Crone Takes On the Big Boys--And Almost Wins

Very few Harvard football players have been drafted or given tryouts by National Football League teams, and the only former Crimson player now in the NFL is Pittsburgh Steeler reserve defensive back John Dockery '66.

So when Eric Crone was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals on the 17th round of last year's NFL draft, Crimson gridiron fans had reason to be surprised. And, although the colorful Crone was finally cut when the Cardinals trimmed down to their final regular season limit last week, the fact that Crone was the last player to be dropped by the Cardinals speaks highly for the 6 ft. 3 in. quarterback.

Crone, a down-again-up-again performer for the Crimson since his sophomore year, immortalized himself in the annals of Harvard sports by leading Harvard to a 14-12 upset victory over Yale. He was dubbed "Endzone" Crone in that game when, thinking time had expired, he ran into his endzone jubilantly holding the ball in the air and was tackled by a Yale lineman for a safety.

Crone says that the Cardinals training camp was different than he expected, but that the caliber of football which he encountered with the pros wasn't that much above that of the Ivy League.

"The jump from the Ivy League wasn't that big," Crone said last week. "The biggest difference was in the size of the lineman. There are a lot of guys on the Harvard team and around the Ivy League who have the potential to make the pros, but it is a disadvantage because football isn't stressed 12 months a year there."

One myth about the NFL training camps that Crone says was quickly dispelled is that of conditioning. Before training camp started in July he lifted weights and ran to get ready, but he now says that most of the work was unnecessary. "Hell, all quarterbacks in the NFL have to do is drop back and throw, nobody worries about what shape they're in."

Aside from using Crone at quarterback, the Cardinals, who are weak in several key positions, tried Crone at the safety and running back slots. "I didn't mind safety, but I told them I didn't want to be a running back--they've got no longevity in pro ball," he said.

The coaching staff of the Cardinals spent a lot more time yelling and screaming and a lot less time working with the players than Crone expected, but he says part of that was due to the current state of affairs on the Cardinals' team.

"The coaches have too many problems with everything in that organization to work with the players individually. I read about the Cardinals' problems in Sports Illustrated before I even started camp--they've got racial trouble and there is no sense of cohesiveness like on teams like the Dolphins and the Redskins."

Nevertheless, Crone was surprised and disappointed when he was cut. He says that he would rather have been cut in the beginning when there was still time to negotiate with other NFL teams in need of a quarterback before they, too, had to cut down.

"They put me on the taxi squad three weeks ago and said I would be used for the future. I expected that, since it takes several years to develop into a good NFL quarterback. But I was surprised when they cut me, because I'd been playing good football--I played better than ever and they told everyone that. I even surprised myself," Crone said.

Although he received a lot of "gruff" from the St. Louis players, Crone says that nobody treated him differently because he was from Harvard, because "they look down on all rookies anyway."

"The way they treated us, it seemed like I was a freshmen at Ohio State. It was as if we were little kids--we practiced or had meetings from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. and had to have our lights out at 11 so we could start up again at 6:30."

Home for Crone

Since being cut Crone has been at home in Meriden, Conn., where he has contacted NFL and Canadian Football League teams in hopes of playing somewhere this season. Although the CFL season has already started, several teams need quarterbacking help and Harvard Coach Joe Restic may help Crone to find a home with one of them. Restic was the coach of the CFL Hamilton Tiger Cats before coming to Harvard and certainly will recommend Crone highly to his former cohorts. In addition, the Atlanta Falcons told Crone last week that Ottawa (CFL) was calling around the NFL in search of a quarterback.

"I'd like to see him go up to Canada and play," Restic said last week. "The important thing now is that he play this year--it will really hurt his chances if he has to sit out a year because right now he's feeling he can make it as a quarterback. And I think he can."

As a last resort, Crone says that he will consider playing with several of his former teammates, including former quarterback rival Rod Foster and halfback Ted DeMars, with the New England Colonials.

Just the fact that Crone did so well in an NFL training camp will help boost the reputation of Harvard football with the pro teams who may be reluctant to take a chance on Crimson players, Restic says.

"I'm getting the impression that we have a lot of people with good pro potential here. I think that many of our guys are starting to assess things and decide that they can play football and get some good money before going to grad school," Restic said.

In the event that Crone doesn't sign with another football team for this season, he says that he will find a job and apply for admission to business school.

Looking back at Harvard and his Crimson football career, Crone says that it is too early for him to tell if he would choose the same path if he had to do it all over again. Naturally, any football player with professional aspirations is at a disadvantage if he chooses to attend Harvard. The program here is not as intense, nor is the sport taken as seriously as at the big football schools.

"The biggest problem is that it's really hard to get drafted as a high pick if you're coming out of Harvard--you've got to have fantastic statistics. If you're one of the top five draft picks pro teams will give you a long look, but if you're not, they don't let you make any mistakes."

Few people will claim that he was drafted because of "fantastic" statistics. Crone, the only Ivy League quarterback picked by the pros in the draft last year, finished seventh in Ivy League passing last year, completing the lowest percentage of passes and throwing the most interceptions enroute to breaking the Harvard career interception record. He also ran 56 times for 140 yards.

By any standards, Harvard has had some superb athletes in the past, many of whom have had excellent potential in professional sports. Eric Crone will not be remembered as Harvard's greatest football player--for all his potential, his Crimson career was spotty--but he has certainly demonstrated that he, and a lot of other Harvard gridiron heroes who have chalked up even more impressive statistics, can play with the "big boys." When they want to.