From: jag@unislc.uucp (John Ganske)
Subject: Minnesota Vikings News 8/29/92
Organization: Unisys Corporation SLC
Distribution: us
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 11:32:51 GMT
Keywords: vikings startribune saturday todd scott


I found the following column in the Minneapolis StarTribune for Saturday
August 29, 1992.  The column is by StarTribune sports columnist Patrick
Reusse.  The column is titled "Scott gives Vikings fresh look at safety".

   The first three veterans unloaded by the Vikings - Keith Millard, Herschel
   Walker, and Wade Wilson - did not provide much of a surprise.  Millard
   had a bad knee and a peabrain.  Walker's grandiosity reached a point
   where he had lost touch with reality.  Wilson was making $1 million and
   deemed to be No. 3 in the quarterback lineup behind Rich Gannon and Sean
   Salisbury.

   It was logical for the new coach, Dennis Green, to get rid of those three
   players.  It also was economically favorable for team president Roger
   Headrick, the Vikings' dough saver from Pillsbury.  It was when the 
   guillotine dropped the fourth time - on the bull neck of strong safety
   Joey Browner - that the purple shirts had to know that the days of paying
   large money for mediocre performance were over.

   (Insert your personal Chris Doleman cheap shot here.)

   "The shock wasn't so much with Joey being gone," Todd Scott said.
   "People were disappointed with his performance last season and you had
   a feeling they would be looking for a breath of fresh air in the secondary.
   The shock was when they put him on waivers.  Releasing Joey Browner - that's
   something you didn't think could happen."

   The Vikings tried to get a draft choice for Browner.  There were no takers,
   not if it meant taking on his full slary.  So, it happened: four-time Pro
   Bowl player Browner was released.  Scott was inserted as the fresh face
   at strong safety.

   Minnesota found Scott, a cornerback from Southwest Louisiana, in the sixth
   round of the 1991 draft.  This was Mike Lynn's theory when he made the 
   Walker trade three years ago.  He did not need high draft choices, not with
   the crafty personnel department headed by those old Hawkeyes, Jerry Reichow
   and Frank Gilliam.

   Lynn's philosophy: You could find players as good as the early-rounders,
   and much cheaper, further down the draft list.

   Faced with these long odds in the last three drafts, Reichow and Gilliam
   found a few players: Scott, running back Terry Allen (ninth round in 1990),
   linebacker Carlos Jenkins (third in 1991) and defensive tackle Grad Culpepper   (10th in 1992) will be starters in the exhibition finale tonight in     
   Washington.

   Scott could be more than the best player in this group.  Reichow made this
   observation after the Vikings' month in Mankato: "Todd Scott was the best
   player in camp."

   One year earlier in Mankato, Scott did not have to show much more than a
   pulse to earn a spot with the Vikings.  Injuries and a lack of veterans
   had the Vikings desperate for extra cornerbacks.  The more Scott played,
   the more impressive he became, until his status went from stop-gap extra
   corner to a big part of the team's future.

   "You're always looking for guys who can play a lot of positions," Green
   said.  "When we watched tapes of last season, Scott impressed us as one 
   of those players.  With the veterans at the corners, we looked at Scott
   as someone who could play safety.  He has size, speed and cover ability.
   That's what you want, whether it is at corner or safety."

   Scott was a quarterback and safety during his days at Ball High in  
   Galveston, Texas.  "The quarterback I was trying to beat out for all-
   district honors was Andre Ware," Scott said.  "He was at Diskinson, one   
   of our big rivals.  I played against Ware, against Jame Francis, who went
   to Baylor, and Kanavhis McGee and Alfred Williams, Colorado, and Johnny
   Bailey...a whole bunch of guys who are in the NFL.

   "If I start naming the great players who were int he Houston area when
   I was at Ball, we would be here all afternoon.  No place in the country
   can equal high school football in Texas."

   Football was introduced to Texas on Galveston Island in 1884.  That is 
   one of the things for which Scott's hometown is famous.  Hurricanes are
   another.  

   Scott's mother Grace was the principal at his middle school in Galveston.
   His father Charles was the counselor at Ball High.  Scott was asked if 
   his buddies would torment him, after being forced to make visits to see
   the principal or the counselor.

   "No, they felt sorry for me,"  Scott said.  "They would say, 'Man, are  
   your parents strict.  You must not get away with anything.'  The best
   thing that ever happened to me is that I had parents who always pushed
   the classroom.  My father was never as impressed - or as interested - 
   in my athletic accomplishments as he was by what grades I was getting."

   Scott was given a big recruiting push by Texas A&M.  "I was going to have
   to redshirt if I went to A&M," he said.  "I thought I would have to wait
   too long to play there."

   Scott went to Southwest Louisiana.  The school has never had a reputation
   as the Harvard of the Bayou, but Scott made the most of it, earning a 
   degree in business management.  He has turned that into an offseason job
   with the city of Galveston.  

   I inspect construction sites - tunnels, things like that - to make sure 
   that safety requirements are being followed," Scott said.

   Philosophically, Scott's duties as an overseer are not much different
   than his assignment with the Vikings.  "With the defense we're playing
   I'm sort of a spy," he said.  "On most plays, I don't have a specific
   assignment.  I look at the formation, the players the offense puts in 
   motion and then I fill in where needed.

   "We have a team approach to defense, where we're trying to get as many
   guys into the play as possible.  If we're doing things right, I won't
   be out there making a lot of big-hitting, one-on-one tackles - not like
   other safeties, guys like Joey Browner and Ronnie Lott.  I'll be one of    
   three or four guys making the tackle."

 from some football notes compiled by StarTribune staff writers Jim Souhan
 and Tom Herberg:

    "Grandpa Smurf"
    Mike Freeman in a Washington Post story on Vikings coach Dennis Green:

       "Already he has seeminly ingratiated himself into the community,
       doing a daily  radio show; he even has his own television show.

       "(Jerry) Burns didn't do radio because he was dangerous, having
       this tendency to use obscenities in every other sentence.  Burns
       wouldn't have looked good on television either, since he resembled
       a 175-year-old Smurf."

  other:
    The Vikings signed former Cleveland Browns linebacker Van Waiters
    on Friday and released linebacker Del Lyles (rookie free agent from
    Utah State).

John Ganske      -------------------------
a readheaded dad, vegetarian, cyclist, runner, volleyball player,
programmer, and all-around good guy, glad to be back in Minnesota,
and soon to become small-time (very small-time) farmer 
     -----------------------------------------------------  
Unisys Corp.                            jag@unislc.slc.unisys.com 
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