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Sunday, October 27, 2002

By Ed Bouchette, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Trades in football are like steak tartare. They're rare. Another trading deadline passed in the NFL earlier this month with a whimper, not a bang. When teams do make trades they almost always occur during the off-season and usually involve players for draft picks, not players for players.

That's too bad because no sport has more injuries than football and, when they occur, teams either elevate the next guy on the depth chart or they scramble to find out-of-work players to fill the roster spot.

The perfect example of a team that could have made a trade recently is the Miami Dolphins after quarterback Jay Fiedler had a thumb injury two weeks ago. The Dolphins started backup Ray Lucas last week and he was terrible.

The perfect scenario for a trade existed at the time for the Dolphins, too. Charlie Batch, a former Detroit Lions starter, is wasting away as the Steelers' third-string quarterback. He would have been a perfect fit in Miami and the Steelers might have parted with him for a reasonable draft pick. However, the NFL's early trading deadline, barely a month into the season, had passed.

Miami Coach Dave Wannstedt at least would have liked to have the option to pursue a trade.

"I wouldn't mind it being a little later," Wannstedt said. "Anytime you have a chance to help your team and it's good for everybody, why not do it? I understand the reasons for not being able to do it and why the time restraint. I guess you really don't think about it much until you're in a situation where you're looking for a player and can't do anything about it."

The trading deadline in the NFL is such a joke they should impose it at the start of the season. Five weeks into a 17-week season? What's the use?

Making trades is difficult enough in the NFL these days. When a player is traded, his entire prorated salary cap numbers are charged against the team immediately.

For example, if the Steelers wanted to trade Jerome Bettis before the trading deadline they could not have done it because the remaining $4 million portion of his signing bonus from 2003 through 2006 would immediately be charged against them and they only have about $1.5 million worth of room under their cap.

The Batch case, though, was different. He signed a one-year contract with the Steelers, so there was nothing left to charge against them for future years.

Trading always has been difficult in the NFL, even before the salary cap system was put into place a decade ago. Teams distrust others about the health of players, for one. For another, systems on offense and defense differ -- as does the chemistry -- to the extent that a linebacker who might be a perfect fit with the Chargers would not be with the Steelers.

It's not like swapping a center fielder for a second baseman in baseball.

"In football," said Tom Modrak, Buffalo's director of football operations, "injuries are involved more so than other sports, where a guy comes in and has torn cartilage and nobody knows about it. Then you lose a week and your guy you traded knows you don't want him."

If the in-season deadline were pushed back, Modrak said, it "would be more worrisome about someone taking a run and stocking their team and saying damn the future. It's just a different sport. I think the ingredients are different and it doesn't match up for big-time trades. You'll have one in a while but not like baseball, basketball and hockey."

A new center fielder doesn't have to learn a new system in baseball. They just plug him in and he plays. That's rare in the NFL.

"Even though they're veteran guys, there's still a learning curve," Modrak said. "It's the ultimate team game and you have to have everybody hitting on the same page at the same time. ... By the time they get up to speed, you're in game seven, eight, nine."