THE NFL / BILL PLASCHKE : If He Was Awake, Melvin Would Be Proud of Them

SEATTLE — For most NFL players, college memories spring from storied places such as South Bend and Tuscaloosa, revolving around the storied names of Bear and Bo and Bowden.

For the NFL’s best all-around running back this season, Chris Warren of the Seattle Seahawks, flashbacks are different.

The place: A dirt field in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.

The name: Melvin Trent.

“He was our college trainer,” Warren said. “Well, not really a trainer. Like, a paramedic. Well, not really a paramedic. Like, an intern.”

As the man carrying the medical bag for the Ferrum College Panthers, a Division III school with about 1,200 students, Trent was one of the biggest influences on Warren’s career.

He was the one who taught Warren to grip the ball in all sorts of pain.

Because before every game, he would accidentally tape Warren’s hands too tightly.

“Problem was, he didn’t really know how to tape hands, or tape anything,” Warren said. “So when he taped mine, my fingers would turn numb and purple.”

Warren emphasized that this was only a problem when Trent was not sleeping on the bench.

“Which wasn’t often,” he said. “Any time anybody got hurt on our team, the first thing we would have to do was wake up Melvin.”

With a knack for working as hard as he laughed, Warren survived long enough to be discovered.

Similar qualities can be found in most of the several dozen players who have succeeded in the NFL today, despite their small-college backgrounds.

“Generally, those players are in underdog situations, they might have a little better work ethic,” said Tom Donahoe, director of football operations for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

While watching an obscure speck on an obscure college all-star game film, Donahoe found All-Pro linebacker Greg Lloyd from tiny Ft. Valley State in Georgia.

Warren, who is tied with the San Francisco 49ers’ Jerry Rice for the league lead with six touchdowns while ranking sixth in the league in total yards from scrimmage, was discovered in an even odder spot.

Would you believe a rest area?

“It was on Interstate 81 between Roanoke and North Carolina,” recalled Mike Allman, the Seahawks’ player personnel director. “We went to visit him at Ferrum, but while we were in his coach’s office, he calls from the side of the road to say that his car broke down.

“So we told him to stay put, and we drove to pick him up. We didn’t have much time, so we cleared out parking spaces at the rest area and threw him a few passes.”

Based on that workout, and his 4,583 total yards in two seasons at Ferrum, Warren was selected in the fourth round in 1990.

Since then, running soft but hitting hard with his 6-foot-2, 225-pound frame, Warren has opened eyes everywhere.

He even made the Pro Bowl last year, not bad for a player whose collegiate program boasted no playbook and a field with no grass.

“People asked me if I thought about playing in the NFL back then,” Warren said, shaking his head to confirm that the thought rarely crossed his mind.

“I mean, all I had to do was look around at where I was,” he said. “What were the chances of anybody ever making it in the NFL from there?”

Warren is only one of many small-college stars who beat those odds, some of whom are listed here on the All-Melvin Trent team:

OFFENSE

QUARTERBACK--Dave Krieg, Detroit Lions, Milton College, Milton, Wis.

A lifetime member of the Melvin Trent team because his college was so small. It has since gone out of business.

RUNNING BACKS--Warren and Ron Moore, Arizona Cardinals, Pittsburg State, Pittsburg, Kan.

TIGHT END--Eric Green, Steelers, Liberty University, Lynchburg, Va.

Most competitive position, featuring Ben Coates of Livingstone College in Salisbury, N.C.; Shannon Sharpe of Savannah State in Georgia, and Pete Metzelaars of Wabash College in Indiana, an all-male institution of 860.

Green is the winner based solely on the image of him sitting next to chancellor Jerry Falwell at a school fund-raiser.

WIDE RECEIVERS--Andre Reed, Buffalo Bills, Kutztown State, Kutztown, Pa.; John Taylor, San Francisco 49ers, Delaware State.

The combined enrollments of those schools is about 12,000. The combined number of touchdown passes caught by these two is 96.

CENTER--John Gesek, Washington Redskins, Cal State Sacramento.

OK, so it’s not that small. But he is one of the few centers in the league who is not from some major Midwestern program where linemen spend entire semesters wearing their baseball caps backward and tossing drunks out of downtown bars.

GUARDS--Shawn Bouwens, Detroit Lions, Nebraska Wesleyan, Lincoln, Neb.; Tom Newberry, Rams, Wisconsin La Crosse.

