TheMichigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, September 19, 1994 - 3 * BRElT FORREST Cocozzo The ex-Michigan star discusses his collegiate and professional career In his career at Michigan, Joe Cocozzo continued the Wolverines' long tradition of outstanding offen- sive linemen. Wolverine offensive guards have been honored 15 times century as All-Americans includ- ing three consecutive awards in 1990- '92. Cocozzo, known for his smart, intimidating style of play, was All Big-Ten and All-American in 1992 and played in the 1993 Senior Bowl. The San Diego Chargers made Cocozzo their third-round selection in the NFL Draft and the Mechanicville, N. Y. native has gone to earn a starting role on his new m. Daily Sports Writer David Rothbartspoke with Cocozzo last week about his experiences at Michigan and in the NFL. Daily: When you were younger, playing high school football, did you have a dream of playing in the NFL? Cocozzo: No. My dream, believe it -or not, was just to play Big Ten football. I never thought about the S s until beginning to midway oughmy senior year at Michigan. Then I just started hoping some team would pick me up. D: How did you choose Michigan? C: I liked the players. Greg Skrepenak was my host and he showed me around and I had a great time. I thought about Notre Dame and Syra- cuse and UCLA, but Iliked Michigan best. D: After your senior year, you had to know you'd be drafted by an NFL team. Were there any places you es- pecially wanted to go to? C: I just wanted to get picked as soon as possible. It was the third round. [ was extremely happy. Wherever I'm atj can always fly home. I'm never more than a few hours away. _ D: What's your best memory of ur career at Michigan? C: The 38-31 win over Washing- ton in the (1993) Rose Bowl. D: And your favorite memory so far with the Chargers? C: Either (last year's) Monday night game with Miami or my first NFL start (against the Houston Oil- eis). We drove down the field and kioked a field goal with three seconds to win. The best win, though, was this year's game with Denver. D: In that victory over the Bron- cos, you drove 89 yards in 19 plays for the winning touchdown. It must have been exciting. C: It was miserable. It's hard to breathe up there (Mile High Stadium in Denver). You start sucking air. It's hard enough just playing at sea-level but when you're not used to the alti- tude you start dying. When players get hurt and they're down on the field, you get a breather. That's all that saved me. D: The Chargers are off to a 2-0 start after the wins against Denver and Cincinnati. It's the team's best start in 13 years. Are the Chargers for real? C: If we keep playing like we've been playing, with not too many inju- ries, we'll be in the playoffs. This team was in the playoffs two years ago, and last year we lost a number of close games. If we'd won any of them, we'd have been in. Everyone on the team expects us to do well and win and go back to the playoffs. D: The transition from college football to the pros is clearly a diffi- cult one. Who has showed you the ropes in the NFL? C: The best coaching I've had has been from my teammates on the (of- fensive) line. Some of these guys have been in the league for six, seven years. Courtney Hall has been here for nine years. He's been a big help. D: What is it like to play with Junior Seau? C: He's an unbelieveable athlete. He works hard. He has all the tools. He's a great leader and a great player. D: A lot of Wolverines have gone on to professional football in recent years. Derrick Alexander was drafted in the first round by Cleveland. Elvis Grbac, Steve Everitt, and others have made it on to NFL teams. But for every player that makes it in the pros, there are 20 that don't. Many Wolver- ines go undrafted. Does the education that football players receive at Michi- gan prepare them for life outside of professional football? C: I should say so. It's the Univer- sity of Michigan! Everyone that I went to school with has a degree now and they all have jobs. D: With so many Michigan ath- letes around the league, you often play against your former teammates. Is it difficult to separate your compe- tition from your friendship? C: You ignore them during the game, but afterwards you're still friends. You bullshit with them. There's always a common bond. D: Linemen take a pounding ev- ery Sunday. You get beaten and bat- tered. How hard is it to get out of bed on Monday morning? C: It varies. The younger you are, the easier it is on your body. I'm sore on Monday mornings, but through the course of the day I work through it. We have Tuesdays off, so by Wednesday I'm pretty much feeling back to normal. D: Jerry Kramer, the offensive guard for the Green Bay Packers who was a key member of their Super Bowl teams in the late 60's, discusses in his autobiography his endless preparation for the defender he had to face on Sunday. Studying the indi- vidual matchup would give him night- mares, especially if it was Alex Karras or Merlin Olsen. Do you ever get scared when you see who you'll be going up against? C: I'm always a little nervous be- fore the game. This weekend it's my job to guard (the Seattle Seahawks') Cortez Kennedy. I know it'll be a tough job. Some guys try talking trash on the line, but that doesn't intimidate me. D: Offensive guard is an under- appreciated position. You don't get a lot of attention from the media or the fans. Who recognizes the job that you're doing? C: My teammates on the line are the ones I'm playing for the most. We work together as a unit to keep the offense alive. Everyone knows how well everyone else is doing, so after the games