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By: JIM GEHMAN
Considering that he had played in just two games when the NFL players went on strike on September 20, 1982, it's understandable why Eagles wide receiver Mike Quick didn't know all the reasons behind why they walked out. Or why he didn't know his teammates that well either. The eight-week strike, however, afforded the first-round draft choice a chance to adapt to the NFL with a lot less pressure.
"I was trying to learn our system and learn how to play the game in the NFL and I wasn't so concerned about what was happening with the strike," said Quick. "It gave me an opportunity to get around some of those guys and get to know them aside from when all the coaches were around. For me, it was a pretty good opportunity.
"We spent a lot of time practicing together. Myself and (Ron) Jaworski, Wilbert Montgomery and (Harold) Carmichael and (John) Spagnola, all the guys, we would get together every day. Although we didn't have a coach there, we did have a coach in Jaworski. We made very good use of the time while the guys were out picketing and trying to get the collective bargaining agreement straight."
WR Mike Quick
The following season, Philadelphia's opponents were trying to figure out how to stop Quick. They were unsuccessful. Quick established team records with 69 catches for a league-leading 1,409 yards, which earned him All-Pro honors and a trip to the Pro Bowl.
"I think the key was that I'd been in the system for a year and I was comfortable with the play-calling, and I knew how to read the defenses," Quick said. "It's just that, and you hear people say it a lot, things slowed down for me. The first year, everything's moving so fast you really don't know what's going on. You don't know how the other routes complement your routes."
In just two years, Quick was considered by many as one of the premier wideouts in the NFL. In the days when Pro Bowl selections were voted on by the players, Quick became a fixture in Hawaii, going five straight years.
However, a broken right leg in October 1988 did what many opposing defenses couldn't: stop him. Quick missed eight games and finished the campaign with 22 catches. He went on to record just 22 receptions the following two seasons as the injury seemingly curtailed his brilliant career.
"Yeah, but the damage really that ended it was severe patellar tendonitis," he explained. "I was actually dealing with the tendonitis prior to breaking my leg. But once I broke my leg, it just seemed like I never really got back to full speed."
While recuperating in '88, Quick's post-football destiny would arrive by way of an invitation from Eagles' radio play-by-play announcer Merrill Reese, who invited the receiver to join him and color analyst Stan Walters, a former Eagles offensive lineman, in the broadcast booth.
"I wasn't thinking that I was auditioning for a job. I really just went up as a favor to him and to get a different view of the game," Quick said. "It was fun and I never even gave it a second thought that I might be in that seat one day."
Quick retired following the 1990 season and still ranks among the franchise's all-time best at the position, with 363 receptions, 6,464 yards and 61 touchdowns. On Nov. 10, 1985, Quick was on the receiving end of a 99-yard touchdown pass from Jaworski in overtime as the Eagles beat the Atlanta Falcons at Veterans Stadium. The pass play stands as the longest in team history and is tied with several others as an NFL record.
Ten years later, Quick was inducted into the Eagles' Honor Roll.
Now in his 10th season as an analyst, Quick is still involved in the game.
"I get to stay around the game and I love being around the game. That's one of the nicest things about it," Quick said. "A lot of the things that I do, the research and keeping up with the game are things that I would enjoy doing if I weren't on the radio. It makes it so much easier for me that I'm with such a pro. I don't know anybody that does a better job than Merrill and I listen to a lot of people that do what we do. So for me, it's just great to be with a guy like Merrill, who just makes my life simple."
When Quick isn't enjoying the simple life sitting to Reese's right, he is involved with Velocity Sports Performance in Cherry Hill, N.J.
"I became a partner about a year and a half ago," Quick said. "We train athletes to become better athletes. Primarily young athletes, but we train anybody that wants to train. We get kids that sometimes have a problem just skipping and in six to eight weeks time, the parents sit there and watch their kids work out and they're amazed at the progress their kids have made just by teaching them simple movements.
"It's all coordination, all agility, explosive training. All of the movements that you need to become better athletes. We teach these movements and how to get different muscle groups firing at the proper time."
With his 16-year-old twin sons, Stephen and Ronson, Quick makes his home in Marlton, N.J. And as one would expect, dad has to fire up his own muscle groups in order to keep up with his high school juniors.
"One is a budding thespian and the other is a basketball player. Stephen, the budding thespian, he's unbelievable! He's been in a lot of musicals already. In fact, he was 'Conrad' in Bye Bye Birdie and he tore it up. I have people coming up to me all the time talking about him. When I see him on stage, he just looks like a different kid to me. I scratch my head. I don't know where this kid came from," laughs Quick.
"Ronson started on the varsity team as a sophomore. I'm into it when I see him playing. That's my kid and I want to see him do well. I just love it. Sometimes I just want to help him move or help him get to a rebound ... I try not to be one of these dads that sits and screams at the court, but once in awhile stuff slips out."
Of course, like any good dad, Quick finds a balance between work and home.
"Raising the boys, that's my main job," he said. "That's my most passionate job."
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