TACKLES--Howard Ballard, Seahawks, Alabama A&M; Erik Williams, Dallas Cowboys, Central State, Wilberforce, Ohio.

DEFENSE

LINEMEN--Donald Evans, New York Jets, Winston-Salem (N.C.) State; Leon Lett, Cowboys, Emporia State, Emporia, Kan.; Pierce Holt, Atlanta Falcons, Angelo State, San Angelo, Tex.

Is it any wonder Lett spends much of his free time in hiding? His college had fewer students--about 6,000--than media credentials issued for the last Super Bowl.

LINEBACKERS--Lloyd, Bryan Cox, Miami Dolphins, Western Illinois; Jessie Tuggle, Falcons, Valdosta State, Valdosta, Ga.

CORNERBACKS--Lorenzo Lynch, Cardinals, Cal State Sacramento; Mike Brim, Cincinnati Bengals, Virginia Union, Richmond, Va.

SAFETIES--Eddie Anderson, Raiders, Ft. Valley (Ga.) State; David Whitmore, Kansas City Chiefs, Stephen F. Austin State, Nacogdoches, Tex.

PUNTER--Brian Hansen, New York Jets, Sioux Falls (S.D.) College.

KICKER--Steve Christie, Buffalo Bills, William and Mary.

COACH--Chuck Knox, Rams, Juniata College, Huntingdon, Pa.

WHO’S HOT, WHO’S NOT

HOT--Ralph Friedgen, offensive coordinator, San Diego Chargers: Last week, he forgot who was playing quarterback for him and still called three plays that gained 15 yards and began a game-winning drive.

After it was apparent that Stan Humphries could not take the field for the Chargers’ final drive against the Raiders because of a knee injury, Friedgen, in the press box, began calling plays for backup Gale Gilbert.

He called three plays, including one short pass, all of them favorites of Gilbert. The Chargers managed a first down. The strategy was working.

Then he finally noticed his quarterback’s number.

The man under center was not Gilbert. It was a courageous Humphries.

Now does everybody believe this team is going to make the playoffs?

NOT--Desmond Howard, receiver, Redskins: Having been replaced by the likes of Olanda Truitt and Tydus Winans last week, isn’t it time to certify him as another former Heisman Trophy Winner bust?

HOT--Steve Young, quarterback, 49ers: In the first four games, playing behind an injury-wracked offensive line missing all five starters from last year’s NFC championship game, he has been sacked 13 times. At that pace the 49ers will break the club record for sacks.

Yet Young has yet to break a bone. In fact, he hasn’t even missed a snap.

Some say that before it’s too late, the 49ers should change their offense so Young can receive more protection. Young says no, he can’t play that way.

Our guess is that he will soon learn that he can’t play the other way, either.

NOT--New Orleans Saint running backs: The only way the Saints’ rushing attack could be any worse is if punter Tommy Barnhardt left the team.

Not only was Barnhardt their leading rusher last week with 21 yards on one carry, but that run was the longest by a Saint running back this year.

The team’s 171-yard rushing total after four games is worse than 19 other individuals in the league.

Last year’s leading rusher, Derek Brown, is averaging two yards per carry for 84 yards after averaging 3.9 yards last year for 705 yards.

You’re wondering if we can figure out a way to blame quarterback Jim Everett for this, right?

Well . . . his offensive line has given up a league-low two sacks. Could they be so worried about pass blocking for their new leader that they have forgotten how to run block?

HOT--Dan Reeves, coach, New York Giants: He is not only the best active coach in the game today, he is also the most rested. He gave his team an entire week’s vacation during their bye, even though they have lost three consecutive games after byes.

Wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that they are playing those Saints this week?

NOT--Dale Carter, cornerback, Chiefs: After losing to the Rams last week, Carter was asked about the performance of Ram quarterback Chris Chandler, who had played the entire game, throwing 21 passes, running the ball five times.

“Who is Chris Chandler?” Carter said.

HOT--Wade Phillips, coach, Broncos: He still has his job, doesn’t he? Considering his team is winless after having chances to win three games of their four in the final minutes, he should consider himself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.

Perhaps buoyed by the sight of his paycheck, last week he visited the Broncos’ press room carrying a newspaper story that questioned whether quarterback John Elway had lost some of his magic.

In front of startled reporters, he ripped the story in two.

We only wonder when owner Pat Bowlen will do the same to Phillips’ contract.

