"I know my role here, and I'm totally comfortable with that," said Cunningham, signed as a backup quarterback in April. "Brad Johnson is the man here. I think it's smoother being able to come in like this, with not as much pressure to start off."

It is an odd-sounding pronouncement coming from Cunningham, a two-time NFL Player of the Year who once was full of confidence and bravado. But after a year away from the NFL, spent in retirement in Las Vegas, Cunningham's perspective is laden with the therapeutic benefits of change.

"I've matured as a person," he said. "The year off has helped to calm myself down, and get all the negative feelings out of my heart and just be 100 percent positive. I feel really, really good being here.

"I know that I'm a player again in the NFL. But I don't think it has hit me yet. It's like I'm just another guy, which is what I like. I think I was put on a pedestal for quite a while there, and it's good to be just another guy."

In his 11 often-tempestuous seasons in Philadelphia, Cunningham, 34, was never just another guy. An enigma, yes. An athletic marvel with rare gifts, without question.

But while Cunningham looked to be the prototype NFL quarterback as the '90s began, his game eventually included too many battles waged off the field -- with teammates, coaches, and the media.

Benched in late 1994 and early 1995 by two different Eagles head coaches, Cunningham did not find any takers last year when shopping for a new team.

Instead, he walked away, setting aside his 150 career touchdown passes, 22,877 passing yards, and NFL-record 4,384 quarterback rushing yards to work at his custom marble and granite business.

Cunningham's fresh start in Minnesota has eased, but not erased, the acrimony of his final years in Philadelphia.

"For eight years, I couldn't do anything wrong," Cunningham said. "Then those last couple years I got to the point where I had overstayed my welcome. But whenever Charles Barkley, and Mike Schmidt and Dr. J and all those guys overstay their welcome, I don't mind being with those guys --Pete Rose, the whole gang. When they get pushed out of town, hey, put me in that group.

"I probably should have asked to be traded before (coach) Ray Rhodes got there. My agent told me to do that. But I wanted to be loyal, and that loyalty basically got me in the wrong situation. But I'm very happy here."

After earning $3.2 million in his final season with the Eagles, Cunningham signed with the Vikings for a relative pittance: $425,000 plus incentives. Thus far, he has been the model backup, impressing all with his still-evident skills and deferential attitude.

While others have voiced concerns that Johnson and Cunningham's styles mix like oil and water, the relationship, both say, is off to a comfortable start.

"We've gotten along really well, and I know everyone says we're going to be really different as far as our personalities," Johnson said. "But when you think about it, I don't know too many people that I've been like, anyway. So I'm kind of used to it. But he's been very helpful, very positive, and very up front so far. I feel really good about him."

For Johnson, who has been pitted against Heisman Trophy winners (Gino Torretta and Andre Ware) and a Heisman runner-up (Casey Weldon), as well as a future Hall of Famer (Warren Moon), Cunningham's looming presence and past accomplishments merely account for the latest chapter in an old story.

"I think it could be uncomfortable for me, but I really don't feel that way," Johnson said. "You all know the whole story -- the Heisman thing, and the rest of it. I've never got caught up in that. I've always kind of been into my thing, and that's kind of the way I keep it."

Cunningham's master plan calls for a solid, foundation-building season in 1997, rehabilitating his reputation fully by 1998, and then competing somewhere for a starting job.

His comeback, he says, is about renewed hope. Not regenerated hype.

"I'm not fighting the urge to prove anything," said Cunningham, who was 1-4 as a playoff starter with the Eagles. "I guess I've done all that. I've been blessed playing with great players who got me into the Pro Bowl. And the coaching staff here, they know what I'm capable of doing. There's not that pressure to go out and be the Pro Bowl player, because there's already a man here who's starting.

"It's just about going out and playing. I still have the same abilities. I work hard. And God will allow me to do what I've done in the past."

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page