Howard’s End Was A Bit Premature
A phone call came from Washington for Desmond Howard Sunday night.
No, it wasn’t an apology from the Redskins.
It was President Clinton calling to say, “Way to go.” If this isn’t going from the outhouse to the penthouse I don’t know what is. Desmond Howard, let go by the Redskins and Jaguars, is the Super Bowl XXXI MVP. In the history of the Super Bowl, no special teams player ever won the award. Until now. Disney, then the president. “He had a bunch of congressmen over to watch the game on the big screen,” Howard said. “He was aware of some of the trials and tribulations I’ve had, and he said he was glad I had prevailed.”
It may not be “Hoosiers,” but it isn’t bad, either, as story lines go. Kid goes to college, can’t play the position he’s recruited to play - running back - so he switches to receiver and wins the Heisman Trophy. Kid goes to the defending champs, which is what the Redskins were in 1992, doesn’t catch on at the position he’s drafted to play, so he’s switched to punt returner by the coach of the most storied team in the league’s history and wins MVP of the Super Bowl.
“Amazed?” Howard said. “Yeah, you could say that.”
On a day when Brett Favre threw a couple of electrifying touchdown bombs and Reggie White became the first man to record three quarterback sacks in the Super Bowl, it was still clear which Packer was most valuable. Desmond Howard.
When Bill Parcells talked of “one play” he was talking about Howard’s first career kick-return-for-touchdown, a 99-yarder late in the third quarter. The game-changer, the momentum swinger. “The game obviously turned on that kickoff return,” Parcells said.
“The back-breaker,” Howard said.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to call this Howard’s day of final redemption. Between the Redskins and Jaguars, the scouting report on Howard after four seasons in the NFL (and four different coaches, I might add) was that he didn’t work hard enough, didn’t study enough, wasn’t as fast as they thought, wasn’t strong enough to get off the line of scrimmage as a receiver.
So at the end of the most important day of his career, Howard had returned four kickoffs for 154 yards and six punts for 90 yards. It had never crossed his mind he’d be the game’s most valuable player, paid $275,000 for his services in Green Bay this year. “I really didn’t even expect them to kick me the ball,” he said. “I said before the game, though, ‘They can roll the dice and kick it to me if they want.’ ” Asked if he has a new pose now, Howard added, “No, I don’t have a new pose. My new pose is the Lombardi Trophy.”