Cover Story: The NFL's Best Sticks, Past and Present

by Vic Williams

Tony Romo, Jerry Rice and Carson Palmer get ready to tee it up at Tahoe.

Are You Ready for Some GolfBall?

These NFL Greats Are, Until the World’s Truly

Toughest Game Throws Them for a Loss —

Or Spurs Them to Tahoe Triumph

Thirty-two, twenty-eight, red dog flash right, five, forty-nine, hut … hut… GET IN THE HOLE!

Whoa there, Mr. Elway. Just a second, Mr. Chandler, Chill out, Mssrs. Romo and Roethlisberger, Theismann and Palmer, Lomax and McMahon, Dilfer and Maddox. Look around. This ain’t no football stadium, it’s not third-and-long with time winding down and paydirt 58 yards away. It’s a golf course, and you’re on your own out here, buddy. You’ve got 196 yards over water to a tucked pin. The team done left you to fend for yourself.

Then again, it’s gotta be tough for an NFL quarterback not to fall into that ol’ signal-calling cadence when he’s out on the golf course, nuking it three bills off the tee and firing at every pin as if it was Jerry Rice in a post pattern. After all, old habits die hard and there isn’t a field general out there, retired or active, who relishes giving up the huddle hierarchy though he’s switched his allegiances to the solo pursuit that captivates millions. All those years, he’s called the shots and 10 other guys got in line. He’s loved being in charge, and now, in the middle of an Edgewood Tahoe fairway at the American Century Celebrity Championship, he’s no doubt gonna assert himself yet again.

Problem is, uphill, dog-legged, tree-lined, bunker-ridden four-pars don’t listen nearly as well as wide receivers and pulling guards. They respond only when a QB (or any kind of position player, for that matter) lets his hand-eye coordination and raw athletic skill and mental focus do the talking. Then, and only then, will a golf hole follow orders and give up a birdie.

Thank God, then, that a slew of NFL quarterbacks, past and present, happen to be damned strong sticks. A certain cadre of these guys is always in the hunt on Lake Tahoe’s south shore in mid-July, and one of them took the title again this year. Former All-Pro QB Chris Chandler joined two-time winner Billy Joe Tolliver and inaugural champ Mark Rypien in the winner’s circle, making them the only three QBs to win the event in its 18-year history, though a couple other NFL guys have won — former Miami safety Dick Anderson twice in the 1990s and kicker Al Del Greco in 2000.

But this was special. Chandler’s father-in-law is former 49er QB John Brodie, who has contended at Tahoe in the past and also won on the PGA’s Senior Tour. Despite being slowed by a stroke a few years back, Brodie followed Chandler the entire final round and broke into tears after the last putt dropped. These QBs have gotta stick together, ‘cause winning here is tough.

Still, QBs rule Edgewood’s groomed golf gridiron, and those of other celeb events throughout the West including former Chargers QB Stan Humphries’ big fundraiser every spring, through their sheer numbers. This year, 37 current and former NFL players made up nearly half the Tahoe field, and half of them were QBs. The Dallas Cowboys’ Tony Romo, who made his first start, showed he could play with the big boys. So did Cincinnati’s Carson Palmer, New Orleans’ Drew Brees, Carolina’s David Carr and Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers. They’re all chasing “old-timers” like Rypien and Elway, who helped grow the celeb golf fraternity among NFL players from the late ’80s through the ’90s, when they were still racking up Super Bowl titles. And along the way they’ve built an appreciative golf-watching fan base.

“Here’s the funny thing,” Rypien told FG after he found himself in contention this year. “About 12 years ago there were only like 10 guys who could break 80, and now we’ve got 25 guys who can potentially put up some good numbers. This tournament has gotten bigger; Tuesday’s pro am attracted more people than the whole week did back in 1990. Each year the competition has just been elevated. From the entertainment side of it — which is a big part of this event — it’s a lot of fun.”

Elway, who like Rypien has never missed the Tahoe event, agrees — and that makes him try harder. “The quality is no question getting better, but I always blame the Indian and not the arrow. [If I miss a shot] it’s my fault, not the club’s. When you’re out there at the best tournament we play in all year, and it’s such a great setting with so many people watching, I get more nervous because I want to play well and at least stay in the hunt.”

Huh? One of the steeliest studs ever to strap it on gets butterflies at a little ol’ golf get-together? Uh, yeah. “It comes from confidence,” he says. “I’m used to playing football. I would never get nervous on fourth-and-8 when I knew we needed it, but standing over a two-footer, I’m nervous.”

And these days, there’s more competition to get worked up about. Plenty of non-QBs have joined the party. This year, former Rams and Colts running back Marshall Faulk displayed some golf chops, as did wide receiver Keenan McCardell and kicker Ryan  Longwell. Emmitt Smith can play a bit. Several others have come close and keep hovering around the top 15, while others have designs on joining the pro athlete-turned-scratch player fraternity.

Take Hall of Fame shoo-in Jerry Rice, for instance. Or San Diego megastar running back LaDainian Tomlinson and current NFL signal-callers Palmer and Romo. All these guys can play; “LT” has a few practice sessions to go, as does his superstar like-monogrammed predecessor, Lawrence Taylor, who’s an avowed golf nut. But other guys are showing signs of going low, and next to former fellow wideout Sterling Sharpe, Rice could be next to make the move up.

