Bear-Arms
Mentor
Always sure-handed, never a sure thing
Just as he did in college, WR Ball aims to hurdle doubts about his speed
David Haugh
Published May 6, 2007
To hear the locals, receiver David Ball dropped passes at New Hampshire about as often as the state holds presidential primaries: once every four years.
Both occasions are considered newsworthy events around Durham, N.H
So it made an impression Friday when the only surefire Hall of Famer at this weekend's Bears rookie mini-camp -- Ball is a shoo-in for the College Football Hall of Fame, right? -- let the first two passes slip through his gloved hands.
"I wasn't nervous," Ball insisted later.
Sure looked it. But the harmless drops represented a bad start to an otherwise good first day for Ball, an intriguing long shot despite a college resume big enough to need a binder.
Ball eventually settled down to remove doubts about his hands, but he still must answer questions about his quickness and ability to get off the line against NFL cornerbacks.
Scouts stayed away from Ball, who broke Jerry Rice's Division I-AA record for touchdown catches, due to a below-average 40 time of 4.66 seconds, which he attributed to a flare-up of tendinitis in his knee. Curious, the Bears invited the 6-foot-1-inch, 201-pounder to see for themselves after not drafting a receiver.
"There are always exceptions to the rule, and I'd say he's an exception to the rule and has been all his life," Bears coach Lovie Smith said of Ball, a walk-on at New Hampshire. "What's the first thing a receiver has to do? Catch the ball. He catches the ball. He has good hands, and we got a chance to see that [Friday]."
The Bears got a chance to judge a player in person those at Halas Hall knew little about other than he had broken Rice's record. In the process, they also discovered a nickname likely to stick if he does.
"At the East-West game, guys started calling me Uncle Ben," Ball said.
Uncle Ben?
"Yeah," Ball said with a wry smile. "You know, white rice. Get it?"
A winning work ethic
In 1988, New Hampshire coach Sean McDonnell was an offensive graduate assistant coach for Boston College. A hard-working wide receiver with below-average speed and above- average hands named Tom Waddle was one of the Eagles' top players that year. He didn't get drafted the next spring either but became one of the Bears' best finds and most reliable receivers in the early 1990s, known for making the tough catch.
"David Ball's hands are better than Tom's were," McDonnell said.
But McDonnell understands if it takes a while for Bears coaches to trust Ball. He didn't either at first and invited Ball to walk on rather than offering him a scholarship.
Ball had come to New Hampshire from tiny Orange, Vt., (pop. 965), on a partial track scholarship after setting a state high jump record of 6-8 1/2 that still stands. But football?
Former assistant Steve Stetson, now the head coach at Division III Hamilton College, recruited Ball and compared him to former Indianapolis Colts receiver Bill Brooks, another former high jumper-turned-football player. McDonnell didn't buy it.
"I had the same reservations then that pro scouts do now: speed, strength, quickness," McDonnell said. "It took him about three days on campus to show me I had made a good mistake."
It took one game into Ball's career for him to start influencing game plans. After McDonnell called an unsuccessful trick play at the end of a close loss, Stetson remembered having to settle down the wide receiver as he approached the head coach.
"David doesn't lack confidence, and he walked over to [McDonnell] coming off the field and says, 'What were you doing? You should have thrown it up for me, and I'd have made the play,' " Stetson said. "The next Thursday at practice, in a similar situation, David pulled one down over about four guys, and [McDonnell] comes over to me and says, 'Jeez, maybe he was right.' "
Since becoming New Hampshire's go-to receiver early that first season, Ball had a Division I-AA record-tying 23 games of 100 yards receiving, caught a record 58 TD passes and became only the third player in school history to have his number retired.
After he broke Rice's record, the former Mississippi Valley State and San Francisco 49ers star interrupted an interview Ball was doing on Sirius Satellite Radio to congratulate him.
"I firmly believe things will work out for you," Rice told Ball.
Count Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald among the believers too. In New Hampshire's shocking 34-17 victory over Fitzgerald's Wildcats last September, Ball caught two TD passes and looked like a guy whose talent would translate in any conference.
"His ability in the quick [passing] game makes it tough to play against him, and his great leaping ability makes him tremendous in the red zone," Fitzgerald said. "He maximized all the tools he had."
Chip on his shoulder
Maximizing his potential in college still failed to sway any of the 32 NFL teams enough to spend a draft pick on Ball. It didn't matter if he had scored 58 TDs or 29 on the Wonderlic test.
Fearing the worst on the final day of last weekend's draft, Ball played Wiffle ball outside his parents' house hoping the call that never came. Near the end of the seventh round, with about 10 picks left, an official for a Canadian Football League team called to see if Ball would be interested in crossing the border to cross the end zone for a living. He wasn't.
The Bears, Jets, Chiefs and Jaguars contacted Ball on Sunday night to offer the standard contract for undrafted free agents.
"It's nothing that's going to keep me down," Ball said. "I realize I have a great opportunity here with a franchise that has a lot of history."
Before Ball ever gets the chance to wear a Bears uniform beyond training camp at Bourbonnais, he will have to find ways to separate from cornerbacks pressing him at the line of scrimmage. He added 15 pounds of muscle since last season with that specific goal in mind.
One NFL executive who scouted Ball predicted he would be too slow to ever shake man-to-man coverage. It also worked against Ball that he probably didn't face a cornerback in games better than the one he faced every day in practice, Bears fifth-round pick Corey Graham.
Until Ball shows that his ability to catch anything thrown his way makes up for other shortcomings, he knows he will continue to catch flak for his speed.
"I look deceiving on film and slower than I really am," Ball said. "I think I showed that [Friday], and hopefully they'll see that by the end of training camp. I definitely have something to prove and come here carrying a little bit of a chip on my shoulder."
