Character counts in the NFL draft

KIRKLAND, Wash. - For motivation, NFL background checkers need only revisit the image of Rae Carruth, Carolina Panthers receiver-turned-fugitive, as authorities pulled him from the trunk of a Toyota parked outside a $36-a-night motel in Wildersville, Tenn.

Those responsible for drafting Carruth will tell you there were no indications the tranquil young man would one day be implicated in the murder of his pregnant girlfriend. And perhaps they're right.

But the Carruth case and the recent murder investigation implicating Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis reinforced the notion that NFL teams can't be too cautious when evaluating players in the draft.

With the college draft next weekend, NFL teams want you to know they seriously value the integrity in their players. Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, usually evasive on such issues in the past, made curbing off-field violence a priority at the recent league meetings. But the league and teams are less candid about exactly how far they're willing to go in identifying red flags.

NFL Security, headed by a half-dozen investigators in New York, provides teams with background checks on the roughly 300 players invited to the college scouting combine each February. And while legal restraints ostensibly prohibit the NFL from digging beyond publicly available information, some league officials privately say there's very little NFL teams don't know about the players they draft.

Beyond background checks performed by the league, team officials perform their own investigations. They're known to speak with high school coaches, teachers, trainers, neighbors and even opponents. Credit checks provide another option.

In some cases, team officials have questioned agents who were spurned by an athlete, the better to pick up any additional dirt that might have gone uncollected.

Each team also consults with a security representative - usually a retired FBI agent with ties to the area - in addition to working with their own security personnel to head off potential problems.

''I think you go as far as you can,'' Seattle Seahawks boss Mike Holmgren said. ''I want to know about their family, how school was and who their favorite teachers were.

''You have to decide how you want to build your team and the type of player you want to build it with,'' Holmgren said, ''and then, are you willing to take chances with character situations?''

The Minnesota Vikings have taken more chances than most, with spectacular results. They hit the jackpot two years ago by selecting All-Pro receiver Randy Moss, who has so far avoided the criminal tendencies that marred his adolescence.

But taking blatant chances has come with a price; the Vikings whiffed badly last year when they drafted troubled Michigan State defensive lineman Dimitrius Underwood in the first round.

Shortly after signing his contract, Underwood went AWOL and was released. A few months later, he attempted suicide while under contract to the Miami Dolphins.

''The Vikings had their reasons,'' Holmgren said, ''but that can't happen too many times to you. I hope it works for (Underwood), I really do. But it's a sad story right now.''

While background checks can be influential, they rarely, if ever, keep a player from being drafted altogether.

Moss and Underwood - like a number of others, from Warren Sapp five years ago to Cecil Collins last year - were simply drafted later than their raw talent might have otherwise dictated.

But in many ways, the Mosses and Underwoods are the exceptions - players with enough red flags to raise obvious questions. More difficult are the decisions involving players who defy easy categorization.

If a player was involved in a drunken fraternity brawl during his sophomore year, for example, should teams suspect he might become a violent alcoholic? If officers found him leaving a party with friends who were smoking marijuana, should the NFL consider him a bad guy?

''Things can get blown out of proportion,'' Seahawks vice president Ted Thompson said. ''You get somebody who snubs a team at the combine and now he's a bad guy, but it might have been 11:30 at night and the guy was really tired.''

Despite the added emphasis on character, the ability to play football still ranks atop every team's priority list. Then come various measurable qualities, such as height, weight, speed and leaping ability. Then come medical reports and, last but not least, background checks.

''Even after you do all those things, there are going to be a couple things that happen,'' Holmgren said. ''That's life. But you make a mistake as a club if you don't do everything you can.''

Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.