Thursday, May 23, 1996

Hold off on Cowboys' obituary just yet; there's still Emmitt

Bears coach Dave Wannstedt beckoned Rashaan Salaam into his Halas Hall office recently.

"Guess what I heard from Dallas?" Wannstedt asked his young running back. "Guess who is working out in the weight room at 7 o'clock in the morning? Emmitt Smith."

For Salaam, the news was confirmation, not exhortation. Wannstedt knew Salaam was working out, too, early and regularly. The coach just wanted him to know that's what the great ones do.

For Wannstedt, it was a bit of a revelation because he didn't recall Smith being quite so diligent in his early years. His occasional workout mate? Deion Sanders.

This is the kind of grapevine fodder that tantalizes football coaches in May.

While the outside world eyes the trial of Cowboys wide receiver Michael Irvin on felony cocaine and misdemeanor marijuana charges June 24 and imagines the demise of the defending NFL champions, Wannstedt looks at his season opener against the Cowboys Sept. 2 and thinks of Emmitt Smith pumping iron.

If all isn't well in Dallas, there still might be enough.

For the first time, Sanders is running routes and catching passes instead of running bases and chasing fly balls. His respite from baseball enables the world's best cornerback to hone his skills as a wide receiver. Assuming Irvin is free to play Sept. 2, the Cowboys will enter Soldier Field with a better core of wide receivers than they had a year ago.

Troy Aikman is recovering nicely from elbow surgery that kept him out of the Pro Bowl. Defensive ends Charles Haley and Tony Tolbert also are recovering from surgeries that limited their effectiveness last season, though they never will be good as new.

Aikman and coach Barry Switzer also are recovering from hurt feelings. They had a long meeting at the end of March to air out differences that bubbled to the surface during Super Bowl week. Aikman didn't like the way Switzer handled innuendos of racial tension from former assistant John Blake, now head coach at Oklahoma.

After the meeting, they agreed they probably never would see eye-to-eye, but that didn't mean they would go head-to-head.

"They said the problems they had in the past were not going to be problems in the future," Cowboys spokesman Rich Dalrymple said.

If their role model for quarterback-coach relationship is Chuck Noll and Terry Bradshaw or Mike Ditka and Jim McMahon or Bill Walsh and Joe Montana - all ranging from touchy to hostile - that's enough Super Bowls to get both into the Hall of Fame.

Assuming anything about the future of Irvin is perilous, but his loss could be more of a blow than losing four starters from last year's defense via free agency. The Cowboys are hoping a first-time offender might avoid both jail time and the NFL's parallel discipline track, which could include a four-game suspension. Irvin is going for broke at the trial.

Casting further dirt on Irvin is film footage from a hidden camera planted in the back seat of a car by a so-called friend of Irvin's who was paid $6,000 by a Fort Worth TV station. The sweeps-week series followed Irvin for two nights in March and alleges he was in possession of cocaine and discussed a $100 drug purchase.

Regardless of the legal ramifications, Irvin's image and that of the Cowboys have been dragged through some deep Texas mud. Samples of reader reaction in the fawning Dallas Cowboys Official Weekly newspaper:

"... makes me wonder if the Cowboys' management is recruiting from such places as Attica prison."
"I do not understand how he could stoop so low."

"If proven guilty, (he) should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law."

"The purpose of my letter is to express my total disgust with the entire Michael Irvin situation."

To top it off, the existence of a "party house" close to the practice facility was revealed in court documents on a separate case. A so-called "white house" leased by ex-Cowboy Alvin Harper was used by several Cowboys as an entertainment center. Neighbors told the Dallas Morning News Harper and Irvin were among numerous Cowboys regularly seen entering the house. Cowboys guard Nate Newton confirmed that players regularly accompanied women to the location.

The Cowboys have had problems enough this off-season without Irvin as lead distraction. Super Bowl MVP cornerback Larry Brown, defensive tackle Russell Maryland, middle linebacker Robert Jones, and outside linebacker Dixon Edwards all signed elsewhere. Brown and Maryland went to the Raiders, Jones to the Rams, and Edwards to the Vikings.

Compounding the problem of the subtractions, however, was the addition of linebacker Broderick Thomas, who was released by the Vikings following two arrests on weapons charges.

"I'm a very nice guy and that's behind me. Certain things happen. I'm just here to give it my best shot," Thomas said, in an unfortunate choice of words.

Thomas is the nephew of former Bears linebacker Mike Singletary, but you have to look it up to know. Thomas couldn't cut it in Tampa Bay or Detroit, either.

The Cowboys think Fred Strickland from the Packers can plug the gap left by Jones in the middle, and if Godfrey Myles recovers from knee surgery, or if second-round draft choice Randall Godfrey can play, Thomas might be expendable. The other outside linebacker, Darrin Smith, is unsigned again but expected back earlier than last season, when he was a holdout and missed seven games.

Although Brown was the Super Bowl MVP, he wouldn't have started for the Cowboys next season assuming Kevin Smith's recovery from Achilles' tendon surgery is complete. A healthy Smith opposite Sanders would be the best duo in the league.

Maryland, the league's No. 1 draft pick in 1991, will be missed because the Cowboys like to rotate their tackles and are now down to starters Leon Lett and Chad Hennings plus some untested projects.

No team except the 1965-66-67 Packers has matched the Cowboys' three titles in four years. If they make it four out of five, it will be an unprecedented dominance, although the Packers won five of seven from 1961-67.

Adversity often serves as a catalyst. Irvin's problems, the challenge to the team's character, and the return of former coach Jimmy Johnson to Miami all may serve Switzer well for his us-against-them speeches. "Seems every off-season there's something that propels us into the following season," wrote one optimistic fan.

"I don't see how we could have put this thing together any better, and still make a run again in '96," Jones said after the draft.

If this proves the off-season of their undoing, some also have prepared. Six years and many millions of dollars after leaving the University of Florida early, Smith graduated from college, balancing Irvin in the role-model department if not in sweeps week.

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(c) 1996, Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

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