“I have really worked on my game, gotten down to like a 0.9, and I’m just hoping to be able to go out there and play my best golf,” Rice said a few weeks before this year’s Tahoe tourney. “I think Carson, he’s an exceptional quarterback, he wants to be the best, and it’s the same way in golf.  With the American Century, it gives you an opportunity to go up against the best.”

This year, Rice put together a strong Saturday round by hitting his irons well and staying in the moment. In fact, he showed flashes of a champion’s mindset as some of the biggest crowds in the event’s history zeroed in on him and his group at the wild and windy No. 17 tee — a par 3 along the lake that turns into party central. After hitting a decent tee shot, Rice tossed the pigskin around with fans and mugged for the TV cameras.

“We know it’s gonna get crazy, so you better get ready for it,” he told FG just after his round. “When we do stuff like that — throw the football around — it has a tendency to break the tension just a little bit. Just the action, with the crowd and with the kids, it was fun. Then it was back to golfing and trying to drain those putts.”

Rice made par then nearly got home in two on the final hole, a risk-reward 5-par. “I didn’t plan on 18,” he admitted. “I pulled my driver a little left and it ricocheted off a tree, so I had a shot about 240 yards into the green. I hit a 3 iron and wanted to aim at the [TV] tower and just say, ‘hey, look, this is it, if you pull it it’s going in the water.’ I just knew I had to roll it on up there and I wanted that eagle putt. I struck it a little too hard and I had to regroup.” He made the comebacker for birdie.

Still, for a guy who’s legendary for bruising workouts as a player and who still keeps himself in game day shape, Rice realizes he’s nowhere near there yet — there as in quarterback country, where guys like Sharpe are starting to break through.

“QBs are always right up there,” he said, “and I heard Sterling Sharpe is a plus-something. This guy was hitting drives like 340 yards with a little sand wedge or pitching wedge into greens. It was amazing. I’m going, ‘I can’t even compete with this.’ But you got guys out there who really work hard at it. I mean, we love this sport, we respect the sport and we go out there and wanna do well.”

Count Rice among the hardest workers. He didn’t even pick up a club until a decade or so ago, and now he’s constantly on the range or making tee times at his favorite tracks around the Bay area. “It was funny how I turned to golf. I had just finished working out with my trainer; he had a couple golf clubs and some golf balls, and I decided that being the athlete I am, I should be able to hit this golf ball. I couldn’t do it, and that really frustrated me. After that I got hooked. I got bit by the bug. I was hitting golf balls early in the morning, going to practice and coming back to hit more balls. It’s a great game; you can always go out there and challenge yourself because you never know what this day is going to hold for you. If you have a great round, you think the next day, ‘I’ve got this, I’m going to go out there and have an exceptional round.’ And that’s really the mistake.  That’s when the game can really humble you.”

These days, he’s not satisfied unless he’s going low.

“I can’t just enjoy golf if I don’t play well,” he said with a laugh. “It’s just my competitive nature. Some of the courses that I have played, though — Pebble Beach, the Olympic Club, just so many courses around the Bay Area — I can enjoy the scenery, but if I don’t go out there and have a good round of golf, it’s almost like it’s wasted.”

Palmer, who has now played three straight years at Tahoe, is right there with Rice. “If you’re not playing well and you’ve got the shanks or you’re just having one of those days, it can be miserable,” he said. “But you just need to realize you’re outside, you’re enjoying just being outdoors, and if you’re playing at one of those courses, there’s plenty to look at and plenty to enjoy.”

Then he breaks out the Elway Defense to explain his less-than-stellar performances at Edgewood, though, like his NFL colleagues, summer brings ample opportunity to groove one’s move — which, perhaps, is the reason so many of these guys can bring it on the links. “I haven’t played well because of the pressure of all the people,” Palmer said before the event. “This off season I didn’t have rehab to go through.  I’ve really been working on my game and looking forward to this weekend.  It’s kind of like the highlight of my sports off season.  It’s the most fun thing I do.”

And until he takes the Bengals to the NFL’s pinnacle, Tahoe is his Super Bowl. “I play in a number of charity golf tournaments, but here, where you’re going head to head for three consecutive days, it’s the competition that excites me. And that’s what Jerry is saying, too. When you get to go against good golfers and compare yourself to them, that’s the most fun you can have playing golf. I’ll never be a great golfer, I’ll never play on Tour, but it’s always something to challenge yourself and see how good you can get. It’s the most challenging sport I’ve ever participated in.”

We golfers have known that all along. Golf is a sport, and it taxes the body and mind like no other. For proof, look what it does to some of these guys on that first tee. The “goal” is now four football fields away, and they’re wondering how in the hell they’re going to reach it in two shots and two putts, with no team to help them. The best players — those with the emotional stability to bolster their brawn and raw talent — make it happen.

In the end, it doesn’t hurt to have a little extra motivation, too. Every contender has his own ways of getting fired up. For Rice, it’s the long-term goal of going low and joining the celeb game’s inner circle of winners. But until then, he’s got a very tall short-term target in his sights: the most popular American Century participant ever, a guy who, ironically enough, made his bones on the hardwood, not the gridiron.

“Every year I get a chance to go against Michael Jordan,” says Rice. “I want to take Michael down, and I’m sure Michael wants to do the same thing with me.”

Football, basketball, whatever. For the world’s top athletes, golf is the great equalizer. So blow the whistle, call the play and let the games continue. FG