9/19/2004 - Football
Eric Roberts: No I In Team

Someone forgot to remind Eric Roberts what era he's living in.

Or so it seems, listening to the words he recently chose, contradicting so many of his me-first contemporaries reared in these me-first times.

Didn't he know he'd been Navy's most dynamic playmaker the last two years, whatever the given Saturday - consuming more than 24 yards a catch and eight yards a run?


Wasn't he aware that after two games this season he'd handled the football all of seven times - seven times - despite being on the verge of surpassing a thousand yards rushing and a thousand yards receiving for his career?


Chances are, Eric Roberts knew all of that when asked about his limited involvement in the Mids' first two games.

But he also knew something else.

"We're 2-0, so it's all worth it," he said after a practice that ended with him earning congratulations from coaches for - of all things - blocking a scout-team defender. "If I go the whole season and get maybe 20 carries and we (keep winning), that'd be perfectly fine with me."


So, as far as he's concerned, let someone else demand the darn ball. And leave it to others to preen for the cameras, shilling for a few seconds of nightly shame on SportsCenter.

Roberts is too busy having a good time.

"I don't expect anything," he says of his role as a slot back in Navy's option offense. "The main goal is just to win. If I have to block that's fine with me. I'm going to have fun either way.

"In this offense you have to (be unselfish). You know you have to block sometimes and sometimes you get the ball. We really don't have any selfish people. We're all having fun. We congratulate each other whenever somebody makes a good catch or has a good run."

Lately, it's been Roberts mostly applauding the exploits of others.

"It's good to see everybody get the ball, (like) Trey Hines and Frank Divis," he said, singling out the sophomore and senior, respectively, who totaled 150 yards on 13 rushes vs. Duke and Northeastern. "We all knew they could run the ball, so it's good to see them get a chance during a game and do it."

Roberts' selfless approach makes him appear less a product of his times and more a reflection of time itself.

His career at Navy coincides with those of many in sports who regress to a childish yearning to be noticed at any cost. They celebrate first downs in lopsided games, pause to pose with flexed muscles and are liable to relax during a play, unless intended to enrich their statistics.

Many are motivated by the name on the back of a jersey if not the trademark on their shoe.


Roberts is about none of that and all of this - mature enough to understand the relative unimportance of one, when compared to the significance of all.


"There's no question he's grown," says head coach Paul Johnson. "I think (Eric's) matured in every facet, from school to (his personal life) to football to everything. There's no question he's grown up a lot."

When they first encountered one another, Johnson was inheriting a team without a win during 2001 while Roberts was coming off a season spent on the junior varsity.


Often, Roberts would tease his coaches that first fall together, consuming nearly 900 yards while recording six touchdowns rushing and receiving. Occasionally, his number 34 would show up in highlights, scoring twice in a debut victory at SMU or pulling in a 79-yard pass against Northwestern.


Still, he and his teammates had much to learn as they sandwiched two wins around ten losses. Mainly, they realized the effort required by Johnson and his staff. The effort needed to heal an ailing program.

"The thing that's impressed me most is (Eric's) whole attitude in playing a game," says Jeff Monken, the assistant who coaches Roberts and Navy's other slot backs. "His effort is so much better. When he was a sophomore I don't think he understood what full speed and what full, complete effort meant. I think he's got a better understanding now.


"Just because he does that, he puts himself in position to make better plays, to catch the ball when he's open and to get on the perimeter and not have guys run him down. I just think he understands the game better and understands his role in this offense better."

As challenging as it was, Roberts was never alone in his education on Navy's new expectations - about intensity or the offense itself.

"It was a rough learning experience," he says. "Nobody wants to win the first game, then get hyped up and lose every game until the last one. It was a rough road, but it was good for the learning process and the closeness of the team.

"After a while, you learn what you can and cannot do. It was a long process."


By the end of last fall, we all learned that Roberts was more than capable of becoming one of the most proficient players in Navy history. And one of the most spectacular.

Sure, the statistics were impressive enough. A career-high 125 yards on the ground - off no more than nine carries - at Rutgers. Season averages of 9.2 yards a run and 24.7 yards a reception. All-purpose totals of 12 scores and in excess of 1,100 yards.

More memorable, though, are plays Roberts could only draw from his wildest imagination.


There was the sweep to the right, headed directly toward a Rice defender, when Roberts spun away from the hit - whirling into the open on the way to a 69-yard run, halted only by the end zone.

Then there were two plays in less than three minutes of the home finale versus Central Michigan. His team down, 7-0, Roberts ignited a string of 35 unanswered points. First, he sprinted 45 yards to set up the tying extra point. Next, he took all of 19 seconds to grab Craig Candeto's toss and run the rest of the 86 yards en route to the second-longest pass play in school history.


Finally the most sensational of all, a play that unfolded late in the first half against Army, with time running out on a chance to expand the Mids' lead. It evolved with Roberts, by his lonesome, running across the middle. Sailing in his general direction was a pass surely overthrown - too high and, besides, too far behind him.

Yet, somehow Roberts left his feet, reached back with his right hand alone and contorted his body in mid air. After crashing to the frozen turf on a frigid night, Roberts still had possession, Navy would get its points with a field goal and the 104th Army-Navy Classic had its play of the game.

"That's absolutely his skill," Monken says. "You can throw a pass in any offense and toss a ball in any offense and the better players are going to make plays. You can't coach a guy to make a play like that.


"He's got a tremendous set of hands and a knack for getting open. I think the quarterbacks like throwing it to him because he does come up with some great catches. That's just him having a lot of skill."

As well as a little luck, Roberts would humbly have you believe.

"Plays like those, you never really expect those to happen," he says. "I just put a hand out to try to slow it down and sometimes it just sticks in there. I thought I could catch pretty well, but sometimes you get lucky and plays like that come out.

"You just have to expect you're going to catch the ball every time and it works out for you once in a while."

The skills he possesses and reticence he reveals when asked about them make Roberts worth emulating in the eyes of those around him.

"I definitely think those guys look up to (Eric)," Monken says of the Mids' younger players, in particular. "It's something I've talked to Eric about and I hope, because of the kind of place that the Naval Academy is, that's something he takes pride in.

"He's not a vocal guy and he doesn't need to be. I don't think you have to be a vocal person to be a leader. Because he makes plays, because is capable of making plays, he is a leader in their eyes and they do try to emulate his play."

Through two games of his senior year, Roberts has been a leader by helping others make plays.


He probably could tell you about it, but that's not his style. In today's parlance, he's strictly old school in that sense.

Which is why, it's up to someone else to explain.

"I don't think he's real selfish," says Monken. "And I'm not sure that he was when he was younger. He does a tremendous job of being a role player for us."

One whose role, for now, is to enjoy helping the team succeed, however he must.


"It's probably my last year of football, so I'm going to make sure that I have fun this year, work hard, and move on in life," says Roberts.


Four years removed from tiny Hollywood Christian High School in Florida, he soon hopes to bring a slogan to life and make his job an adventure.


"It's time for a new chapter after this," Roberts says. "(I'm) thinking about trying to get stationed in Japan and travel the world a little bit."


As for the current - and final - chapter in his football lifetime, Roberts won't be writing any ultimatums or disparaging teammates as some have done in recent years.


With respect and humility, he'll simply defer to others.

"The coaches' call the best plays they can to score," Robert says. "As long as we're moving the ball, nobody's complaining. Everybody knows better."

But this, his head coach knows for sure.

"(Eric's) going to make plays," Johnson promises. "He has since we've been here."