New Cunningham Ready for Shot at First Conference Crown

Reggie White watched helplessly on the field as Randall Cunningham beat the Green Bay Packers twice this season. White also watched from a distance as the quarterback led Minnesota to many other victories.

All the time, White wondered what might have been. He’ll find out today.

Cunningham, who played with White on Buddy Ryan’s talented but underachieving Philadelphia Eagles teams of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, is preparing for his first conference championship game.

White will be watching. So will Ryan and everyone else who once thought Cunningham might never fulfill his potential.

“He has the prettiest passes that I’ve ever seen,” said White, the Packers’ great defensive end who is retiring. “His spirals always seem to be tight, and this year he’s putting it right on the mark. I mean, he’s playing unlike he’s ever played before.

“I look at him now and I kind of envy it, because I wish we would have had that when I was in Philadelphia. Because I think we would have won at least two [Super Bowls] if we would have.”

The Vikings hope Cunningham is about to lead them to the first Super Bowl title in their 38-year history. They’re favored by 11 points to beat the Atlanta Falcons for the NFC championship, the furthest Cunningham has been in the postseason.

A victory would be yet another grand achievement in Cunningham’s renaissance season, one in which he has used his abilities and religious faith to produce the best numbers of his career. In the process, he has rebuilt his reputation much the same way he rebuilt himself during a year of retirement in 1996.

“I’ve been close in the past to this game but have just been overpowered by different teams,” Cunningham said. “And now to be here, and to be at home, I don’t want to say it’s a dream come true because I don’t dream too much about football.

“All the hope that I’ve had is coming through, and I just see that God’s hand is in it.”

That’s the quintessential Cunningham. His faith is foremost in his life. There is almost no subject he broaches without relating it somehow to his beliefs.

Cunningham credits that rock-solid foundation for all he has achieved this season. More precisely, he credits his faith with giving him the patience and the focus to guide the Vikings’ fabulously talented offense.

Minnesota set an NFL scoring record with 556 points in the regular season and followed up with 41 in last Sunday’s win over Arizona, just the third playoff victory in Cunningham’s 13-year career. The Vikings might have been just as productive if Brad Johnson, the starter before breaking a bone in his leg in Week 2, had been healthy all season.

But they wouldn’t have had the same panache.

“Cris [Carter] said that it was an advantage toward me that Randall could throw the deep ball,” said rookie receiver Randy Moss, who led the NFL with 17 TD catches and was just 8 when Cunningham began his NFL career. “So that’s what I remember my whole life, that he can throw the deep ball.”

That was the first thing Ryan noticed about Cunningham back in ‘85, when the rookie quarterback was in Philadelphia and Ryan was the defensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears. Ryan became Philadelphia’s coach the following season.

“It’s amazing,” Ryan said from his Kentucky horse farm. “When he came out of college he had a great touch on the long ball. He had that great touch from the word go, and he’s still got it.”

Ryan, who was fired by the Arizona Cardinals after the 1995 season, spent most of his Sundays last fall keeping track Cunningham. The only difference Ryan sees from the galloping quarterback he coached in Philadelphia--Cunningham’s 4,741 yards rushing are the most ever for a quarterback--is the offensive line in front of him.

Cunningham played behind three of the worst offensive lines in Eagles history. Since the NFL started keeping sacks as an official statistic in 1982, no team has come close to the 104 sacks the Eagles allowed in 1986. Cunningham started just five games late in the season but still was sacked 72 times.

This year, with an offensive line that includes three Pro Bowl players, Cunningham has been sacked 20 times.

“I am so thankful to have these guys in front of me, because I haven’t had it like this before,” he said.

As far as Ryan is concerned, that’s all you need to know about Cunningham’s renaissance.

“I hate to destroy anybody’s thinking, but to me he looks like the same guy,” Ryan said. “He just doesn’t have to run as much because he has the good protection. Normally if he went back and didn’t see the first or second [receiver] he didn’t have time to look for the third or fourth guy. He had to run with the football. He was a great athlete, and we encouraged him to run.”

Ryan, who had planned to bring Cunningham to Arizona in 1996 before he was fired, credits Vikings offensive coordinator Brian Billick with helping Cunningham settle into a system that allows him to take advantage of his strong arm.

But Billick knows he also is lucky to have teamed up with this version of Cunningham.

“I’ve got a different Randall Cunningham than existed in Philadelphia,” Billick said. “He knows he’s got a lot of good people around him. He’s comfortable with the structure that we have and he’s obviously proven that he has picked it up and is a master of it.”