NOT--Sterling Sharpe, receiver, Green Bay Packers: He is on the verge of breaking the all-time club receiving record held by James Lofton, so Sharpe was asked if he has ever seen tapes of the former great.

“Never,” Sharpe said. “Why would I? I don’t have time for that during the season, and in the off-season the last thing I’m going to do is watch football tapes. I only met the man once. I can’t help you.”

And to think that Lofton spent the last week heaping praise on Sharpe to whoever would listen.

ABSOLUTELY NOT--Lorenzo Lynch, safety, Cardinals: Just when some frustrated Cardinals were wondering if the only way to escape Buddy Ryan was to get thrown in jail, Lynch did just that.

Lynch was locked up this week after violating probation by failing to perform community service as part of a 1992 misdemeanor assault conviction.

Under terms of his 30-day sentence, he can leave the Maricopa County jail every morning and on weekends to practice and play with the Cardinals.

The original charges involve a fight with an acquaintance at a barber shop in Mesa. Talk about a bad haircut.

QUICK HITTERS

* RADIO STATIC: None other than the son of rules guru Don Shula is the latest to complain about the coach-to-quarterback radio.

Mike Shula an assistant coach with the Chicago Bears and former Alabama quarterback who is considered another head-coaching prospect among the Shula boys, has struggled while working the radio on sidelines.

Like many others in the league, he says he has no way of knowing when the league official in the press box has activated the radio so he can begin talking.

It’s supposed to happen immediately after every play, but there are a lot of things that are supposed to happen during the heat of battle.

Sometimes Shula pushes a button, begins talking, then realizes five seconds later that the radio is not activated and the quarterback cannot hear him.

“There is no communication with the operators whatsoever,” Shula said. “By the time you start getting the message to your quarterback, sometimes you’ve wasted five or six seconds.”

Even though the radio receiver is located in the quarterback’s helmet, Shula said the message is hard to hear during loud moments. That explains this year’s favorite shot of TV directors--a quarterback looking pleadingly to the sidelines while holding his hands over his helmet ear holes.

“In our game last week, trouble with the radio cost the Jets two timeouts,” Shula said. “When the radio works, it works great. But it needs to be fine-tuned.”

Why use the regular season for that fine tuning?

Oh well. At least it has been a couple of weeks since a quarterback tuned in to a concessionaire, ordering sausages.

* ABSOLUTELY LAST SHULA REFERENCE: After the Cincinnati Bengals’ 20-13 loss to the Houston Oilers last week, Bengal veteran safety Louis Oliver derided their game plan.

“That was some of the dumbest . . . I’ve ever seen in the last three minutes,” he told reporters. “I’m trying to figure out the play calling. What did they think? That we were in the first quarter? . . . You can’t be running draws and stuff. That’s bull. You need the two-minute offense out there.”

Shula promptly scolded Oliver for speaking out. So what happens? The next day, Oliver opened up again.

“I can’t take too much more of this,” he said. “It’s embarrassing to go out and say you play ball for the Bengals.”

And you don’t think Dave is gone even if he does beat his father on Sunday night?

* GO FIGURE: After telling fans that they had a winner in town, Buddy Ryan has watched his Arizona Cardinals lead for exactly 6:04 of their first 180 minutes this season.

--A trade that hurt both teams: The Green Bay Packers acquired free-agent running back Reggie Cobb from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the off-season. After four games, neither club has scored a rushing touchdown.

--The Buffalo Bills are 3-1, but have scored touchdowns in only two of their four games.

--Vinny Testaverde has scored the Cleveland Browns’ only rushing touchdown.

--Since beginning his pro career in 1983, Miami Dolphin quarterback Dan Marino has played in only 15 games in which one of his running backs rushed for 100 yards or more. And he has never had a 1,000-yard rusher.

--John Elway, who was instrumental in Dan Reeves’ departure from Denver, has 32 fourth-quarter, game-saving comebacks in his career. Thirty-one occurred under Reeves, one under Wade Phillips.

* VIEWER’S NOTE: Nowhere is the difference between the hourlong pregame shows on Fox and ESPN better illustrated than with this:

Last Sunday, when ESPN expert Phil Simms was asked by his anchormen about a contract offer from Buddy Ryan, he honestly said that he would be interested.

When Fox expert Jimmy Johnson was asked by his anchormen about a contract offer from the Rams, he refused to give a straight answer.