It's a Friday during the offseason, and Northwestern football weekly workouts have just concluded. Inside the weight room, upbeat music thumps out of speakers and sweat drips from the faces of exhausted players. Meanwhile, the coaches tally points earned that week by the mid-skill position groups: quarterback, running back, superback and linebacker. The players eye the board, anxiously awaiting the results, hoping their position out-worked the other three.
The points are finalized. And once again, it's the running backs on top, led by Warren Long, who has defeated everyone, from now-Tampa Bay Buccaneer Dan Vitale, one of the strongest guys on the team, to athletic linebacker Joe Jones, and every player in between.