Byline: John Mullin
CHICAGO _ Marcus Robinson can laugh about it all now. And he is.
The Bears released the wide receiver last April in a move that left him hurt and confused. Now he will start for the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday against the Tennessee Titans in the first round of the AFC playoffs.
Last season, Robinson endured the Champaign experience with his teammates. This season, he delighted in calling old mates Marty Booker and Ahmad Merritt from a Ritz-Carlton Hotel, where the Ravens put up their entire 80-man roster during one preseason game, or from a beachside resort in San Diego when the franchise sent the team out Wednesday for a Sunday game.
"I had to let `em know I was doing OK," Robinson said, laughing.
Robinson is indeed doing OK. When the Bears decided he had little left after back and knee surgeries, Robinson signed a one-year, $600,000 contract with the Ravens. He struggled, at times, but emerged as a starter for the final five games of the season, all Baltimore victories, and finished with 35 receptions.
In the Ravens' Nov. 23 game against Seattle, Robinson flashed some of the greatness that appeared within his grasp in Chicago. He caught seven passes, including a career- and franchise-high four for touchdowns from Anthony Wright, his quarterback when the two played at South Carolina.
Wright took over as the starter when rookie Kyle Boller was injured and immediately let Robinson know things would be different.
"When I got in and started playing," Wright told the Baltimore Sun, "I said to Marcus, `Look, no more free paychecks for you.'"
That was fine with Robinson.
"(In the Seattle game), he was telling me flat out in the huddle over and over, `I'm coming to you, I'm coming to you,'
" Robinson said. "And each time, I just knew inside, `This ball is mine.' I don't know what it was; I just knew it."
There was a time Robinson felt that way in Chicago. That was 1999, a season in which Robinson wasn't in the starting lineup until the sixth game because of an injury to Curtis Conway. Robinson responded with a franchise-record 1,400 yards on 84 catches.
More remarkably, perhaps, he made rookie Cade McNown look good by outfighting double teams and turning McNown heaves into several long touchdowns. It was a Pro Bowl season for Robinson.
"Hey, whatever else Cade did," Robinson said, laughing, "he threw me eight touchdowns."
Robinson watched with some interest the goings-on in Chicago this season. He was disappointed coach Dick Jauron was fired.
"I hated to see that happen," Robinson said. "He and Gary Crowton gave me my start and I never forget that."
But he doesn't remember other members of the Bears staff as kindly. Crowton's successor as offensive coordinaor, John Shoop, seemed to find reasons not to throw Robinson's way.
Receivers coach Todd Haley liked Marty Booker and Dez White, particularly with Robinson struggling at times because of injuries. Shoop said he didn't think Robinson had recovered fully from knee surgery for the 2002 season yet played him extensively during games without calling plays in which he was the primary receiver.
Robinson was among many who found Shoop rigid and inflexible in practice and games, to the detriment of the offense.
"Things change on Sundays, with defensive coordinators figuring out what you're doing, so you have to change quickly sometimes," Robinson said. "But you'd come back off the field to Shoop and he had the look of `I hear you but I don't hear you.'
"Crowton liked the quarterback and receivers to work things out between themselves. Shoop didn't. He changed routes and you weren't allowed to change things no matter what."
But such issues are in the past for Robinson, who has Matt Cavanaugh as his offensive coordinator. Cavanaugh held that job with the Bears when Robinson was selected in the fourth round of the 1997 draft.
"Matt is totally a players' coach," Robinson said. "I can come up to Matt and tell him things. And there are times when he will come into a huddle or meeting and actually ask all of us, `How do you want to do this (play)?'
"I didn't hear that a lot in Chicago."
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