He’ll Be Bringing the Peer Pressure

Sunday afternoon at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, Eagle quarterback Donovan McNabb will take a snap from center, drop back to pass and see a familiar face heading his way, the face of his big brother in high school, the face of his mentor through college and into the pros, the face of his off-season basketball partner and buddy.

McNabb and Tampa Bay Buccaneer defensive lineman Simeon Rice were teammates back at Chicago’s Mt. Carmel High. They have remained close since, sweating and grunting, and running up and down the basketball court together in their rigorous off-season training program in Phoenix.

But the smile McNabb has grown accustomed to on that face will be gone Sunday, replaced by a look of ferocity and determination.

The two have faced each other as pros before, but never, Rice said, quite like it will be Sunday when the Eagles and Buccaneers meet for the NFC championship and a berth in Super Bowl XXXVII.

“There will be no talking between us,” said Rice, at 28 two years older than McNabb. “Mum’s the word. I worried about hurting him in the past, but not this game. I’m the big brother. I got to get to the Super Bowl first and then I’ll tell him how it is.”

The fact two high-school teammates who used to fantasize about stardom have both turned it into reality is not lost on Rice.

“Two kids grow up together,” he said, “and imagine this, they both reach the top level of what they do. It’s unimaginable, a dream come true. I have nothing but love for him. I feel he is the best at what he does and I am the best at what I do.”

The numbers are impressive. McNabb’s regular-season statistics this year were truncated by a broken right ankle that forced him to sit out the last six games. But in both the 2000 and 2001 seasons, he passed for more than 3,000 yards with 21 touchdown passes in 2000 and 25 in 2001. And he has shown Philadelphia fans, who thought they might never see the likes of a Randall Cunningham again, that he too can use his legs as well as his arm. McNabb rushed for 629 yards in 2000 and 482 in 2001.

When it comes to numbers, Rice has stood out even though he is on a defensive unit that includes Derrick Brooks and Warren Sapp. In five of his seven seasons, Rice has reached double figures in sacks, finishing 2002 with 15 1/2, second in the league to the 18 1/2 of the Miami Dolphins’ Jason Taylor.

So imagine McNabb and Rice on the same high-school team. Did it ever lose?

It was not as impressive as it sounds because Rice did not become a defensive force until the playoffs of his senior season, 1991, when McNabb was a sophomore quarterback. That year Mt. Carmel, an all-boys private school just down the road from the University of Chicago, won the state title.

Why did it take so long for Rice to become a defensive force? Because he wasn’t even a defensive player. At least not in his own mind.

Then 6 feet 3 and 190 pounds, Rice saw himself as a running back. His coach, however, saw potential disaster.

“I told him he could get his knees blown out playing running back, and I was not going to let that happen,” said Coach Frank Lenti, now in his 19th season heading the Mt. Carmel program. “He fought me on it.”

Lenti put Rice on the defensive line in his junior year, but Rice showed the same stubbornness he shows today when a 300-pound guard stands in his way.

“He wouldn’t do the job,” Lenti said. “He wouldn’t study his assignments. He wanted to show us he couldn’t play defense. So I put him on the bench. Everybody looks at him now and thinks he must have been a high-school phenom, but that really wasn’t the case.”

Finally, in the spring after his junior season, Rice sheepishly came to Lenti.

“I just want to play, coach,” Rice said. “Wherever you want me to play, tell me and I’ll do what you say.”

There was no such conflict with McNabb. He was a quarterback from the day he suited up.

Lenti said anyone “could see there was something special there.”

In his mind’s eye, Lenti can still see a special moment by each player in a Mt. Carmel uniform.

For Rice, it was a state championship game against Wheaton Warrenville. With around four minutes to play, Wheaton had the ball and the lead, by a touchdown. But Rice fought his way into the backfield and stripped the ball from a Wheaton player. Mt. Carmel went on to score the tying touchdown and followed with the winning touchdown with 45 seconds to play.

For McNabb, it was a state playoff game against Simeon, the high school team, not the player. McNabb had leaped in the air to throw a pass only to find himself caught in an encircling mob of defenders. With McNabb’s feet dangling in the air, it appeared the opposing players were about to hoist the quarterback onto their shoulders.

Instead, McNabb somehow squirmed free, hit the ground running and took off for the end zone 30 yards away, scoring a most improbable touchdown.

So Sunday afternoon, Lenti will watch his former players on television and hope they both do well. Lenti will have the same problem in the AFC title game between the Oakland Raiders and the Tennessee Titans. Tennessee wide receiver Darrell Hill played for Mt. Carmel and Oakland Coach Bill Callahan is Lenti’s cousin.

Talk about having all your angles covered. No matter what happens Sunday in either game, Frank Lenti is one man who can be assured he has the connections to get to the Super Bowl.