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Super Bowl Diary: Wednesday

Why we all wish we were Steve DeBerg

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Posted: Thursday January 28, 1999 02:20 PM

MIAMI -- The most amazing story of this Super Bowl (maybe of any of the 15 Super Bowls I've covered) is sitting across from me in a meeting room at the Miami Airport Hilton.

He is 45 years old.

In 1996, he was the New York Giants quarterback coach.

In 1997, he quarterbacked a five-man, three-woman flag-football team in a health-club league in Tampa.

In 1998, he got his bag of bones in shape for a tryout with the Falcons. He passed the tryout, and made the team.

"I am one play away from quarterbacking in the Super Bowl," Steve DeBerg says as a bemused smile comes upon his weather- and stress- and life-creased face.

The abridged version of this incredible life: High school center. Never played quarterback until his senior year at Anaheim (Calif.) Savanna High, when the coach saw him break a full-court press in a basketball game with a length-of-the-court pass. Selected as the 10th-round draft choice of the Cowboys out of San Jose State in 1977. Cut by the Cowboys. Stopgap quarterback for the 49ers under Bill Walsh. Original playing mentor for Joe Montana. Went on to play for Denver, Tampa Bay, Kansas City, Tampa Bay and Miami. Drank too much. Got a DUI. Got divorced. Struggled mightily in life. Says he never gets intoxicated anymore, but still drinks. Coached under Dan Reeves in New York for two years. And then ....

"I was out of coaching in 1997," DeBerg told me this morning in a setting he could never imagined a few months ago. Six minicams trained on him at various points of his story. A round table of eight reporters changing periodically as the details emerge. Microphones and tape recorders in his face. Weird city.

"I'd gone through a divorce and my personal problems. But I was on vacation now. Every day was Saturday. I had to decide what I wanted to do with my life. I joined a health club and started working out, and I saw that they had a co-ed flag football team. I thought, what the heck? I love to throw footballs. Some guys love to golf. My favorite thing is throwing a football. So I joined the team. I played quarterback. The center was a woman. It was great fun. And there was a guy on the team who played in a more serious, all-male flag football league, and he asked me to join. Now that was football. It was basically tackle football with flags. I loved it. And I found I still loved playing."

Still recovering from his divorce and drinking problems (Reeves didn't hire him when he moved from the Giants to Atlanta in 1997 because, Reeves says now, of "Steve's personal problems," which DeBerg now admits had something to do with alcohol), DeBerg had a bit of an epiphany. "Sometimes you've got to hit bottom before you change your lifestyle," he said.

He realized how much he wanted to play real football again. And so he wrote to several NFL teams asking for a tryout. He sent Reeves an empty envelope, thinking the coach might wonder: What the heck is this? And Reeves did. Reeves called DeBerg to see what was up, and did he forget to put the letter in the envelope. But DeBerg just wanted to get the Falcons' attention, to throw for Reeves and his staff. Just to see. And when Mark Rypien, Atlanta's would-be backup for the '98 season, had to leave the team this summer because of his wife's and son's illnesses, the Falcons called. "Leave me out of it," said Reeves. "I'm too close to Steve."

He worked out on a broiling early-summer day in Suwanee, Ga. "I knew five minutes after I walked off the field they'd sign me," DeBerg said. And they did. And he beat out Tony Graziani for the No. 2 spot on the depth chart, and played okay (30 of 59, three touchdowns, one pick, 80.4 rating) in seven games. "I believe that I'm the most knowledgeable player in the history of the NFL," DeBerg said. "And I believe if the time comes, I will be as prepared as possible to be successful. I just wish everyone in the world could have a moment like I'm having now."

This is how a 45-year-old man is one Chris Chandler misstep away from playing Sunday.

"You almost can't believe the script," he said.

Almost?

Notes of the Week

QUOTE OF THE DAY I: From Atlanta coach Dan Reeves, on cutting Denver wideout Ed McCaffrey when Reeves coached McCaffrey with the Giants: "It's probably one of the biggest mistakes I ever made."

QUOTE OF THE DAY II: Nine minutes later, Reeves was asked the same question again by another reporter and said: "It's certainly the biggest mistake I ever made.''

SUPER BOWL EXCESS NOTE OF THE DAY: Denver receiver Willie Green is renting a 1999 Lamborghini for $1,900 a day down here.

Now for Today's 10 Things I Think I Think:

1. I think my favorite line of the day comes from Broncos tight end Shannon Sharpe. Surprise! Asked what he thought of the Falcons' promising young tight end, O.J. Santiago, Sharpe pretended not to hear. "What? Who? Benito?"

2. I think the unsung hero of this game could be Broncos offensive line coach Alex Gibbs. He hates talking about himself and never does; he only does it here because the league mandates that all players and coaches must be available to the media. This offensive line is special, made up of a load of rejects and a couple of fairly high picks, and Gibbs is the key. "I know where there are guys who teams are about to give up on," he says. "And I watch for them. I've got them earmarked. I'm going to find two or three guys next year on the verge of being players. They're out there. Not in the draft. I'm not a big draft guys because I don't believe guys right out of college can play that fast. I'd rather someone else take them through the growing pains, through their first camps. Or I'll take them from the World League."

3. I think Oliver Stone's new football movie On any Given Sunday -- which is filming down here -- has some pretty funny castings. My favorite: Cameron Diaz as the general manager of a pro football team.

4. I think some things never change. Saw Tim McKyer in the Hyatt lobby last night, and he said to me: "Can you believe I'm not playing cornerback in this league?"

5. I think the first two picks in the draft will be Kentucky quarterback Tim Couch, to Cleveland, and Central Florida quarterback Daunte Culpepper, to Philadelphia. Culpepper is blowing away scouts with his arm, his surprising speed (he was the second-fastest player on the Central Florida team), and his yes-sir, no-sir attitude.

6. I think there aren't a lot of my media brethren who believe Bill Parcells is under the weather.

7. I think Mike Shanahan probably won't be having brunch Sunday morning with the Atlanta writer who called him "a backstabbing ferret" in his column the other day.

8. I think this is going to be anyone's game at the two-minute warning of the fourth quarter.

9. I think Lawrence Taylor will eke into the Hall of Fame during Saturday morning's vote.

10. I think I've got to hustle off to play in the Super Bowl ping pong tournament. The early favorites: Los Angeles Times writer Steve Springer and Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Bud Shaw. Have a nice day, as they say constantly in the lobby here.

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