UNDER FIRE : When Wilson's Bad, He's Horrid

Jim Murray

November 04, 1986|JIM MURRAY

So, why is he so often horrid? Does he need a little jolt of nastiness, a touch of Jim McMahon's bad-brattery, Joe Namath's ruthless cocksureness, Bobby Layne's contempt of all defenses, coaches and even game plans, Norm Van Brocklin's outrage at teammates' ineptitude, Terry Bradshaw's happy-go-lucky "What the hell, let's try that again."?

Marc Wilson answers questions as patiently as he (over?) studies defenses. Did he feel he played a good game?

"I feel I played my heart out out there."

Did he feel he was--er, ah, um--oh, let's say, indecisive? "The plays are sent in," Wilson snapped decisively.

But, don't you have the veto power?

"The officials are trying to speed up the game now for TV. Sometimes, they start the clock before your ends come back to the line of scrimmage. The play comes in late, and if you want to audibilize (call your own play because you see the bench's won't work), there's no time. You have to go with theirs or call time out."

Nobody said it would be easy. But it would seem that Marc Wilson could get rid of that little curl in the middle of his forehead if he would convince himself of two things: 1) When things are going bad, it's nothing a timeout would cure; and 2) It's better to take charge out there. As Morgan the pirate, the original Raider, said: "It's better to be hanged for your own mistakes than someone else's."

That way, when he's good, he can still be very, very good and when he's bad--well, he can be not bad.

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