The best chance the Bears have of beating the Vikings on Sunday is for the Vikings to beat themselves. Beat themselves up, that is. The Bears need Randy Moss, Cris Carter and Jake Reed to get into a fistfight in the huddle, arguing over who’s going to get the ball.
The Vikings believe they have the best trio of wide receivers in the NFL, maybe in the history of the NFL, which should mean everybody in Vikingland will live happily ever after, right? Wrong.
“Everyone is not going to be happy,” Carter said.
Rookie Moss leads the Vikings with 15 catches. Carter has 12. Reed has six. Coach Dennis Green thinks the only important number is three, as in wins. Coaches by nature are optimistic.
After three games last year, Carter had 23 catches. Reed had 19. Carter and Reed have an NFL-record string of four consecutive 1,000-yard seasons going that Moss is threatening. So an intramural ego war would seem the best way to stop this high-powered offense.
Far-fetched? You don’t know wide receivers the way psychiatrist Arnold J. Mandell did when he spent the 1972 season with the San Diego Chargers. In an article for the Saturday Review, Mandell put each football position on his couch.
“The wide receiver is a very special human being,” he wrote. “He shares many features with actors and movie stars. He is narcissistic and vain, and basically a loner. . . . Essential, brilliant, vain and not too friendly, he’s rarely a popular member of the team.”
The San Francisco 49ers’ Jerry Rice is the greatest receiver in history. While he missed most of last year with injury, Terrell Owens and J.J. Stokes developed into outstanding receivers. If the Vikings don’t have the best trio, the 49ers do. Rice, Owens and Stokes all said during the off-season they were willing to sacrifice playing time because three receivers simply can’t be on the field for every snap.
Then the season started. The 49ers’ offense racked up 1,061 yards in the first two games, but before the second one ended, Rice was seen complaining to coach Steve Mariucci about guess what. He later apologized.
“I’ve been spoiled over the years, and now it’s time for me to adjust and let these other guys have opportunities,” Rice said. “That was very unprofessional, and somehow I’ve got to be able to deal with it and set an example to the other guys.”
Said Carter of Rice: “He has to do what he feels is best for his team. I guess 1,000 yards of offense is not enough for him.”
But Carter can relate to Rice’s feelings.
“I think the sacrifice begins right with me,” Carter said. “If they can see me sacrificing and accepting the role I have, I think that helps. I might score the same number of touchdowns, but I won’t catch as many balls because I’m not getting 10, 11 or 12 balls thrown to me a game now.”
Already, Moss is philosophical.
“You don’t get a lot of opportunity to have the ball thrown at you, especially with the type of weapons we have, so we always emphasize making the big plays when given the opportunity,” Moss said.
Reed’s thoughts remained to himself after Sunday’s game, in which he was just one of eight receivers quarterback Randall Cunningham found.
Cunningham saw how selfishness prevented a talented Philadelphia team from reaching its potential.
“I think we’re a very unselfish team,” Cunningham said of the Vikings. Then he gave a reason: “Guys have gotten their contracts. The offensive guys, the big weapons, they’ve been paid and they’re stepping up doing what they have to do. The biggest thing is to suck it up and be a role player.
“When you’re like Cris catching 100 balls a year, you say, `Randy’s going to catch three of my balls and the tight end is going to catch two. I might only get six or seven balls to catch.’ That’s where you take it to the next level of unselfishness, and Cris is a very unselfish player.”
San Francisco quarterback Steve Young thinks a little selfishness isn’t all bad. He’d rather have receivers who always want the ball, especially in crunch time.
True, these guys are getting paid to do whatever is best for the team. Reed got a four-year, $13.6 million deal last winter. Carter got a four-year extension for $23.5 million in August. That made him the highest-paid receiver in the league until Rice signed a six-year, $36 million deal. The 49ers tried to extend the contracts of Stokes and Owens, both in their final years, but couldn’t find the salary-cap room.
Finding room for all the egos is a stickier trick. The dollars go up, the wins go up, but when the catches go down, watch out.
