| Jeff George has thrown 23 or more touchdown
passes in four of his 11 NFL seasons. Yet, the quarterback has been discarded by five
teams, including three in the last four years. George spent each Sunday during the
final three months of the 2001-02 regular season watching NFL contests with his three
children, who had become accustomed to seeing their dad play the strong-armed quarterback,
not the armchair quarterback. Unlike past unravelings, George didn’t explode, implode
or dissolve under pressure in Washington, where he played two games last season. He simply
wasn’t himself in an offense that made throwing the football his right arm’s
second option.
"It’s humbling," George said from his Florida home. "It makes that
drive and that passion to get out there stronger than ever before."
The most recent bon voyage, courtesy of the Washington Redskins, may have been
George’s last. It took gruff, rugged and intense first-year head coach Marty
Schottenheimer just eight quarters to remove George as his starting quarterback, opting
instead for another retread, Tony Banks. George hadn’t led a TD drive in two games
but had three interceptions and appeared nonchalant about that fact on the field. His
appearance and body language told the story, and his careless demeanor sealed his fate. He
wasn’t going to throw the ball 30 times, and George simply gave a passive, losing
effort before Schottenheimer showed him the door.
"I still don’t know what happened," George said. "I imagine I never
will get an explanation. You hear so much about people saying the offense wasn’t a
good fit for me. My answer was, ‘Give me more than two games to evaluate that.’
"
The former No. 1 pick of his hometown Indianapolis Colts credited his lack of longevity
in any of the five NFL cities in which he has played as having been put in "some bad
situations."
To that end, George didn’t last in Indianapolis because of his uneven temper and
public displays of insolence. In 1994, George was traded to Atlanta, where he was
suspended four games after a heated sideline altercation with head coach June Jones three
games into the 1996 season, then released. In his first season in Oakland (’97),
George led the AFC in QB rating (91.2), threw for an NFL-best 3,917 yards and a
career-high 29 touchdowns. A groin injury put George on the shelf for the second half of
the ’98 season. He was allowed to flee to Minnesota in ’99, where he threw for
2,816 yards with 23 touchdowns in 12 games after relieving injured starter Randall
Cunningham. The next season, he was in Washington as a backup to Brad Johnson for head
coach Norv Turner. His demise in Washington may very well be the final chapter in the NFL
history of Jeff George.
"Coaches come and go," George said. "I really felt the Redskins should
have stuck it out with Norv Turner. He had the player relationships you need. That team
had problems as soon as it let Norv go."
After moving his family to the D.C. area, George, who appropriately insists the
offensive shortcomings weren’t solely on his shoulders, had to pack his bags.
Schottenheimer and owner Daniel Snyder did not meet with George personally; rather, they
had a personnel department staff member call him in to break the news.
Getting George to produce had never been a problem. Even when he was on a different
wavelength than teammates and coaches, George usually found a way to put up big numbers.
His short fuse and problematic attitude have dominated public and professional opinions,
though a calmer, more passive George insists things have changed.
"My priorities are completely different than they were six or seven years
ago," he said. "I have strong faith, my family and then football. If you have
your priorities set, everything is going to be fine and whatever happens is meant to
be."
It would be easy to speculate that, desperation aside, no team will hand George the
reins again. With established, level-headed veterans such as New England’s Drew
Bledsoe and Mark Brunell of Jacksonville reportedly on the market, New Orleans QB Jeff
Blake and Detroit’s Charlie Batch available and free agent Trent Dilfer there for the
taking, George doesn’t hold the same value as he did two or three years ago.
One scenario that makes sense is adding George as security, as Minnesota and Washington
did originally, only to have him emerge by one means or another as the starter. But George
was quick to squelch such thinking.
"I don’t know about that," George said of playing a backup role.
"You don’t start for 10 or 11 years in the league and then have that mentality
that you would be a backup. I still feel like I have five or six years left in me. As a
quarterback, you feel like you are in your prime in your early 30s. I’m (34) years
old, healthy and feel like I can contribute to somebody."
A former star at the University of Illinois, George said he feels like he could help
any team that needs help in the passing game. Like the Chicago Bears?
"Oh, I think I would look at any situation with a playoff contender," said
George, a Bears fan throughout his childhood in Indianapolis. "I was rooting for them
hard this year, but then again I was more of a fan than I have ever been."
Under head coach Dick Jauron and offensive coordinator John Shoop, veteran free-agent
QB Jim Miller piloted the NFL’s 26th-ranked offense, and he rated 24th
in passing. Miller completed 57.7 percent of his passes for 2,299 yards with 13 touchdowns
and 10 interceptions, posting a QB rating of 74.9, 22nd-best in the NFL.
George has a career rating of 81.1 and a completion percentage of .580, but if
Washington was an indication, he might not fit in a run-first, power offense like the
Bears'. His best seasons, in ’97 with Oakland and in ’99 with the Vikings,
featured George the gunslinger, not the game-management expert. At this point in his
career, George is confident he can make any situation work in his favor.
"There are feelers out there and there are talks, but I’m open to
anything," George said, seemingly backing off the suggestion that a backup role
wouldn’t work. "If I get an opportunity to get back on the field and show what I
can do, I would do that. Any team that needs a quarterback, I feel like I can make it fit.
Hopefully it is a situation that best suits my talents, but if I go to a team that throws
the ball 10 times a game and gives me a chance to win a championship, that is all I ask
for." |
