know how his football career is going.

“I’ve tried it all,” said Steve Young, 49er quarterback, at the opening of training camp. “I yelled and screamed at him, tried to embarrass him and just left him alone. The key belongs to him. He has to motivate himself.”

Well, you know that’s not going to work. That’s been the big knock on the big guy: He just doesn’t want to be the best as badly as everyone else wants him to be the best.

As a rookie, he rejected Rice’s invitation to join him for off-season workouts, and you wonder what they teach these guys at UCLA. He says no to the greatest receiver in the game? Then he lost the confidence of his teammates, who noticed him easing through most practices.

A series of injuries then sabotaged any real comeback, including a hamstring pull in the first mini-camp practice with the new coach, Steve Mariucci. You can make better first impressions.

Owens’ foot injury, however, has given Stokes one more chance to impress, and you’re looking at a made-for-TV movie if he somehow is no longer a certified stiff after working with “confidence coach” Tim Moore of the Canton (Ohio) Tuscany Institute.

“Some people in professional athletics are a bust for a good reason,” said Moore, who has been working daily with Stokes for the last two months. “They are lazy or they don’t take it seriously. But if you have a guy who has his heart into it, yeah, you can turn him around.”

And just when you think you’ve heard it all.

“It might very well be snake oil,” said Dwight Clark, 49er vice president, who went through one of Moore’s sessions, which included watching scenes from “An Officer and a Gentleman” and “Flashdance” and listening to lots of music.

“All it does is get you feeling more confident about yourself and figuring out what is negative in your life and what is taking away from your performance. But I’ll tell you, it’s worked for a couple of our players, so why not?”

Stokes, who walks around wearing a headset all day, listens to rap to get keyed up for practice, and then mellows out immediately afterward with reggae. Between workouts, he said, he watches “Tombstone,” one of the “Friday the 13th” movies and “The Fugitive.”

“It gets my adrenaline going,” said Stokes, whose interviews resemble those of a truck driver who has been traveling cross country for days without sleep.

Moore, who trains athletes to control their emotions, talks to Stokes a couple times of day, working to find the trigger that worked so successfully for Stokes at UCLA. You think the 49ers would agree to move their games to the Rose Bowl?

“You’ve got to duplicate the pattern of the past, when you were successful,” Moore said.

He said his method for success is all about controlling emotions, has nothing to do with psychology and all but promised that Stokes won’t get injured this season.

“All those injuries he suffered came just after emotionally trying days,” Moore said.

He said his task is to get athletes into the “zone,” that rarefied moment when they can do no wrong, and, just as important, get them out of it.

“You don’t want to be in the zone when not in competition,” Moore said. “[Met pitcher] Doc Gooden was a good example of that. He knows how to get in, but he was still wound up and flying high three to four hours later, and so that’s where a guy starts having a couple of beers to come down and then drugs come in.”

Moore, who has worked with PGA Tour players, shoring up their confidence, used his stuff on reserve linebacker Kevin Mitchell last year, and now Mitchell has a starting job with the 49ers. The Stokes project is still a work in progress, but more and more you’re hearing “Stokes is having a good camp,” and “It seems like he’s gotten a little more serious this year.”

Stokes has gone so far as to ask Young to throw him the ball whenever Young is looking for a warmup partner. Stokes doesn’t get a look until after Young has taken a peek at Rice and tight end Brent Jones, but you would expect that.

“If he’s on the field, I’ll throw him the ball until he proves he can’t do it,” Young said. “But you can’t do much if you’re hurt, so he knows he has to steel himself a little bit and prove people wrong. When he has played, I will say he has made some plays. There have been times when he looked like a rookie and other times when he has made some real nice plays. Health is the key for him.”

Keep this kind of happy talk up and the next thing you know, Stokes will be campaigning for Pro Bowl votes and demanding apologies for being dismissed as a loser.

“I don’t really care what people think,” he said, and you wonder if he’s getting enough sleep, what with all the movies he’s watching and music he’s listening to. “It’s been hell, but I think I’m stronger for it now and all my injuries are behind me. I just have to be productive every time I am on the field--play after play.

“I’m going to play my [rear] off, and if it’s good enough, cool,” Stokes said. “If not, oh well.”

There you go. You just have to like the chances of someone so inspired.

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Stokes at a Glance

The performance of wide receiver J.J. Stokes at UCLA and with the San Francisco 49ers:

WITH UCLA

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Year Rec Yds Avg TD 1991 5 55 11.0 0 1992 41 728 17.8 7 1993 82 1,181 14.4 17 1994 26 505 19.4 4 Totals 154 2,469 16.0 28

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WITH 49ERS

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Year Rec Yds Avg TD 1995 38 517 13.6 4 1996 18 249 13.8 0 Totals 56 766 13.7 4

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