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What a Journey, Man
"I don't want to really be the focus of why all the sudden the team is successful," said 36-year-old Todd Collins, who hadn't started an NFL game in a decade.
(By John Mcdonnell -- The Washington Post)
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So it was hardly surprising that Saunders brought Collins to Washington when he left Kansas City to joins Joe Gibbs's staff. In no time, the Redskins' starters took note of Collins's command of the offense.
His playbook was crammed with notes. And he studied it during every flight while others played cards or watched a movie. He'd memorize the game plan. And during practice he watched the starting offense like a hawk, interrupting to make corrections if a formation was wrong -- often before coaches or players realized anything was awry.
"When you've only been taking mental reps for 10 years, it's kind of easy, I would imagine, to have your mind think about the deer poking its nose through the woods," said offensive lineman Pete Kendall. "But he was intently focused on every play. The question for everybody was, was it going to translate?"
It was an open question.
Plenty of unheralded backups had found success when thrust in the starter's role, including Kurt Warner, Marc Bulger and Green himself. Yet top prospects with all the skill in the world, such as Heath Shuler, picked third overall in the 1994 draft, had not.
"The one variable you can't control is how is that player going to respond when the lights are on," Green said. "Can he make everything slow down when a guy is two yards way and about to break him in half? Can he stay calm enough to make the throw? I would watch Heath practice and say, 'This guy is going to be a Pro Bowl player!' He had all the tools, the physical ability to make all the throws, and he spent time preparing. But when the lights went on, it never slowed down for him."
When Campbell got injured against Chicago, it took Collins a moment to absorb what had happened after all those years of waiting and wondering whether his chance had come each time a quarterback was slow to get up after a hit.
But he stepped onto FedEx Field. He knew the offense cold. The calls tumbled out of his mouth. And he'd seen enough football in those 13 years to know he wasn't going to win the game with one single throw.
"It is frustrating," Collins said of his long apprenticeship. "But what I wanted to do was just prepare myself, if I ever did get the shot, to be ready. Then, as the years piled up, I didn't want to let those years go to waste. I didn't want to have those regrets. I just wanted to reach my potential and be able to go out there and play up to my ability."
