When Jason Buck was in Cincinnati and things started going bad, he used to fantasize about playing in Washington with the Redskins.
"I told my teammates once and they just laughed," says Buck.But he kept fantasizing anyway. The Redskins had a solid organization, a history of winning, and, more importantly for Buck, they had a four-man defensive front. For a speedy and agile defensive end like Buck is (as opposed to a
defensive end with a lot of bulk), four-man fronts are much preferable. If he wasn't careful, the three-man front employed by the Cincinnati Bengals could turn Buck into the football equivalent of the head pin in a bowling alley.Besides that, he had a lot of time to fantasize in Cincinnati after they put him on the bench.
Suffice it to say, then, that last Oct. 6, when the operator said the Washington Redskins were on the line, Buck turned down the sound on the television set and gave them his undivided attention.
The Bengals had cut him loose five weeks previous. After four seasons in Cincinnati, including the Super Bowl season in 1988, they told their 1987 No. 1 draft pick they were going for bigger and stronger linemen. They told the 6-foot-5, 260-pound Buck he didn't fit that prototype.
Buck, of course, thought otherwise. The Outland Trophy winner from BYU always sensed he wasn't exactly getting a fair shake from the Bengals, in particular from head coach Sam Wyche, and it wasn't entirely about his size.
Wyche made it clear before the 1987 draft that he didn't want to select Buck as the Bengals' No. 1. From the first day of training camp Buck said Wyche did his best to try to run him off the first team.
"From day one he resented me," says Buck. "I came into a situation where there were a lot of egos to contend with."
Buck became a Bengals starter nonetheless - due to his considerable speed and agility and also due to the wishes of Cincinnati's upper management, who lobbied for his draft selection and had their own egos to satisfy.
By his second season he and the Bengals (if not he and Wyche) were getting along famously. They won the AFC championship and faced the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XXIII in Miami, losing only when Joe Montana mounted the now-famous last-minute touchdown drive that culminated with John Taylor's catch in the endzone. Buck ignored any personal problems he had with the three-man front to make 35 tackles and a team-leading six sacks in that Super Bowl season. In the next season, 1989, he did even better, registering 50 tackles and another six sacks despite missing four games with a dislocated shoulder.
But Cincinnati failed to win a second AFC title in '89, and the defense caught much of the blame. When the 1990 season dawned, Buck was benched. With no explanation, he says. "The season started and I just watched," he says.
He played sparingly and thought he might be let go at the end of the year. But to his surprise the Bengals put him on their protected list, a clear indication he fit into their future plans.
He came to training camp this past summer with that mindset. He led the linemen in tackles and sacks during three exhibition games.
Then the other shoe dropped. Just before the opening game of the season, after 47-man rosters were solidifed around the league, he was cut.
"When I was let go management pulled me back in the office," remembers Buck. "They said they liked me. They said I worked hard, I was a family man, and I wasn't controversial. They said I was the kind of player they wanted. They said they just couldn't understand why Sam (Wyche) disliked me so much."
Buck says it was never a personal thing between he and Wyche, just a constant undercurrent that the mercurial coach didn't consider him his type of defensive end, and hadn't wanted him in the first place.
Wyche didn't like other players, and also got them out of town. Two other defensive starters from the Super Bowl team of 1988 were also on the coaches' hit list, according to Buck. Defensive end Jim Skow and linebacker Joe Kelly, both Super Bowl starters, were traded the next season.
"Sam Wyche's personal decisions ran the team," says Buck. "And they reflect what happened to the team. That's the reason they were 3-13 this year, just three years after a Super Bowl."
But if the rest of those '88 Bengals are still feeding off those three-year old Super Bowl memories, Buck is adding new ones this week. When the Redskins called in October, he told them he'd be happy to listen to their offer.
"It's amazing how all this has worked out," he says in anticipation of Sunday's Super Bowl between the Redskins and the Buffalo Bills in the Minneapolis Metrodome. "Things look good for me. They look very good. At the moment, they couldn't get better."
Not only does Buck get his second Super Bowl experience this Sunday, but the Redskins have given every indication he'll be around next season and beyond. "They talk all the time to me about getting bigger and playing for them for many years to come," he says.
Buck's break came six games into the season when Washington's defensive right end Markus Koch tore the ligaments in his knee against Chicago. Buck, who had already gone through contingency workouts for the Redskins, the Bills, the Seattle Seahawks and the Detroit Lions since his dismissal from the Bengals, was idly watching the Redskins-Bears game on TV in his home in Provo.
He did not notice Koch being carried from the field, however, and when the phone rang he had no inkling it would be the Redskins.
"It was Kirk Mee, their director of scouting," says Buck. "He said Koch was hurt and they didn't want me signing with anybody else that night. He told me the general manager, Charley Casserly would be in touch."
Casserly called the next morning with contract and airline flight instructions.
By the next Sunday's game in RFK Stadium in Washington, against Cleveland, Buck was a Redskin.
Ironically, he almost became a member of the Buffalo Bills - Sunday's opponent - three weeks earlier. The Bills flew Buck to Buffalo and put him through an extensive workout. When he passed all their tests, including the orthopedic exams to make sure he wasn't damaged goods, they told him they were going to add him to their roster.
But in the next game, the Bills' noseguard went down with an injury and they had to change their plans and protect themselves by adding an extra noseguard instead.
"I was hoping to play in Buffalo," says Buck. "But they do run a three-man front, so things ended up working out for the best anyway."
In 12 games to date with the Redskins - 10 during the regular season and two in the playoffs - Buck has played in 11 of them. He started one game, against Pittsburgh when All-Pro left end Charles Mann was injured. He had three tackles and one and a half sacks in that game. To close out the regular season he had a five-tackle game in Philadelphia, playing behind both Mann and right end Fred Stokes.
"I've played more than I thought I would," says Buck, who should play a significant number of downs in Sunday's game against the Bills. "With their no-huddle offense and because of the Redskins platoon system, I expect I'll play a lot this Sunday," he says.
He's happy about that, and he's also happy that his weight is up to 270 pounds - almost a full 10 pounds more than at the start of the season and 20 pounds more than the 250 he used to finish the seasons in Cincinnati.
"I just couldn't keep the weight on in Cincinnati," he says. "But here they have a much better weight program. They make it a part of the season. You lift weights between meetings. It's made a big difference."
Buck says he hopes to be near 280 pounds for the start of next season, when he will challenge Stokes for a starting berth (Mann, he says, is unchallengeable. "He's an All-Pro, he's the team leader. He's the heart of the defense," he says).
"It's sorta funny, the way things have turned out," says Buck. "Four months ago I was out of work and then I got tryouts in Buffalo and Washington. With either one, I'd have made it to the Super Bowl."