NATIONALSPORTS THE BEHREND BEACON FEBRUARY 4 2000 PAGE 15
Super finish giveslßams reason to celebrate
by Les Carpenter
Knight-Ridder Tribune
January 31, 2000
ATLANTA When his moment
came, time stood still for Mike Jones.
The roaring stopped, his twisted
ankle ceased to hurt and, in slow mo
tion, one of the biggest plays in Su
per Bowl history unfolded before
him.
He saw everything: Kevin Dyson
cutting across the field, slicing in
front of the end zone and then leap
ing into the air ... very, very slowly.
Jones knew he was going to save
the Super Bowl for the St. Louis
Rams.
He felt Dyson catch the ball, the
receiver's body thumping against his.
Then everything went on instinct. He
could sense Dyson trying to twist,
hoping to thrust himself toward the
end zone for a touchdown that could
take the dream away. The clock was
hitting :00. And Jones mouthed the
words quietly to himself: "No way
he's going to score."
One of the most exciting Super
Bowls ended with its most remark
able play, with Dyson lying flat on
the Georgia Dome turf, his arm out
stretched, trying frantically to extend
the ball over the goal line.
All around, the St. Louis Rams
raced across the field, throwing hel
mets in the air, celebrating a 23-16
victory over the Tennessee Titans in
a blizzard of silver confetti.
Only Jones still lay on the ground.
Holding Dyson to the turf.
And saying to himself, "Thank God
it's over. Let's go home."
The first Super Bowl won by the
Rams will not be remembered for the
arching 73-yard touchdown pass
thrown by Kurt Warner to Isaac Bruce
with 1:54 left.
Its legacy is forever going to be
wrapped in the last play that saved
the night -- a tackle by a linebacker
who was once a running back. A
player who was never drafted. A
player who has toiled in such ano
nymity that his teams have always felt
the urge to drop in his middle initial
"A" to distinguish him from all the
other Mike Joneses who play profes
Bill Belichick finally
by Ed Duckworth
Knight-Ridder Tribune
January 28, 2000
FOXBORO, Mass. The longer Rob
ert Kraft considered the problem, the
clearer the solution became to him.
So when the Boston millionaire fi
nally picked up the telephone late
Wednesday night to close the deal his
heart told him to make, the one that
would bring Bill Belichick to Foxboro
Stadium as the 14th coach in the 40-
year history of the Patriots, he knew
he had made the right choice.
"The thing that really got me (to
move) was Robert Edwards's situa
tion," said Kraft on Thursday. "We
thought we had our running back
problem solved, and what happened
through an act of God that changed
all that, and we're still dealing with
Edwards, the Pats' first-round draft
choice in '9B, had appeared to be head
ing toward a long and productive ca
reer before he suffered what likely will
prove a career-ending knee injury dur
ing a flag football game in Honolulu
early last February.
Players, no matter how talented, can
have the same shelf lives as strawber
ries. Coaches, by contrast, can be plan
ning and motivating and winning
games for decades.
Kraft indicated he had tried might
ily to avoid surrendering a No. 1 pick
to the Jets as part of a compensation
package for Belichick, but his gut told
him the team needed a strong leader
to get them back on track in the AFC
East.
So the price the Jets placed on their
assistant head coach, a first-round pick
this spring, as well as fourth- and sev
enth-round selections in 2001, wasn't
too much to swallow, especially when
the Jets sweetened the arrangement by
ceding a fifth-round pick to the Pats
in 'Ol and a seventh-rounder the fol
TMS CAMPUS
St. Louis quarterback Kurt Warner (13) scrambles for a gain in the first half of Super Bowl XXXIV
Sunday against Tennessee
sional football.
And on the team of Kurt Warner
and London Fletcher and all the other
unheard-of, unwanted players who
came together to make the Super
Bowl, this was exactly the way it was
supposed to he.
Another unknown woulkl save the
"I thought (Dyson) was going to
score," Tennessee quarterhack Steve
McNair said.
Everyone did.
But Jones had Come too far to let
Super Bowl XXXIV slip through his
grasp.
There was that day in 1991 the
held its draft and Jones, a running
back from the University of 'Missouri ,
held a party for his family and friends.
They gathered in front of the televi
sion, making sure to bring the phone
in close right where they could hear
it.
Only nobody called.
He and a friend went to the park
near his Kansas City home that day
and started running a hill. Up and
lowing season.
Now, less than 24 hours later. the
58-year-old owner was introducing
Belichick to the media. saying he was
pleased to have succeeded in landing
the man he expects to successfully
lead the Pats into the 21st century.
