When the Turk comes a knockin'

Sporting News, The, Sept 3, 2001

For a two-week period each year in late summer, NFL players, who generally are a resilient and tough-minded group, are reduced to bundles of insecurity and nervousness while waiting to hear if their names make the final roster.

It's cut down time in the NFL. Time for the Turk.

Who is this Turk? He is the individual assigned by the organization to go to a player's room, knock on his door and utter those dreaded words: "The coach wants to see you--and bring your playbook." In short, the Turk is the NFL version of the Grim Reaper.

The Turk's first major appearance came this week, when teams had to trim their rosters to 65 players. Because most teams come to camp with 80 players, that means on Tuesday (the first cut down day), there were 465 pretty good football players out of work. Among that group, a few probably will end up as standouts someday.

Titans tight end Frank Wishek (cut by Redskins, 1995) and Rams quarterback Kurt Warner (cut by Packers, 1994) are examples of successful players who experienced the agony of having the Turk knock on their doors. Wychek went on to become a Pro Bowl selection, and Warner became a league and Super Bowl MVP.

The first cut is significant because the players who a team wants to sign to its practice squad (each team can carry five) usually are trimmed during this time. The reason is simple: If you already have determined that a player will not make your active roster but is a good candidate for the practice squad, you don't want him around for the last week of camp because you don't want to showcase him to other teams. By cutting a potential practice-squad player at this point, you are trying to hide the player while hoping another team does not add him to its active roster.

Next comes the final cut. All 31 teams must pare their rosters to 53 active players by 4 p.m. ET Sunday. And teams can't sign their five practice-squad players until the next day, after all the teams have had 24 hours to decide if they want to add any of the available players to their active rosters.

It's also difficult for teams to add a player after the final cut because league rules require teams to keep that player for at least one week, meaning that player will be on the roster for opening day.

This leads to four interesting rules that influence the cuts and signings teams make at this time of year:

* The salary cap goes into effect on the Friday before the first regular-season game, which means all players--including the five practice-squad players--count toward the salary cap at that time.

* Any player placed on injured reserve before opening day must stay there the entire season. If you have a player who will miss a few games but can help your team later in the season, you'll have to carry him on your active roster until he's available.

* At any point during the season, any team can sign another team's practice-squad player on the condition that the new team puts him on the active roster for at least three games. A lot of fans don't understand why their teams don't raid another team's practice squads and sign some of these promising young players. It is very difficult to take an unknown commodity off of another team's practice squad and commit a spot on your active roster to him for three games--especially if you have to cut a player currently on your roster to make room.

* The claiming order for obtaining players off the waiver wire is the same order as this year's draft. This gives the Chargers the first shot at any players on the waiver wire while Baltimore only can claim players no other team wants.

When it is all said and done, there will be almost 850 football players out of work this Sunday. Of those players, 155 will end up with practice-squad jobs at salaries far less than those given to players on the 53-man rosters.

It is easy to see why this is the most stressful week of the year for many NFL players and why the Turk is the most feared man in football.

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Gary Horton is head of The War Room, which scouts NFL personnel and college prospects.

warroom@sportingnews.com