Saturday, November 21, 1998

Cowboys coach Chan Gailey's ingenuity comes from his past

By Frank Luksa

The Dallas Morning News

(KRT)

IRVING, Texas -- One story goes that on dark, stormy nights at Valley Ranch, lights flicker and the hum of machinery can be heard from within Chan Gailey's office-laboratory. Amid test tubes and Bunsen burners, the Cowboys coach is assembling an exotic play from scattered and borrowed tactics.

Those within earshot swear that when the Cowboys coach discovers a new monster strategy, he's moved to exclaim of his creation: "It's alive! It's alive!"

Another story has it that Gailey can find a nickel behind your ear, fetch pigeons from a top hat and, if it's for a good cause, levitate Jerry Jones. For a better cause he'll bring Jones down.

Gailey's persona suddenly has become a mixture of mad, cackling scientist, magician and shifty-eyed gambler known by nicknames like Ace, Slick or Americus (Ga.) Slim. He's identified as a flim-flam artist and con man in residence.

He's portrayed this week as a gadget-play master. A strategist with exotic designs up both sleeves and another in his shoe reserved for overtime. A coach wedded to a made-for-Halloween offense that treats with tricks.

Perception exists that Gailey's true self is owned by an extravagant spirit. Beneath his conservative facade lurks a maverick who secretly yearns to spike his hair, dye it metallic blue and silver and wear a nose ring. This would explain his liberal offensive tendencies.

So went the altered version of Gailey. Thus, much regret attends the unmasking of the imposter. Gailey gambles as often as Billy Graham. He's as tricky as a domino. As wild as a milk shake.

The leap to annoint Gailey as an Evel Knievel at the wheel was but a short stride. He had returned wrinkles to a forever-plaid Cowboys offense that won Super Bowls when the lineup was younger, stronger, knocked everyone down and had no need for finesse -- things like a screen pass and the shotgun formation which were last seen here 10 years ago.

Four-receiver sets, different men in motion, receivers aligned in unfamiliar spots ... these nuances were recorded as testimony to Gailey's creativity. In truth, this was standard stuff for an active mind but interpreted as radical flair since nothing like it had been seen here in a decade.

Local memory of The Great Charlatan had dimmed over the years. Tom Landry fooled more people with off-beat plays than Billy Sol Estes with his phantom fertilizer tanks. An expert on Egypt once examined the confusing diagram of Landry's tricky offering and translated it to mean: "Tutankhamen slept here."

Anyway, Gailey became a wildly unpredictable fellow last Sunday during a 35-28 victory over Arizona. Receiver Ernie Mills twice went in motion, took a handoff from Troy Aikman and floated off tackle with a run-pitch option. He pitched once to Emmitt Smith. He kept the other time. Both plays worked for nice gains.

"Amazing how much was made out of one play ... the option," Gailey said after Friday's chilly, wind-whipped practice. Amazement lay in his awareness of being seen as a man whose decisions are at the mercy of a dice roll, turn of the card or the solunar tables.

The Mills play qualified as an exotic, a gadget, whatever nomenclature fits a play of unusual design. I've watched pro football for almost 40 years and never seen a receiver run an option play. That doesn't mean no one ever did, but I'd like to think so.

Railbirds revisited crazy stunts they credited Gailey with pulling. Billy Davis and Mills had run six reverses from wide receiver. Toby Gowin ran 33 yards from punt formation. Chris Warren scored on a shovel pass set up by a fake reverse to Deion Sanders. Add the Mills option and Gailey emerged as Merlin or Mandrake.

Truth is, wide receiver reverses are routine. Arizona dialed the same play against the Cowboys. That's as much a trick play as Gowin running against Denver when its coverage peeled off too soon. So we're reduced to two actual trick plays in 10 games -- shovel pass to Warren and option with Mills -- and just as suddenly the real Gailey who has been there all along has returned.

The real Gailey plays percentages. His genuine exotics are few and far between. He's devoted to a blow-'em-out, run-first offense. He uses change-of-pace plays for two reasons -- to gain yardage and plant a worrisome seed with an opponent such as Seattle, Sunday's rival in Texas Stadium.

Gailey has 10-12 gimmicks at his disposal and may have a couple in Sunday's game plan. He declined to say what they were, when or if he might use them, for security reasons. Since opponents are unsure of Gailey's true persona and must give it game-plan pause, he is comfortable with a false identity. Most con men are.

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(c) 1998, The Dallas Morning News.

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