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Detroit: Beginning without Barry
Posted: Monday August 02, 1999 11:20 AM
This is the second in a series of postcards Sports Illustrated's Peter King will e-mail from his annual NFL training-camp tour. Saturday, July 31 TEAM: Detroit Lions SITE: Saginaw Valley State University, Saginaw, Mich., about two and a half hours north of Detroit. There's an NFL Experience setup for the kids, and the Lions, like many teams, have three or four players signing autographs each day after the afternoon practice. PLAYER I SAW WHOM I REALLY LIKED: I must say Gus Frerotte looked terrific in the practice I saw. Working under the close supervision of QB coach Jim Zorn , Frerotte threw eight completions in a row when I watched, and his streak was broken only when Germane Crowell dropped one right in his breadbasket. Frerotte's in a good, low-pressure spot to try to rebuild his career here. Zorn's great, full of positive energy. He does some weird drills. Good weird, I think. In one, he and the four quarterbacks ( Charlie Batch , Frerotte, Ron Powlus and Cory Sauter ) stood in a circle and threw three footballs willy-nilly to each other. Hand-speed and quick reaction are the goals there. In another drill, one quarterback dropped back to throw while the four others, including Zorn, threw big pads at the thrower, trying to disorient him like a pass-rush might. ( KING FAMILY FACT: I told Zorn my mom got me a Jim Zorn Seahawks jersey one Christmas. I can't say I made his day, particularly when I said I got the jersey "when I was a kid.") THE FOOD: The SVSU food service people lay out a nice buffet lunch, and I bypassed the pasta for the broiled chicken breast, steamed broccoli-and-cauliflower combination (a little overcooked) and roasted potatoes, with a salad of iceberg lettuce, shredded carrots and local tomato chunks. Countrytime lemonade. A brownie. Pretty standard stuff.
Dear NFL Junkie: Nobody knew. I mean, nobody. Imagine what it must be like to be Mark Carrier . You tackled Sanders for seven years as a member of the Chicago Bears, then you came here (in 1997) and became fast pals with him. Granted, no one is close to Sanders on this team -- real close, I mean. But Carrier, running back Ron Rivers and Sanders formed a road-trip dinner group last year. They loved Gibson's in Chicago, one of the country's best steakhouses. They endured scores of gawkers out on The Landing, a sort of grandiose food court in Jacksonville. They'd talk about everything, even the future, which Sanders seemed fascinated with, though he had no idea what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. So you're Mark Carrier, and you keep in touch with the fellas in the offseason, and no one's talking about Sanders leaving the game, and one night, just before you leave your Phoenix home for training camp, you've got the TV on and the news comes that Sanders is quitting. "My wife said, 'No!' and I can't believe it either," Carrier told me. "Then, my son [ Mark Anthony ] gets upset because Barry's not playing anymore. And I have to tell him, 'Daddy's still playing. Everything's okay.'" I ask: "What's your gut tell you -- does Barry ever play again?" Carrier says: "Yes. He plays. Got to. Well, I don't know. I mean, I hope so. He's got to! He's just so fun to watch, you know what I mean?" We know what you mean. We always have. Check back soon for more
Postcards from Camp. To send a question to Peter King's NFL Mailbag, click here.
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