Football Players

Jack Squirek's NFL career wasn't much to write home about. A 6-foot-4, 230-pound linebacker, he served mostly anonymously and usually without flair or distinction. Except, of course, in the biggest game of his life. Twenty-five years ago this month, on football's grandest stage, Squirek stepped out of the shadows and into the limelight, making a pivotal and memorable play to help the Raiders deliver Los Angeles its only Super Bowl championship.

The high school coach thinks of Edgerrin James when he looks at the football field. "He wrote a check to upgrade our facilities, our field, a big number like $100,000," Israel Gallegos said. The restaurant manager thinks of James when it gets crowded. "He didn't go to New York for the big NFL draft party -- he stayed here and threw a party for everyone," Linda Lozano says at her Mexican restaurant. "It was packed. People waited outside."

If a quarterback sends the wrong message to his receivers, it can cost him the football. If a quarterback sends the wrong message at this week's NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis, it can cost him $10 million or more. That's why USC's Mark Sanchez and his handlers are especially careful these days about the signals that he's sending. With the top of the draft still very murky, and Sanchez a legitimate candidate to go No.

To throw or not to throw. That no longer is the question. USC quarterback Mark Sanchez will throw for scouts at the NFL combine Sunday, bucking a trend established by several elite passers over the last few years. It remains to be seen if Georgia's Matt Stafford will follow suit. The word leading into the combine was he was leaning against throwing here, and instead was waiting for his campus pro day.

NFL talent evaluators rely on study sessions and stopwatches, medical reports and miles of videotape. And sometimes, just plain gut feelings. They don't lean on rules of thumb, because as soon as one is cemented in place, an exception comes along to shatter it. Still, some patterns that have formed in recent years are hard to ignore.

Alabama's Andre Smith is a left tackle in the truest sense. He's a tackle. And he left. Smith, considered among the top three prospects at his position, abruptly left the NFL scouting combine Saturday, skipping his workout and flying to Alabama unannounced. He told the NFL Network he did so to continue preparations for his March 11 pro day on campus. Smith, who didn't feel ready to perform for teams here, had been booked on a 4 p.m. flight but changed his reservation to leave at 6 a.m.

Who's No. 1? There's a good chance the Detroit Lions won't spend the first overall pick on a quarterback -- even though it's a position of need -- but on a player who can make an immediate impact on the league's worst defense two years running. That player could be Aaron Curry, a 6-foot-2, 254-pound outside linebacker from Wake Forest, who won the Butkus Award as the nation's top linebacker. Further bolstering his stock, Curry ran a 4.

Every NFL team dreams of doing the Super Bowl shuffle. But that requires doing well in the free-agency reshuffle, the league's annual game of musical chairs that sends even some of the best players packing. The free-agency and trading periods began Thursday at 9:01 p.m. PST -- a minute past midnight on the East Coast -- opening the door for free agents such as Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner, Baltimore linebacker Ray Lewis, Tennessee defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth and Cincinnati receiver T.

They finally got to step onto the field of their stadium, and they got the joke. All these years later, Cal State Fullerton's former football players could almost laugh. Just don't leave out the almost. The greats and the not-so-greats of a Fullerton football program that has been defunct for 16 seasons gathered for their first reunion Saturday afternoon.

The deal Thursday that sent quarterback Jay Cutler from Denver to Chicago for a Brinks truck full of draft picks wasn't just a tale of two cities. It will reverberate throughout the NFL. It's also good news for Georgia's Matt Stafford, USC's Mark Sanchez and the fast-rising Josh Freeman of Kansas State, because it could trigger a run on quarterbacks at the top of the draft. Consider this: Had Cutler gone to Detroit instead of Chicago, that would have satisfied the Lions' need for a quarterback.