Monday, January 3, 2000

TUCKER MOVES UP IN THE RANKS, GAINS RESPECT
By NICK GHOLSON
Scripps Howard News Service

IRVING, Texas — When training camp opened last summer, Jason Tucker was a no-name wide receiver, seemingly bound for nowhere.

The Dallas Cowboys' desperate need for wide receivers had been taken care of in the offseason. The team had signed Rocket Ismail as a free agent, made a trade to get James McKnight and drafted Wane McGarity and MarTay Jenkins.

The chances of some lean and lanky no-name from TCU making the roster were slim and none. And slim hadn't even made the cut with the Cincinnati Bengals the year before.

But McKnight tore up a knee in camp. Jenkins was released. McGarity was injured during the season, as was go-to guy Michael Irvin.

All of a sudden this Tucker kid wasn't just on the roster, he was in the starting lineup. And now, he's not just a starter anymore, he's a hero.

We saw it coming last week when he amassed 331 yards worth of pass-catching and kickoff-returning in New Orleans. But a Christmas Eve loss to the lowly Saints made that a game to forget.

Then all of the other NFC wild-card contenders began to fade with the millennium. The Cowboys, a team with nine lives, still had a playoff pulse, and Jason Tucker, the one-time nobody would transform into a genuine hero right here at Texas Stadium.

Tucker started and finished Dallas' 26-18 playoff-clinching win over the New York Giants Sunday afternoon. His numbers — 215 total yards — weren't as big as they were against the Saints, but they carried a whole lot more importance.

This flat tire of a team needed some air pumped into it pretty quick, and Tucker did that by returning the opening kickoff 79 yards. The Cowboys only got a field goal out of it, but it set the tone for the game. In back-to-back losses to the Jets and Saints, this team had fallen behind early.

Then when the Giants finally got on the board with a field goal in the third quarter, Tucker knocked the wind right out of them with a 90-yard touchdown pass. This team has been around for 40 years, and only twice has it had a longer TD pass.

It started out as a simple quick slant, a play designed for short to medium gains, but Tucker broke a tackle by cornerback Jeremy Lincoln and turned on his 4.3 speed to go the distance, stretching the Cowboys' lead to 23-3 with every step.

And once he reached the end zone, Tucker did something very unCowboy-like. He didn't dance or showboat in any way.

“I've never been a dancer,” he said. “People say you should act like you've been there before, so that's what I'm going to do.”

He was suspended for his senior season at TCU in 1997, then wasted away on the Green Bay practice squad in 1998. So, the only time Tucker has “been there before” today was last week in New Orleans. That was his first touchdown catch in the USA in three years, although he did catch three for the Rhein Fire in NFL Europe last spring.

This touchdown pass was more Jason Tucker than it was Troy Aikman, but Tucker owed Troy one. He had earlier dropped a sure TD pass from Aikman in the end zone. . “It was like I redeemed myself,” Tucker said.

Aikman said earlier this season that Ismail was the only receiver he had confidence in. But Tucker has slowly gained his confidence. After the drop, Aikman told the young rookie not to worry about it. He would keep throwing his way.

“When a guy like Troy says 'Don't worry about it, everything's OK,' it builds up that confidence in you,” Tucker said.

He said the confidence Aikman now has in him has been building during practices the past few weeks. Coach Chan Gailey said it was more obvious against the Giants than ever before.

“Troy continues to have confidence in where the guy is going to be. He threw some balls today before Jason ever came out of his break. That shows real confidence,” Gailey pointed out.

Despite the seven catches for 128 yards and a touchdown that Tucker had against the Saints, the Giants weren't impressed enough to waste more than one cornerback on him. Single coverage, Tucker said, is all he has ever seen in this league.

All that could change soon. And it probably will.

The Minnesota Vikings watch film. They know that Tucker is no longer some nobody receiver you don't have to worry about. Those 11 catches and 250 receiving yards he has put on the stat sheet the past two weeks should get the Vikings' attention.

But Tucker admits his own “confidence is building with each game.”

And Aikman's confidence in him is building with each catch.

This is in no way the same bond that Aikman and Irvin had during those Super Bowl seasons, but it's the best thing the Cowboys have seen around here in a long, long time.

“It has been a long ride,” Tucker said. “I've been all over this world playing football.”

Next stop on his world tour is Minnesota. This will be his second trip there this season. But when the Cowboys played the Vikings there back on Nov. 8, Jason Tucker was still a nobody.

Now he's becoming the star of the show.

(Nick Gholson writes for The Times Record News in Wichita Falls, Texas.)