Deion Has Also Put on a Show

There has been a lot of talk lately about baseball players Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Cal Ripken Jr.--all of it well deserved--but, let’s face it, the greatest athlete in the world today is a football player, Deion Sanders of Dallas.

Moonlighting in baseball a few years ago, Sanders led the National League in triples. As recently as 1997, batting .273 for the Cincinnati Reds, he led the league in stolen bases with 56 before rejoining the Cowboys in August.

Meantime, another famous two-sport athlete, Michael Jordan, the best basketball player since Magic Johnson, was overmatched by minor league pitchers.

Sanders’ versatility is most picturesquely shown on the football field, where he is the game’s only triple-threat in 50 years. Again Monday night:

* On defense, he returned an interception 71 yards for a touchdown.

* On offense, closely covered by two defensive backs on a 55-yard play, he made a Jerry Rice-like catch, setting up the touchdown that ended the last hope for the New York Giants.

* As a special-teams player, Sanders spectacularly covered about 80 yards as he scored on a 59-yard punt return.

During that return, he managed to sprint in all four directions.

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The most impressive game ever by a football player was played by Red Grange in 1924. An Illinois junior, Grange scored the first four times he touched the ball that day in the opening 12 minutes of the Michigan game, going 95, 67, 45 and 56 yards, first on a special teams play--the kickoff--then from scrimmage.

In that era, they didn’t call them special teams. That was the iron-man era. The same 11 men played most of the 60 minutes. And the starters were selected primarily for their defensive ability.

Grange was on the team because he was a reliable defensive back. Though Michigan threw few passes that day, Grange intercepted one of them.

It can be ventured that Sanders’ performance Monday night was, at the least, a close second to Grange’s.

For, almost every time he moved, Sanders was confronting specialists. On his punt return, he beat special-teams specialists. On his big catch, he beat defensive specialists. Only on his interception return did he have it easier, which is one reason why it is folly to throw toward Sanders’ man.

Sanders is both the quickest and fastest athlete in the league and as courageous as any. On one special-teams play Monday night, he picked up a bouncing punt to keep the Cowboys out of bad field position, and, facing a certain licking, headed into a pack of angry Giants.

Those critical of Sanders as a tackler fail to understand that as a cornerback, his primary role against runs is to force the play in, which, invariably, he does. At 6-feet-1 and 195 pounds, he couldn’t live through a game challenging 230-pound runners.

But he did choose football, a contact sport, over baseball.

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The Denver Bronocs made one of their few serious mistakes last week when they allowed quarterback John Elway, 38, to decide whether he should play with a hamstring injury.

They gambled their whole season on that decision, which Coach Mike Shanahan should have made himself, confining Elway to the bench for at least two weeks.

A competitive player like Elway always wants to play, but you don’t gamble with a hamstring, which only rest can cure.

It’s unbelievable that the Broncos are even thinking of playing Elway in Washington today on his re-injured leg. Don’t they want him anymore?