Sapp may play defensive back, but a defense that he calls his own calls him the quarterback
BY KATIE McVOY
Associate Sports Editor
Sitting at home in front of the television was excruciating. He even thought about turning the game off, but he knew he couldn't do that. Instead, he turned down the sound to avoid having to listen to the announcers and put on soothing music. There was pain, but it wasn't the pain that came from his injured knee.
The defense, his defense, was struggling against a weaker team and there was nothing he could do about it.
Gerome Sapp could only describe watching the close Irish victory against the Midshipmen on his television instead of on the field with one word.
"It was torture," he said.
Playing strong
Sapp is not used to injury. Aside from the normal bumps and bruises any football player suffers in the course of his career, Sapp hasn't had much experience with injury. In fact, before the Navy game, he had never missed traveling with the Irish.
"He's never hurt," defensive coordinator Kent Baer said — the day before Sapp suffered the knee injury. "He hasn't missed a practice, hasn't missed a snap. That's part of playing as well as he's played because he hasn't missed a practice."
The next day, Sapp got hurt in practice. The injury to his knee isn't so serious that it's career-ending or even season-ending. Sapp may even be back in time to play against Rutgers Saturday. But for the senior safety, it was a new experience.
"I've always dealt with knick-knack injuries," he said. "This is the most serious I've had, and, in the big picture, it's not all that serious. It just came at a bad time."
Sapp played in all 12 games his freshman year. He missed just one game his sophomore year with a slight ankle sprain and one game as a junior with a shoulder injury. But he had never missed a trip. He had always been there when his team needed him.
So the real pain for Sapp came not from the injury, but from his inability to help the Irish. As part of a secondary that has prided itself on making big plays to turn games around, Sapp was infuriated that he couldn't do anything helpful when the Irish were losing to a 1-7 Navy squad. He had taken ownership of this defense and they were leaderless.
"When I look at the defense, I feel kind of like it's my defense, or at least my secondary," he said. "And to not be able to be out there and help our team, it was horrible."
Although the injury has set Sapp back in terms of what he wants to accomplish this season, he refuses to let it shut him down. Injury or no, it's still his defense and there's more yet to be done.
"[The injury] sets me back leaps and bounds," Sapp said. "Just in terms of wanting to play in every game an produce in every game. But I plan on catching up however I can."
Besides, he and cornerback Shane Walton are in a picking contest. Walton has now had an extra game to get interceptions.
"Yeah, he probably does [have an edge]," Sapp said. "I plan on being back before the season's over to I can catch up with him."
Playing tag
For Sapp and his fellow members of the secondary, football isn't so much a job as a walk in the park, or rather, a walk on the playground.
Coaches will argue that individually, the Irish secondary players may not hold a candle to some of football's defensive greats, but together, they're dynamite.
"I've been around better corners individually, I've been around better safeties individually," Baer said. "But I'm not sure I've been around a better group or a group who likes to play the way they play as a group."
The way Sapp describes it, when he plays with corners Vontez Duff and Walton and fellow safety Glenn Earl, it's not really a purely professional relationship. He feels more like he's tossing around the pigskin with his brothers.
"It's kind of like we're out there playing on the playground," Sapp said. "When you think back to high school and play with that mentality when it's fun, it's so much more effective because you're not really afraid of making mistakes and things like that. We all know each other so well — Shane, Vontez, Glenn — that we have fun playing together."
But once game time hits, they have no problem putting away their jump ropes, hopping of the teeter-tauter and focusing.
"It's natural," Sapp said. "We can have a good time and we play well in a game. … Once it's game time, it's all ball and it's all business. When the game's over, it's all laughs."
Making sure it's all ball and all business is something Sapp prides himself on.
Playing quarterback?
"He's the quarterback back there in the secondary," Baer said. "That's good because of all the adjustments we have to make on almost every snap."
Other coaches and players don't' seem so shocked by comparing Sapp to an offensive player. After all, he's the signal caller for the secondary. He watches out for the line-up, he checks for any adjustments that have to be made. He's the quarterback.
"He's very vocal and instrumental in getting people lined up," Earl said. "[Quarterback] is a pretty accurate characterization."
"He also provides great leadership," added coach Tyrone Willingham. "He's very much the quarterback in our secondary."
Sapp himself didn't seem so surprised with the characterization. Every time he steps on the field he wants to make sure everyone is focused on all ball and all business. But he doesn't want his team to lose track of the big picture either.
"I would say the quarterback is always calm no matter what's happening, poised and always keeping his head to the sky and realizing that everything is going to be OK," Sapp said. "That's kind of how I am. I get the guys lined up and checked in and out … it's a lot of little things so I take on more of a leadership role and things like that, try to lead by example."
Taking that kind of leadership role is something Sapp always wanted to do. He knew from the first day he stepped into the Notre Dame locker room that someday it would be his team.
"I knew as soon as I got the chance that was going to happen," Sapp said. "I was just waiting patiently for that to come and never doubting it. I knew as soon as I got enough playing time and enough confidence behind me from the coaching staff that I would [take a leadership role]."
With a new coaching staff, taking that definitive leadership role was a little easier for the Texas native. They had no preconceived ideas about the past, they were only looking to the future. Sapp saw himself as part of that future.
"They know nothing of me. They knew some, but really nothing," he said. "All they wanted to know was what can you do for the future. They didn't care about the past. So I felt my leadership qualities would come out even more."
Now, even with an injury, the secondary's quarterback is pretty sure when he leaves things will be OK.
"Even when I leave, I'm leaving things in good hands," he said.
The next time he has to watch a Notre Dame football game on television, maybe it won't be so hard.
All Sports Stories for Friday, November 22, 2002