Belichick, 47, said he had shaken
hands only a few hours earlier on a
five-year contract that will pay him at
least $2 million a season if he merely
coaches the team.
Should the general manager's title
and duties be added to his job descrip
tion, Belichick will make even more.
For now, at least, the Nashville, Tenn.,
native isn't sweating such minor de
tails.
"I'm head coach," he said in re
sponse to the question of whether he
also has agreed to be the team's gen
eral manager. "I've spoken with Rob
ert briefly about the structure of the
organization, but no decisions have
been made about any those things."
Although Kraft has portrayed the
former defensive coordinator of the
Jets as a workaholic, Belichick im
plied he doesn't care about who has
the ultimate say on matters of person
nel so long as correct decisions are
reached.
" This is no one-man band here," he
said, referring to himself. "I can't play
all the instruments. There are a lot of
resources in this organization and I'm
looking forward to working with as
many of them as I can. I'll take as
much help as I can get."
That Belichick wasn't appointed as
general manager or director of opera
tions was seen as a sign that Kraft in
tends to continue talking with Tom
Donahoe, the former director of foot
ball operations for the Pittsburgh
Steelers, about a personnel job.
Where that would leave Bobby
Grier, the Pats' vice president of player
personnel, isn't clear, though his fu
ture has been the subject of specula
WEEK IN SPORTS
c lown. lip and down. They ran and
ran and ran. And all the while he was
determined to make them never tot-
liCt liIS !taint.' a!ljill
When the Raiders gave him a
chance a fe\A Cel“ later, transform
ing him from running hack to line
hacker, he made the most of the op
portunity.
That's how he made it to yesterday,
the day he ran into Dyson and
wrapped his hands around the biggest
tackle of his lite and held on tight.
"I don't think any of this has hit
me yet, - Jones said as he sat in front
of his locker. "I thought it would hit
me \\ hen I came hack to the locker
room, but I can see that it hasn't. I
;.;.ties, that's not going to happen un
til I get to the hotel."
Down the hall, D) son undressed
slowly, shook his head, and muttered
to himself . He kept replaying the fi
nal moments to fellow receiver Der
rick Mason.
As Dyson talked. Mason looked
sadly at the floor.
He's more disttusted than any-
named Patriots coach
thin recently and was again last night
when he didn't attend the news con
ference at which Belichick was intro-
Belichick, who completed his 25th
season as an NH. coach this season,
has had one previous trial as a head
coach. The Cleveland Brown teams he
coached from 1991-95 complied a 37-
45 record and won one playoff game,
against the Pats in '94.
Although he had been rumored to
be at the top of Kraft's list of candi
dates to replace the fired Pete Carroll,
as late as Tuesday it hadn't looked as
if the Pats could wrest him from New
York.
But his soap-opera journey certainly
was marked by headlines.
A day after Bill Parcells quit as head
coach of the Jets on Jan. 3, Belichick
declined to succeed him, something
his contract required he do through
2002.
His resignation came during a curi
ous press conference during which he
raised questions about his position in
the Jets' organization that at the time
was in the process of changing hands.
After the Jets declined to allow him
to become a free agent and NFL com
missioner Pete Tagliabue ruled his
contract binding, Belichick filed an
antitrust suit against the league and
asked a federal court to issue an order
that would have enabled him to coach
elsewhere.
But when the court denied him a
restraining order, Belichick dropped
his suit and began facing the prospect
of spending the 2000 season out of
football.
Parcells began changing all that
Tuesday night when he telephoned
Kraft, suggesting they bury the hatchet
and cut a deal for Belichick's services.
"We just talked about it," Parcells
reported during a conference call. "I
think they got the idea that unless (a
No. 1 pick) was included, we weren't
body," Mason said.
"I mean he caught
the ball and didn't
get in. Wouldn't you
he disgusted?"
What the Rams
could not have
known is that the Ti-
tans were prepared
for this situation.
They ran the same
play three times in
practice last week.
This is the maniacal
way that Tennessee
Coach Jeff Fisher
works. He plants the
ball on the ground
and throws out the
most absurd situa-
lions possible
He called this one
last week. "OK, last
play of the game,
hall's on the 10-yard
line." tMPUS
They threw the Tennessee Titans quarterback Steve McNair (9) gets a pass off by the charging Billy
pass to Dyson. Jenkins (22) in the first half of Super Bowl XXXIV Sunday.
going to have a deal. -
Kraft wasn't ready to pay that
much, however, and after interview
ing Dom Capers, the Jacksonville Jag
uars' defensive coordinator, for four
hours on Wednesday, he was close to
forgetting about Belichick.
