| Dameyune Craig: A Kid in the Hall
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DATE: Sept. 20, 1999
PUBLICATION: NFL.com
Befitting a franchise just growing out of its toddler years, the Carolina Panthers' space in the Pro Football Hall of Fame is limited. For four years, former team president Mike McCormack was the lone representative, honored for the accomplishments of his playing career.
This summer, though, he was joined by another Panther. Not by a grizzled former player working as a coach or in the front office, mind you, but by a reserve quarterback whose moments of professional glory are confined to preseason work and the NFL Europe League.
While not enshrined with a bust like McCormack, Panthers quarterback Dameyune Craig's jersey from his NFLEL stint with the Scottish Claymores hangs in Canton, Ohio. There is also a placard to explain his jersey's presence — his professional American football-record 611 yards passing in a game between the Claymores and the Frankfurt Galaxy on May 22, 1999.
Four months later, his big night is good for bragging rights in the Panthers' locker room. "I talk about it to my teammates a lot," he said, laughing. "I rub it in a little bit."
However, back in the Charlotte environs, he is no longer the focal point of the offense, no longer the man teammates look to for leadership. He is squarely in a student position — taking notes, asking questions and gleaning all he can on the intricacies of the West Coast offense installed by offensive coordinator Gil Haskell last fall and expanded upon in the offseason.
"I try to go out and make all the mistakes I can in practice, and then ask all the questions I can afterwards," Craig said.
"He is one of those players that wants to know absolutely everything that is happening on the field," Claymores coach Jim Criner said.
Craig is not wandering down a road not taken in order to make his NFL dreams come true. Eighteen former NFLEL quarterbacks were on NFL opening-day rosters, including five starters — Brad Johnson of the Washington Redskins, Jon Kitna of the Seattle Seahawks, Doug Pederson of the Philadelphia Eagles, Scott Mitchell of the Baltimore Ravens and Kurt Warner of the St. Louis Rams.
While Craig had a productive stay in Europe, it was a path he had initially hoped to avoid. After a successful two-season stint as a starter at Auburn, where he led the Tigers to two bowl games and the 1997 Southeastern Conference Western Division title and set the school's single-game and single-season passing records, Craig expected to be selected in the 1998 NFL Draft. However, two days in April went by without his name being called. The Panthers signed him within 48 hours of the draft as a rookie free agent.
"It was real disappointing because I thought I was good enough to get drafted," he said. "The guys that came out this year, I look at them and I thought, 'None of these guys are any better than me.' They didn't do anything that I didn't do in college."
There was no doubt about Craig's desire to go to Europe, not so much for the culture, but for playing time. "It was something that I wanted to do 100 percent," he said. "I was on the practice squad last year, and I was doing everything except playing quarterback. That (1998) was basically a wasted year for me, as far as being a quarterback was concerned."
The lone disadvantage to a European vacation is absence from minicamps and offseason workouts. When Craig came back from his sojourn — where he led the NFLEL in passing yardage — he faced an extended cram session to absorb the changes installed after new head coach George Seifert's arrival.
"The playbook looked a lot bigger than it was last year," Craig said. "I said, 'Oh my goodness, what do y'all have here?' I was in Europe for a while, and on my first day back, they hand me this book that's the size of the Yellow Pages."
Craig made the right calls. Carolina went 2-2 in the preseason, and in both of its wins, Craig led fourth-quarter touchdown drives. His performance elicited raves from both the Panthers fans and the local media. His development, along with that of Carolina's other quarterbacks, has engendered confidence from Seifert.
"I think that there are two good young prospects and two veteran quarterbacks that I've seen play in games and have quite a bit of experience that we could turn to," Seifert said.
With much time, effort and money invested in Craig, Jeff Lewis, Bono and Beuerlein — all of whom had solid, if not spectacular, preseasons — the Panthers faced a conundrum as the cutdown loomed. The solution? Keep them all. Seifert did, giving Carolina four quarterbacks on its active roster for the first time. Matt Lytle, a rookie free agent from the University of Pittsburgh, makes it a quintet by his presence on the practice squad.
Craig's dearth of regular-season experience is more than compensated by his confidence. When asked whether he felt he could do as good a job or better than some NFL starters, he replied: "Most definitely."
"There's a lot of (quarterbacks) in the NFL where I feel I can go in there and do the same thing they're doing," he said.
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