Eric the Red
Team HuskerBoard
Crawford still wonders how he'd fare as Husker
BY DIRK CHATELAIN
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Carl Crawford is flipping through a Fantasy Football magazine in the visiting clubhouse at Kauffman Stadium - anything to pass the time before first pitch. A reporter approaches and asks about Nebraska.
Click to Enlarge
Tampa Bay outfielder Carl Crawford, once a Nebraska football recruit, has led the American League in stolen bases and triples three times.
"I would've thought people had forgotten about me by now," Crawford says.
Eight years have passed since Crawford told Turner Gill sorry, but every once in a while the Tampa Bay Devil Rays outfielder still dreams of running the option.
"I used to see Crouch break for like 70 yards," Crawford said Friday. "I knew how fast I was. Man, I just wish I had a chance to do it one time."
It's mere trivia now, but in February 1999, Crawford signed a letter of intent to play quarterback at Nebraska. He was going to battle Eric Crouch for the starting job. If that didn't work out, he was going to be the next Bobby Newcombe.
Four months later, the Devil Rays selected him in the major league baseball draft's second round and offered Crawford $1.5 million to sign.
Where Crawford's from in Houston, you don't turn down $1.5 million.
"It'll always be in my head," Crawford said. "What could've been."
He's just 25, but three times he's led the American League in stolen bases and triples. He is an All-Star and, last year, nearly became the third player ever to hit 20 home runs, bat .300 and steal 60 bases in one season.
Only Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby has matched Crawford's achievement of increasing his batting average and home run total in five straight seasons.
Crawford can stretch singles into doubles and chase down line drives in the gap. Football, though, still feels more natural to him. It's more instinctive, more reliant on athleticism.
His senior year of high school, the 6-foot-2 lefty rushed for 1,200 yards. He also averaged 25 points on the basketball court, drawing interest from UCLA.
"He just had speed and athleticism," said Gill, the former Nebraska quarterbacks coach, in 2000. "Those two qualities right there, they jumped off the tape."
Nebraska's tradition and coaching staff jumped out at Crawford. Head coach Frank Solich came to Houston during recruiting and ate with his family.
"None of the other coaches had done that," Crawford said.
More important, Crawford saw himself as a dynamic option quarterback. Gill once explained to him the Husker offense: This guy blocks this defender. This guy blocks that defender. The goal, Gill said, was getting the quarterback one-on-one with the free safety.
"I was like, 'I only have to make one guy miss?'" Crawford said. "Man, this is going to be easy."
Correll Buckhalter hosted Crawford during his recruiting trip - Jammal Lord was in Lincoln visiting the same weekend. It was the first time Crawford ever saw snow.
He would've joined the football team in 1999 and the baseball team in 2000. Dave Van Horn, whose team made the College World Series in 2001 and 2002, had big plans for Crawford.
Football hooked Crawford to Nebraska, though. In 2001, what would've been Crawford's third season, the Huskers played for a national title in the Rose Bowl. The old quarterback was watching on TV.
"The attention and the glory (of baseball), it would've never been close to that," Crawford said. "They went to the national championship. That would've been my chance to be on the national stage."
By then, he was in the big leagues. Tampa Bay snagged Crawford in the second round of the 1999 draft and offered him enough to get his mom a new house.
"They paid me that so I wouldn't go to Nebraska," said Crawford, who made his major league debut in 2000. "I really felt bad about disappointing the coaching staff like that."
Gill, now the University of Buffalo head coach, had no hard feelings. He wrote Crawford a letter a few years later and requested tickets to a game in Kansas City.
Friends back home still ponder what Crawford could've done in Lincoln. Houston's football country, you know. Crawford used to follow the Huskers more closely. He's lost interest since they changed coaching staffs and offenses. But he's got a 3-year-old son who looks and moves just like him.
"Maybe he can play football someday. We can see what happens."
BY DIRK CHATELAIN
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Carl Crawford is flipping through a Fantasy Football magazine in the visiting clubhouse at Kauffman Stadium - anything to pass the time before first pitch. A reporter approaches and asks about Nebraska.
Click to Enlarge
Tampa Bay outfielder Carl Crawford, once a Nebraska football recruit, has led the American League in stolen bases and triples three times.
"I would've thought people had forgotten about me by now," Crawford says.
Eight years have passed since Crawford told Turner Gill sorry, but every once in a while the Tampa Bay Devil Rays outfielder still dreams of running the option.
"I used to see Crouch break for like 70 yards," Crawford said Friday. "I knew how fast I was. Man, I just wish I had a chance to do it one time."
It's mere trivia now, but in February 1999, Crawford signed a letter of intent to play quarterback at Nebraska. He was going to battle Eric Crouch for the starting job. If that didn't work out, he was going to be the next Bobby Newcombe.
Four months later, the Devil Rays selected him in the major league baseball draft's second round and offered Crawford $1.5 million to sign.
Where Crawford's from in Houston, you don't turn down $1.5 million.
"It'll always be in my head," Crawford said. "What could've been."
He's just 25, but three times he's led the American League in stolen bases and triples. He is an All-Star and, last year, nearly became the third player ever to hit 20 home runs, bat .300 and steal 60 bases in one season.
Only Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby has matched Crawford's achievement of increasing his batting average and home run total in five straight seasons.
Crawford can stretch singles into doubles and chase down line drives in the gap. Football, though, still feels more natural to him. It's more instinctive, more reliant on athleticism.
His senior year of high school, the 6-foot-2 lefty rushed for 1,200 yards. He also averaged 25 points on the basketball court, drawing interest from UCLA.
"He just had speed and athleticism," said Gill, the former Nebraska quarterbacks coach, in 2000. "Those two qualities right there, they jumped off the tape."
Nebraska's tradition and coaching staff jumped out at Crawford. Head coach Frank Solich came to Houston during recruiting and ate with his family.
"None of the other coaches had done that," Crawford said.
More important, Crawford saw himself as a dynamic option quarterback. Gill once explained to him the Husker offense: This guy blocks this defender. This guy blocks that defender. The goal, Gill said, was getting the quarterback one-on-one with the free safety.
"I was like, 'I only have to make one guy miss?'" Crawford said. "Man, this is going to be easy."
Correll Buckhalter hosted Crawford during his recruiting trip - Jammal Lord was in Lincoln visiting the same weekend. It was the first time Crawford ever saw snow.
He would've joined the football team in 1999 and the baseball team in 2000. Dave Van Horn, whose team made the College World Series in 2001 and 2002, had big plans for Crawford.
Football hooked Crawford to Nebraska, though. In 2001, what would've been Crawford's third season, the Huskers played for a national title in the Rose Bowl. The old quarterback was watching on TV.
"The attention and the glory (of baseball), it would've never been close to that," Crawford said. "They went to the national championship. That would've been my chance to be on the national stage."
By then, he was in the big leagues. Tampa Bay snagged Crawford in the second round of the 1999 draft and offered him enough to get his mom a new house.
"They paid me that so I wouldn't go to Nebraska," said Crawford, who made his major league debut in 2000. "I really felt bad about disappointing the coaching staff like that."
Gill, now the University of Buffalo head coach, had no hard feelings. He wrote Crawford a letter a few years later and requested tickets to a game in Kansas City.
Friends back home still ponder what Crawford could've done in Lincoln. Houston's football country, you know. Crawford used to follow the Huskers more closely. He's lost interest since they changed coaching staffs and offenses. But he's got a 3-year-old son who looks and moves just like him.
"Maybe he can play football someday. We can see what happens."
I wonder where he'd be if he had come to play either or both sports in college.