But at about IO o'clock Wednesday
night, after again reviewing his op
tions, Kraft telephoned his son,
Jonathon, and said, "1 think we're
going to make a run at this."
Kraft then called Parcells and
agreed to pay the Jets' price.
Parcells waited until about 7 a.m.
yesterday to deliver the news to
Belichick, who, after getting a call
from Kraft a little later, hopped in his
car at his Long Island home and drove
to what the owner said was a "little
secret location," apparently some
where near the Rhode Island-Con
necticut border, for a talk.
By early afternoon, Belichick had
happily accepted Kraft's offer to
coach the Pats.
"I'm tremendously excited," he
said. "I had an outstanding experience
here in '96 (when he coached the Pats'
secondary under Parcells). This is a
first-class organization and I can't
wait to start working. I'm thankful
things worked worked out the way
they have. It was an ordeal."
Belichick said his first goal is to put
together a staff. He will meet the
team's holdover assistant coaches this
morning to discuss their futures.
Although Parcells said Charlie
Weis, the Jets' offensive coordinator,
had been released from his contract,
Belichick stopped short of announc
ing his hiring.
"I'm going to be trying to act on a
staff as quickly as I can," he said.
"There are a lot of people to consider.
There (also) are a lot of coaches on
this staff I have respect for."
Belichick also has an owner who
thinks the world of him.
Each time he scored.
Perhaps destiny was saying they
would score again this time.
After all, McNair and running
back Eddie George had led the Ti
tans hack when
it seemed they
wcre through.
Thcy had
crawled from a
16-0 deficit. tv-
ing the score late
in the fourth
quarter, only to
see that tie un
done by the
\Varner bomb to
Isaac Bruce
And even
then, with 88
yards to go in
only 1:54,
McNair drove
them to the 10.
That's when the night seemed to
stop, when I)vson sliced in front of
the goal line and Jones came up to
meet him
NCAA announces referees
can use
buzzer-beaters
PHILADELPHIA It came eight
days too late for Villanova, but, Tues
day, the NCAA announced that it has
changed a rule to allow men's and
women's basketball officials to look
at a replay to determine if a game
determining shot was before or after
the buzzer.
You will remember that on Jan. 17
Miami's Johnny Hemsley hit a late
three-pointer to beat the Wildcats, 67-
66, at the Ski Lodge. Replays indi
cated the shot was released too late.
A similar controversy had erupted
two days earlier when Texas A & M
played at Texas Tech. Apparently, two
major problems in 48 hours con
vinced the powers that be to act now
rather than later.
- That's unbelievable," Villanova
coach Steve Lappas said Tuesday
night. "It's a day late and a dollar
short."
And it's a bit strange.
"It's a good change," Lappas said.
"Don't get me wrong. How can you
have two different sets of rules?
Somebody else is going to benefit
from something that we should have
benefited from. I don't understand it."
But he's not opposed to it. And if
that game determines whether
Villanova is in or out of the NCAA
Tournament, Lappas hopes the com
mittee will give the Wildcats the ben
efit of the doubt.
"I've got to hope so," Lappas said.
Before the change, replay equip
ment could be used only in certain
situations. For some reason, game-de
ciding shots were not among them.
Ehe ball, Dyson and Jones col-
instant replay for
by Dick Jerardi
Knight-Ridder Tribune
January 26, 2000
lided at once. There was an explosion
of flash bulbs from the stands. Con
fetti burst into the air.
"If you're going to bring in one guy
to make that play, you're going to
bring in Mike Jones," St. Louis Coach
Dick Vermeil said. "He's been that
way for three years."
On the biggest night, he was again
The new rule, which will go into
effect Friday, states: "At the end of
the second half or at the end of any
overtime, the officials shall use replay
equipment. if available . .to ascer
tain whether a try for field goal that
will determine the outcome of a game
(win, lose, tie) . . .was released be
fore the sounding of the period-end
ing horn."
The officials will make a call on
the floor. Then, they will look at the
monitor. First, they will try to see if
it's possible to hear the horn. Failing
that, they will try to check out the red
light on the backboard support. If that
doesn't help, they will use the game
clock.
If none of that is conclusive, the
original call will stand.
"Obviously, there is not a call that
is more important and it's the one call
that's remembered longer than any
other," said Reggie Minton, chair of
the men's rules committee and coach
at Air Force. "If we have the technol
ogy available to help us, we want to
make sure we use it to get the call
right."
Big East commissioner Mike
Tranghese has told anybody who has
asked that he thinks Villanova should
have won the game. The records,
however, won't change. The rule will.