A Very Different Dilfer Goes From Zero to Hero

I have seen a confused John Elway lined up behind the guard, hands on the guard’s backside, waiting for the ball to be snapped.

I have seen women and children cowering in the stands, fearful of being plunked by an errant throw by Vinny Testaverde.

I have seen Jim Everett in action and have suggested that he could not hit the Pacific Ocean if he were standing on the Santa Monica pier.

I documented the week-to-week incomplete passes of Mark Malone, who inspired one writer to remark, “The two greatest bounce passers in sports history have been Magic Johnson and Mark Malone.”

I was there for Babe Laufenberg’s first NFL start, and there weren’t too many after that.

I watched Heath Shuler and Danny Wuerffel throw the football in Wisconsin last month and wondered how many people buried in the cemetery across the street had been spectators and put there by Shuler and Wuerffel.

I have spent long Sundays with Marc Wilson, Dieter Brock, Billy Joe Tolliver, Mark Vlasic, T.J. Rubley, and some time even with Tommy Maddox.

But Sunday night in Tampa might top them all: I will be writing about the best quarterback on the field, and although Dan Marino will be taking the snaps for Miami, I expect to be chronicling the ongoing resurrection of one of football’s all-time stiffs, Trent Dilfer.

How ridiculous is this? Dilfer replaced Craig Erickson in Tampa, and now Erickson is going to be Jimmy Johnson’s replacement for Marino in the coming weeks. Marino is headed to the bench and Dilfer to stardom.

Trent Dilfer? The guy who throws the ball to the other team all the time? The big lug who went 10 consecutive weeks without throwing a touchdown pass? The cocky Fresno State whiz kid, who told former Tampa Bay Coach Sam Wyche, “I’ll be here next season and you won’t,” despite having thrown for only four touchdowns and 18 interceptions in 16 games?

Shoot, by comparison, Laufenberg should be mad he’s not in the Hall of Fame.

But here we are in Tampa, where Dilfer is sitting before his locker, a would-be king for a 3-0 football team that thinks he can do no wrong.

“I’ve always been a big Trent fan, and you could see the talent in him,” said John Lynch, Tampa safety and clairvoyant. “He was so competitive and wanted to win so badly, but you can see now how he’s keeping his poise and making such a difference.”

The local media, giving Dilfer every break, are counting the passes he has thrown without an interception--147, including exhibition game throws. To fully understand the magnitude of such an accomplishment, imagine Todd Worrell throwing 147 pitches without surrendering a home run. Just can’t be done.

Dilfer, who began this season with 17 touchdown passes and 43 interceptions, has thrown 70 passes without an interception in three wins and has found the end zone four times. He completed 15 of 20 last week against Minnesota. The Buccaneers are 8-2 in his last 10 starts, and he ranks No. 3 in passing efficiency, trailing only Drew Bledsoe and Elway.

“I’m having fun playing football,” Dilfer said. “I know I keep getting asked, ‘What do you want to say to all the people that said you were horrible?’ I don’t want to say anything. I was horrible, and I still have to get better.

“It’s nice that I haven’t thrown any interceptions, but they are going to happen somewhere down the road and the world can’t cave in on us when it happens. We just gotta move on.”

Dilfer, the sixth pick in the 1994 draft--he was passed over by the Rams, who still resided in Anaheim at the time--had set an NCAA record at Fresno State with 318 consecutive passes without an interception. But when he put on an NFL uniform, he fell apart, throwing his helmet after incomplete passes, screaming at teammates who ran wrong routes and stomping along the sideline in frustration.

“Sometimes I’m an emotional wreck,” he acknowledged at the time.

And working with an equally mercurial Wyche was no help, the two clashing more and more frequently in their two seasons.

Enter Tony Dungy, who told General Manager Rich McKay when he took the coaching job in 1996 that he would give Dilfer every opportunity to succeed, rather than dumping him as most every other candidate had suggested.

“I’m not sure I’ve seen anybody recently take the criticism that Trent did and survive, but I remember Terry Bradshaw taking a lot early in his career,” said Dungy, who was both a player and a coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“The fans in Pittsburgh cheered when he got hurt, and they took a poll and everyone wanted the other quarterbacks. But two years later he was in the Super Bowl, and three years later he was the Super Bowl MVP.

“I thought Trent had a chance. I liked a lot of things about him from playing against him. Two years ago we [the Minnesota Vikings] came down here to play against the Bucs and they were 4-2 and everybody was talking about how the offense was going to hurt them and that Trent was still the weak link. I went to him before the game and told him not to worry, to just play, and he beat us.”

Dilfer never stopped listening to Dungy, who became his coach, his mentor, and maybe more than anything else, a walking way of life to emulate.

“Looking at his character and personality, it has helped change mine and I’ve become more calm and less things bother me now,” Dilfer said. “I have changed. Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that mentally I am a lot sharper.

“I’m not talking Xs and O’s, but emotionally. I’m not thinking nearly as much on the field, thank goodness. I was too cerebral, and now I’m trusting my preparation and just letting it fly.

“You can’t be tentative and play quarterback in this league. I watch Heath Shuler play and he’s going through a lot of things I went through. It looks to me like he’s trying not to make mistakes, and I’ve been there.

“What brought me out of it, and I’ve never really talked about this before, but I watched Brett Favre play so many times last year because we were watching videotape of the people playing against him. And he throws 25 balls a year that should be intercepted--should be, and they are not, because he throws the ball with so much confidence. I started to say to myself, if he does this, then I’m going to do the same thing. And it’s worked.”

The Buccaneers pitched in too. They hired Mike Shula as quarterback coach to tutor Dilfer, then began to surround the quarterback with skilled athletes, a new and exciting concept here. They drafted running back Warrick Dunn, wide receiver Reidel Anthony and put together a demanding defense that no longer forces the offense to have to play catch-up every week.

“Having great talent around you is huge,” Dilfer said. “There haven’t been many quarterbacks in NFL history that have been considered great or had great seasons with limited talent. Legends are created sometimes because people need heroes, but a lot of times legends are made because a quarterback is playing on a great football team and not necessarily because he’s any better than the guy next door on the team that doesn’t have quite the talent.”

The legend of Trent Dilfer: stiff to star, overnight.

“I’ve been mocked and booed and ridiculed and I know I became a joke around the world,” Dilfer said. “But I never once doubted my ability. Instead of being booed when I go out, people are cheering now, but I never lost sleep over being booed and it doesn’t do much for me now that they cheer.”

And when Sunday’s game is over, if the oddsmakers are correct, Dilfer will draw a crowd wanting to know every detail about the latest chapter in the Buccaneers’ rise to prominence.

Me, I still can’t believe I won’t be writing about Marino and his three touchdown passes that won the game, and that bum the Buccaneers have at quarterback.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

INFOSTAT

Former Green Bay Packer Coach Vince Lombardi was noted for being unbeatable at Lambeau Field, but current Coach Mike Holmgren is even better. A look at the coaches’ first 33 games at home:

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Coach W-L-T Pct PF PA Streak Holmgren 29-4-0 .878 858 473 17 Lombardi 26-6-1 .803 815 387 11

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Researched by HOUSTON MITCHELL / Los Angeles Times