Tuesday, September 22, 1998

Sanders provides needed spark for Cowboys

By John Smallwood

Knight Ridder Newspapers

(KRT)

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Deion Sanders was more fun when he was the colorful, flashy, arrogant, trash-talking poster boy for all that's wrong with the modern athlete.

Today, after his soul-cleansing spiritual rebirth, he's not nearly the notepad filler he used to be.

But while the man may not talk the talk anymore, when he's on the football field he most definitely is still capable of walking the walk.

OK, so Sanders didn't personally beat the New York Giants Monday night at the Meadowlands. Still, if you're looking for the man most responsible for the stunningly easy 31-7 trouncing the Dallas Cowboys put on the hosts, glance no farther than "The Football Player Formerly Known As Prime Time."

With quarterback Troy Aikman on the sideline in street clothes because of a broken clavicle and running back Emmitt Smith playing just a little more than a quarter after straining a groin muscle, the Cowboys needed somebody to spark them.

Sanders stepped up with one of his most impressive efforts ever.

Once again the ultimate triple threat, Sanders put Dallas's first points on the board by returning a punt 59 yards for a touchdown. Later, he set up another score by catching a 55-yard pass from backup quarterback Jason Garrett. And in the fourth quarter, he picked off quarterback Danny Kanell and returned the interception 71 yards for a touchdown. Sanders has 16 career touchdowns on returns, an NFL record.

And for the coup de grace, Sanders, who last year announced that he had been saved and was no longer the arrogant attention-craver you had loved to hate, was as humble as you could've wanted him to be.

"A new nickname?" queried Sanders, after an amazing performance in which he had the first two-touchdown game of his career and totaled 226 yards in returns and catches. "Let's just say 'Prime Time' is on God's time.

"Look, I'm trying to bury that old image and just be Deion."

And being Deion means being one of the most exciting performers to step onto a gridiron.

Salvation may have tempered Sanders' ego, but it hasn't done a thing to hamper his awesome ability to make spectacularly big plays.

"He's just a special, special player," said an amazed Garrett. "What people sometimes overlook is that those are great players out there trying to run him down. They just can't do it."

Garrett filled in admirably for Aikman by completing 12 of 28 passes for 222 yards, including an 80-yard touchdown pass to wideout Billy Davis.

A decade after he stepped into his first NFL game, without having a day's practice, and returned an interception for a touchdown for the Atlanta Falcons, Sanders is still proving he is one of the most gifted athletes to ever grace a playing field.

With Dallas and New York locked in a deathly boring scoreless game, Sanders received a punt from Brad Maynard on the Cowboys' 41 yard line early in the second quarter.

He started right, saw a wall of tacklers closing in on him and then committed the cardinal return sin of taking steps backward. Using his still-amazing speed to avoid his pursuers, Sanders turned the corner, got a couple of blocks and headed down the sideline.

With another wave of Giants coming at him, Sanders cut it back left, blew by the pursuit and waltzed into the end zone.

"Usually, when we call punt-return left, I go right," Sanders said. "I was blessed and picked up a lot of wonderful blocks.

"It's different because I'm not like the ordinary punt returner. I'm not being boastful, but I don't catch the punt and try to get 10 yards. I think if we did that, we'd probably lead the league. But every time we catch a punt, we're trying to score. Sometimes, I will run backward and lose yards trying to make a big play. That's what happened today, and I got some wonderful blocks down field."

How amazing was Sanders? After the punt return, he had to be taken out of the game because of dehydration. He didn't return until the third quarter.

"I was feeling a little funny before the game, and the first couple of series my feet weren't with me and I was playing terrible," Sanders said. "I was really exhausted after those first two defensive series. On the punt return, I just spent all I had left and was exhausted.

"At halftime, the trainers did a wonderful job of reviving me by giving me a couple of bags of (intravenous fluids)." Sanders felt so good that he went in for his first offensive series of the season. On the first pass thrown his way, he split two Giant defenders and made a 55-yard reception.

That led to an 18-yard touchdown run by Sherman Williams that put Dallas up 24-7 in the third quarter.

Sanders had one last big play in him after sitting out earlier in the fourth quarter.

"It was funny because I had twinged a hamstring so I was really in the last part of the game," Sanders said of the sequence that set up his interception return with just over two minutes left in the game. "But (the Giants) threw balls right on the side where I had been playing. The truth is I went to (reserve cornerback Kevin Mathis), 'Man, you're out here getting all this action, let me go pick one off and run it back for a touchdown.' Glory to God, but that's what happened."

It's not as much fun to listen to Sanders talk anymore, but it's still a "Prime Time" pleasure to watch him play.

(John Smallwood is a sports columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News.)

(c) 1998, Philadelphia Daily News.

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