we let each other know that we saw all their good work. We take care of each other. , D: At Michigan, your predeces- sors on the line were Dean Dingman, who received All-American recogni- tion for his work in 1990, and Matt Elliott, who was honored in 1991. What was it like to play behind these guys? C: Dean was an unbelievable player. He set a standard for us all to follow. He'd be playing in the NFL now, but he blew out his knees. D: Injuries are such a constant part of the game. If Tyrone Wheatley had sought you out for advice last winter whether he should stay at Michigan or go on to the NFL, what would you have told him? C: With something like that, the person has to make their own deci- sion. Everybody has their own goals. Certain things are important to cer- tain people. If (staying at Michigan) was the right choice for him then, it's still the right choice, even after the injury. He'll be back for the Big Ten season, if not sooner. D: There are NCAA rules that prohibit players from receiving cash or gifts from coaches and fans and also restrict them from working a lot of hours. Is this a problem at Michi- gan? C: I've never been involved or seen anything at Michigan where any- body got a dime. I remember Ricky Powers did a speech and afterwards they tried to give him money and he said "I can't take this," and they got mad because they didn't understand he wasn't allowed to take money. They thought he was being impolite. I was (at Michigan) with Elvis and Desmond and nobody ever got a dime. D: With your busy schedule - practice, film sessions, gameplan meetings and workouts - do you get a chance to see the Michigan games on Saturdays? C: You bet. I saw the Notre Dame game. I was going crazy. There's a bunch of Notre Dame guys (on the Chargers) and we watched it together. It made it that much better. It's hard to believe, with all those injuries, they could still win the game. Everyone just stepped up and pulled together. D: How far can Michigan go this year? C: They can go all the way. They've had a hell of a start. D: What does "all the way" mean exactly? The Rose Bowl? A national championship? C: Everything. K ^BRETT FORREST Forrest Fires There can only be one true Dream Team D ream Team II? You want to call the 1992 United States Olympic basketball contingent a "dream team"? This is not a problem. That time around it was a tremendous publicity scene, a show of patriotism, a first-time occurrence. But it should have been a one-time occurrence. Every subsequent American basketball team competing in an international event should not be forced to carry the weight of that moniker. Even Sylvester Stallone stopped making Rocky films after No. 5 (we pray). Perhaps a little history lesson would come in handy right about now, before we get carried away. In 1972 a team from Canada engaged in what it thought would be an eight- game hockey clinic against a backwater club from the Soviet Union. Who played on that dream of a Team Canada? Phil Esposito;Bobby Orr, Ken Dryden and Bobby Clarke - just to name a few Hall-of-Famers. But the Canadian squad was torpedoed in several home-ice venues, drowning by scores of 7-3 and 4-1. The Canadians did finally prevail - but only after Clarke broke the ankle of the Soviets' top skater. Since that Challenge Cup series, an increasing number of countries have become bona fide hockey powers. Thanks to the NBA's worldwide hoops exportation, the same is bound to happen to USA Basketball. So let Shaquille O'Neal dunk on tiny Frenchmen now. Just be forewarned that an intimidating Charles Barkley-like power forward from Cameroon will undoubtedly return the favor some day. And what will be so dreamy about that? This whole Dream Team thing betrays an underlying American arrogance. Why change the rules to enable the United States' best professional players to compete on an international level? You would be hard-pressed to discover a sporting enthusiast anywhere on the globe who would dispute the notion that the United States lays claim to the world's best hoopsters. Or, for that matter, that Canadians are still the best hockey players. Therefore, let it go. Allow a ravenous band of college players the chance to put on the stars and stripes and go for broke against the best from every country except their own. I remember when then-Michigan hockey standouts Cam Stewart and David Oliver played for Team Canada in 1992's USA Cup. They related how, after slipping on their jerseys before the first game, they sauntered to a nearby drinking fountain. The two were startled by a mirror hanging on a wall next to the fountain. As they looked at their reflections, red maple leaves draped across their chests, Oliver and Stewart shook in their skates, unadulterated feelings of pride and national responsibility pumping through their veins. Many NCAA basketball players are being robbed of this chance. Sure, there are some tournaments in which college players can compete on behalf of their countries. But in the marquee events - Olympics and World Championships - these players are shut out. So call it a Dream Team, if you must. And stock the squad with the absolute best. And blow out every overmatched team on the globe. Just remember the lessons the Soviet Union's hockey team taught the expertly arrogant Canadians 22 years ago. "It is Russia's game now, after the most sobering week in Canadian sports history," wrote Sports Illustrated's Mark Mulvoy in 1972. "In just seven days the Russians destroyed the 100-year myth of Canadian hockey superiority and the 50-year legend of National Hockey League invincibility." 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