Jim Zorn seems like he could be the nice guy next door who lets you borrow his power tools or lawnmower. But the Washington Redskins’ coach has a fiery side, too, as he showed yesyerday during the afternoon practice of his team’s first day of minicamp.
Zorn exploded when Shawn Springs picked off a Jason Campbell pass and lateraled to fellow veteran cornerback Fred Smoot, who went tumbling head over heels and lost the ball.
“Don’t do that,” Zorn screamed. “Don’t mess around like that. You get the ball, run with it!”
Asked about his reaction, Zorn said, “When we have the right to have the ball with a great interception and then to kind of throw it away, yeah then I get upset.”
Springs, who played four years in Seattle when Zorn was a Seahawks assistant, said he wasn’t taken aback by the coach’s reaction.
“That’s good,” Springs said. “Freddy corrupts me. I’m going to have apologize to Coach Zorn.”
Defensive coordinator Greg Blache said Zorn “has got a lot of John Wayne in him,” a quiet guy who is strong when he needs to be.
“The neatest thing about Coach Z is that he hits a home run at everything he does because he’s always himself,” Blache said. “The meeting with the coaches, he doesn’t try to be [Seattle Seahawks coach] Mike Holmgren. The meeting with the players, he didn’t come across trying to be Knute Rockne. He’s been Jim Zorn. He’s genuine. There’s nothing phony about him, nothing pre-scripted. He’s just a down-to-earth person. He’s got an innate ability to lead people.”
Earn your feathers
When Hall of Fame receiver Art Monk arrived in Washington a a first-round draft pick in 1980, he was given a logo-less burgundy helmet. “You had to earn your feathers,” Monk recalled at a February press conference to celebrate his election.
Redskins owner Dan Snyder heard Monk say that and passed the idea down to Zorn. And, as the team opened minicamp yesterday, the players had their names on their jerseys, but the rookies sported plain burgundy helmets.
“Those young guys look at the logo and then they have a sense of something that they want to earn,” Zorn said.
Ecker, Moore watching
Tight end Tyler Ecker, who pulled a hamstring during the first week of training camp last summer and missed the rest of his rookie season, was in his typical practice posture, standing with a Detroit Tigers baseball cap on backwards. Ecker has a pulled groin.
Safety Kareem Moore, whom the Redskins chose in the sixth round of the draft last Sunday, was also sidelined after having arthroscopic knee surgery on Tuesday. Zorn said Moore might not be ready for the start of training camp in mid-July.
Running back Ladell Betts twisted an ankle after catching a screen pass during the afternoon session. Betts said that while he expected the ankle to stiffen up last night, he didn’t think it would prevent him from participating during the rest of minicamp.
Smoot’s mini-me
After being taken in the fourth round last Sunday, cornerback J.T. Tryon bragged that “it really don’t matter” who else the Redskins had at the position because “it’s my spot to take.”
Tryon’s self-confidence reminded Blache of the cocky Smoot.
“We just call him mini-me for Smoot,” Blache said. “He’ll get humbled in due time as the pads go on and guys start pounding. I like the confidence, the swagger. I just hope that … he’ll back it up. If not, he’ll be humbled a time or two and he’ll come back. But he might be like Smoot. It’ll be five years and we still can’t shut him up.”
Goode leads tryout crew
Former Maryland tight end Jason Goode, one of five players who were invited to camp on a tryout basis, had one of the day’s best catches.
The other tryout players are tight ends Brandon Davis of Northern Illinois and Jay Sonnhalter of East Carolina, Tennessee defensive end J.T. Mapu and Hofstra defensive back Steven Tate.
With Ecker, Moore, sixth-round quarterback Colt Brennan (hip), linebacker Rocky McIntosh (knee) and cornerback Carlos Rogers (knee) not practicing, 89 players were on the field.
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