As long as it doesn't slow him down.
Just as he did in college, WR Ball aims to hurdle doubts about his speed
David Haugh
Published May 6, 2007
To hear the locals, receiver David Ball dropped passes at New Hampshire about as often as the state holds presidential primaries: once every four years.
Both occasions are considered newsworthy events around Durham, N.H
So it made an impression Friday when the only surefire Hall of Famer at this weekend's Bears rookie mini-camp -- Ball is a shoo-in for the College Football Hall of Fame, right? -- let the first two passes slip through his gloved hands.
"I wasn't nervous," Ball insisted later.
Sure looked it. But the harmless drops represented a bad start to an otherwise good first day for Ball, an intriguing long shot despite a college resume big enough to need a binder.
Ball eventually settled down to remove doubts about his hands, but he still must answer questions about his quickness and ability to get off the line against NFL cornerbacks.
Scouts stayed away from Ball, who broke Jerry Rice's Division I-AA record for touchdown catches, due to a below-average 40 time of 4.66 seconds, which he attributed to a flare-up of tendinitis in his knee. Curious, the Bears invited the 6-foot-1-inch, 201-pounder to see for themselves after not drafting a receiver.
"There are always exceptions to the rule, and I'd say he's an exception to the rule and has been all his life," Bears coach Lovie Smith said of Ball, a walk-on at New Hampshire. "What's the first thing a receiver has to do? Catch the ball. He catches the ball. He has good hands, and we got a chance to see that [Friday]."
The Bears got a chance to judge a player in person those at Halas Hall knew little about other than he had broken Rice's record. In the process, they also discovered a nickname likely to stick if he does.
"At the East-West game, guys started calling me Uncle Ben," Ball said.
Uncle Ben?
"Yeah," Ball said with a wry smile. "You know, white rice. Get it?"
A winning work ethic
In 1988, New Hampshire coach Sean McDonnell was an offensive graduate assistant coach for Boston College. A hard-working wide receiver with below-average speed and above- average hands named Tom Waddle was one of the Eagles' top players that year. He didn't get drafted the next spring either but became one of the Bears' best finds and most reliable receivers in the early 1990s, known for making the tough catch.
"David Ball's hands are better than Tom's were," McDonnell said.
But McDonnell understands if it takes a while for Bears coaches to trust Ball. He didn't either at first and invited Ball to walk on rather than offering him a scholarship.
Ball had come to New Hampshire from tiny Orange, Vt., (pop. 965), on a partial track scholarship after setting a state high jump record of 6-8 1/2 that still stands. But football?
Former assistant Steve Stetson, now the head coach at Division III Hamilton College, recruited Ball and compared him to former Indianapolis Colts receiver Bill Brooks, another former high jumper-turned-football player. McDonnell didn't buy it.
"I had the same reservations then that pro scouts do now: speed, strength, quickness," McDonnell said. "It took him about three days on campus to show me I had made a good mistake."
It took one game into Ball's career for him to start influencing game plans. After McDonnell called an unsuccessful trick play at the end of a close loss, Stetson remembered having to settle down the wide receiver as he approached the head coach.
"David doesn't lack confidence, and he walked over to [McDonnell] coming off the field and says, 'What were you doing? You should have thrown it up for me, and I'd have made the play,' " Stetson said. "The next Thursday at practice, in a similar situation, David pulled one down over about four guys, and [McDonnell] comes over to me and says, 'Jeez, maybe he was right.' "
Since becoming New Hampshire's go-to receiver early that first season, Ball had a Division I-AA record-tying 23 games of 100 yards receiving, caught a record 58 TD passes and became only the third player in school history to have his number retired.
After he broke Rice's record, the former Mississippi Valley State and San Francisco 49ers star interrupted an interview Ball was doing on Sirius Satellite Radio to congratulate him.
"I firmly believe things will work out for you," Rice told Ball.
Count Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald among the believers too. In New Hampshire's shocking 34-17 victory over Fitzgerald's Wildcats last September, Ball caught two TD passes and looked like a guy whose talent would translate in any conference.
"His ability in the quick [passing] game makes it tough to play against him, and his great leaping ability makes him tremendous in the red zone," Fitzgerald said. "He maximized all the tools he had."
Chip on his shoulder
Maximizing his potential in college still failed to sway any of the 32 NFL teams enough to spend a draft pick on Ball. It didn't matter if he had scored 58 TDs or 29 on the Wonderlic test.
Fearing the worst on the final day of last weekend's draft, Ball played Wiffle ball outside his parents' house hoping the call that never came. Near the end of the seventh round, with about 10 picks left, an official for a Canadian Football League team called to see if Ball would be interested in crossing the border to cross the end zone for a living. He wasn't.
The Bears, Jets, Chiefs and Jaguars contacted Ball on Sunday night to offer the standard contract for undrafted free agents.
"It's nothing that's going to keep me down," Ball said. "I realize I have a great opportunity here with a franchise that has a lot of history."
Before Ball ever gets the chance to wear a Bears uniform beyond training camp at Bourbonnais, he will have to find ways to separate from cornerbacks pressing him at the line of scrimmage. He added 15 pounds of muscle since last season with that specific goal in mind.
One NFL executive who scouted Ball predicted he would be too slow to ever shake man-to-man coverage. It also worked against Ball that he probably didn't face a cornerback in games better than the one he faced every day in practice, Bears fifth-round pick Corey Graham.
Until Ball shows that his ability to catch anything thrown his way makes up for other shortcomings, he knows he will continue to catch flak for his speed.
"I look deceiving on film and slower than I really am," Ball said. "I think I showed that [Friday], and hopefully they'll see that by the end of training camp. I definitely have something to prove and come here carrying a little bit of a chip on my shoulder."
As long as it doesn't slow him down.
