Monday, February 2, 1998
Moon most valuable
By Pat Bigold
with game on the line
Star-BulletinWarren Moon, with fluid on his knee and 41 years of wear on his body, said he wasn't going to pass judgment on John Elway's decision not to play in the Pro Bowl. But asked if he would've forsaken the honor, even after winning a Super Bowl, the ageless Seattle Seahawks quarterback said, "If I was voted in, I'd be here. Guaranteed."
By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Quarterback Warren Moon of the Seattle Seahawks
rallied the AFC to a 29-24 victory over the NFC
and was named the MVP.
Moon got the call on Wednesday at his Seattle residence to replace Elway, who led the Denver Broncos to the Super Bowl championship the previous Sunday. He said he was packing his bags for the trip back to the family's home in Houston when the phone rang.It didn't take him long to change his plans.
"I don't take for granted anything in this game," Moon said. "When you have an opportunity to come over here, you don't turn it down."
Told that Elway is reportedly playing golf on the islands this week, Moon nodded.
"Maybe he just wanted to ride the high of the Super Bowl, and that's a personal thing that you nor I nor anybody can understand," Moon said. "That's just for John Elway. We're different people. What's good for John might not be good for me."
Then, as a way of reminding reporters crowding him as he walked off the field who the game's MVP was, he quipped, "But I'm not chopped liver."
Moon came in during the fourth quarter as the third-string quarterback for the AFC squad that defeated the NFC, 29-24.
Jason Hanson of the Detroit Lions kicked a 35-yard field goal 1:41 in the final stanza to make it 24-14 before Moon marshalled the AFC to three straight scoring drives.
On the winning 16-yard drive, courtesy of a fumble recovery by Seattle defensive end Michael Sinclair, Moon showed true grit on a 1-yard sneak into the end zone.
"He went over the top," said Denver Broncos center Tom Nalen, who led the push.
"They called my number and asked me if I could do a quarterback sneak," Moon said. "I said, 'sure,' I've done a lot in my career."
Moon laughed as he said he prefers to throw his touchdowns, but when it requires sacrificing his body, he's ready.
"This year, I scored a touchdown (against Indianapolis) and I guess I was the oldest guy to ever score a touchdown in the NFL," he said. "I have that same distinction here in the Pro Bowl now. But that's your job as a quarterback -- to get the ball in the end zone."
Quarterbacks traditionally prefer to avoid unnecessary physical risk in the Pro Bowl. Steve Young exemplified that when he took a voluntary slide after a 13-yard bootleg for a first down in the first half. It was a caution for which he was loudly booed.
But Moon said he threw caution to the wind in pursuit of victory.
"You can't play this game in fear," he said. "You just go out there, and if you get hurt, you get hurt, but you have to go out and play it the way you normally do."
Arriving Thursday, Moon had precious little time to get acquainted with the AFC offense, and he relied on a crash course administered by the two voted quarterbacks who accepted their nominations: Mark Brunell of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Drew Bledsoe of the New England Patriots.
"As long as somebody else was calling the plays, I knew what I needed to do," Moon said. "But as far as thinking it out in my mind to call something, I wouldn't have been able to do that."
Moon said he wasn't anxious to play more than a quarter.
"I told Drew and Mark before the game, 'Don't make me have to run too many plays to have to try to win the game in the end. I barely know the offense as it is.' "
Brunell said he was confident that Moon's NFL savvy would pull him through.
"With all his experience, we knew he was certainly going to pick up anything real quick."
Broncos tight end Shannon Sharpe said he felt fortunate just to play with Moon.
"He looked great and the way he was playing here today, it lets you know he'll definitely be back," Sharpe said.
Moon called this a "redemption year" for him and a reward for his family.
"It's been hard on my family the last four years just being away from Houston," he said. "But we've somehow sacrificed and made it work."
By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Dennis Crawford with wife, Tina, and daughter,
Lindee -- and the check.
Kick worth a million
By Pat Bigold
for Tennessee man
Star-BulletinDennis Crawford's poise with $1 million on the line was hard to fathom. He said he didn't hear the crowd of 50,000 or think about the national television audience watching him as he laid into the 35-yard kick during halftime of the Pro Bowl.
"I set the ball down, looked at the goal posts, picked a point out and just tried to aim for it," said the 32-year-old store manager.
As the ball rose and found its way toward the middle of the uprights, Crawford's wife, Tina, six-and-a-half months pregnant with their second child, stood nearby with her 2-year-old daughter, Lindy, in her arms and her heart in her throat.
When the ball sailed through, Crawford was mobbed by Pro Bowl players, who appeared delighted to see a new member in their tax bracket.
It was the second year in a row that a finalist in the Hershey's $1 million Kick! contest made the field goal. Last year, Lance Alstodt of New York City, an investment banker, did it.
Crawford won the trip to the Pro Bowl when he and three other randomly selected sweepstakes entrants participated in a kick-off in Miami two weeks ago, where he outpointed his competition inside an empty Pro Player Stadium.
Among the All-Pro players offering congratulations were Detroit Lions kicker Jason Hanson, who told Crawford to clear his mind of everything else before the kick, and Denver Broncos defensive lineman Neil Smith, who told him, "Man, all you have to do is put it between the uprights."
Crawford, a former collegiate All-American baseball player at Valdosta (Ga.) State who never place-kicked in his athletic career, smiled and answered Smith, "Do you want to kick it?"
Crawford said he will use the money to pay off bills and invest in his children's future.
And, oh yes, he'll be back at work on Thursday.
"I'm not planning to quit," he said. "Not right now."
Without a hint of hyperventilation, Crawford almost deadpanned his responses to reporters' questions.
"My wife kept asking me until 30 seconds before I went on the field, 'Are you nervous?' I said, 'I will be if you keep asking me.' But when I got on the field, I just blocked everything out."
Tina said she wasn't surprised at her husband's composure. "He just performs well under pressure," she said "He's very calm. But I was very uptight."
There was a crosswind but Crawford said it didn't affect him.
"I looked at the flags on top of the stadium and they were blowing, but the flags on the goal posts were not," he said. "It was a crosswind, but it was behind me a little bit."
He said this was the couple's first trip to Hawaii, and they want to return when the children are grown.
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