When he arrived for his one-on-one interview with New York Giants officials before the draft last spring, then-Auburn wide receiver Tim Carter looked around the room at the dozen other prospects the team had invited to its complex and worried that he might have overdressed by wearing a business suit and tie.

Surrounding the nattily attired Carter were players in cut-offs and flip-flops, familiar college stars in shirts opened to the chest with chains dangling from their necks, guys dressed in frayed jeans and T-shirts.

"I remember thinking to myself about how much I stood out from most of the other guys there," Carter recalled recently. "And then I remember thinking, 'Well, that's exactly what I want to do, isn't it?' I think I made a statement about myself that day."

A month later, the Giants made a statement, too, selecting the wide receiver in the second round, making him the 46th player chosen overall and the second senior receiver taken off the board. Carter subsequently signed a four-year contract worth $3 million. While his rookie season ended prematurely because of an Achilles injury, he remains a big part of the Giants' future.

	Patrick Ramsey has utilized the services of Ken Herock

Not bad for a player who had only 57 receptions and four touchdowns in four seasons and who finished his senior year regarded as a fourth- or fifth-round draft choice. Carter and his agents, Pat Dye Jr. and Bill Johnson, credit his ascent to a terrific performance in the postseason, at the Senior Bowl and the scouting combine. And to no less extent, perhaps, to the seminar the wide receiver attended with former longtime NFL personnel director Ken Herock.

In his three decades in the league, Herock was charged with making the lottery calls for several teams, and he is now passing on his knowledge of how those decisions are made to draft-eligible prospects. For years, agents have prepared their rookie clients for the combine and club workouts by retaining personal trainers to work with them, and it has grown into a burgeoning industry for such noted trainers as Chip Smith and Tom Shaw.

But in the sessions he began making available to players last spring, and which he has further refined for this year's draft class, Herock has taken the preparation a step further. He leaves the physical preparation to the trainers and instead focuses on readying prospects for the interviews they'll be subjected to at the combine, and to the real-life implications of how they present themselves to franchise officials.

"A lot of it," said Herock, "is just common sense stuff. Things like maybe sending a thank-you note to a team, to let them know you appreciated the time they spent interviewing you, and to let them know you're interested in playing for them. But mostly it comes down to one main factor: money. The purpose of what I do is to impress on them that they can greatly affect their earning power by how they present themselves. The way they dress, the way they answer questions, their communication skills, that can make or break them when it comes to a team's evaluation. And that can translate into a lot of money over the span of a player's career."

How successful has Herock been in this venture? He had a full dance card last year and is so booked for this spring that he'll soon have to turn away potential clients.

While it is a service directed primarly toward prospects, the Herock sessions have also become a recruiting tool for agents, who see them as another selling point in the ongoing recruiting wars. Prospects always seek more from agents, and the player representatives who employed Herock last year can point to the empirical results of the 2002 draft and the impact he had on several players. Employing Herock has become a selling point for agents looking for every edge in the cut-throat business of recruiting.

Said Dye: "Because he has been in that captain's chair on draft day, and been the guy making the tough decisions, he knows precisely what elements go into it. He's got great experience in the (selection) process. The things he can pass on to a client are invaluable. And when most (players) walk out of the session with him, they know it and realize they're better prepared than when they went into that room with him. For us, Kenny is a tool and he is a selling point, believe me."

The typical Herock session is a day-long event. It usually begins with him arriving at the office of an agent, where the representative's rookie clients are assembled, and going through a general, two-hour presentation. The point, hammered home, time and again: You might not get a second chance to make a first impression.

One of the league's hardest working talent scouts during his career, and with a wealth of knowledge gleaned from creating many of the techniques still employed by teams, Herock focuses in the group session on simple but effective mechanisms: Body language. Making sure a player understands that he should know, even before an interview, the names of a team's head coach and other management officials in decision-making positions. Attire. Making eye contact. Speaking concisely and directly. Stressing the positives but also being accountable for any past indiscretions.

"What the kids have to understand," said Herock, "is this is the equivalent of a job interview. Would you show up at Xerox for an interview dressed in a pair of jeans? Would you sit and stare at the floor or mumble? I hope not. Well, this is the same, maybe even bigger. Play 10 years in the NFL, and have even just a good career, and you'll probably make more money than you would in a lifetime at Xerox or some company like that."

Even in the group session, which precedes one-on-one meetings during which he simulates a combine interview, Herock is brutally frank. And he expects the attention of his audience. Last year, he nearly booted out of a general session an unnamed SEC player who kept nodding off. In fact, he screamed so loud at the player that the agent representing him sprinted to the meeting room to see what the ruckus was about.

"I know that, as a personnel guy, the hardest thing I ever had to do was try to re-sell a head coach after a kid made a bad impression," Herock said. "I mean, that stuff sticks with a coach, and you can't un-do it sometimes."

In the one-on-one session, Herock works on a player's individual strengths and weaknesses, relative to the interview process. He doesn't regard it so much as a rehearsal for the player as a chance to hone his interview skills. Among the players who gushed over Herock's techniques last year was former Tulane quarterback Patrick Ramsey, who was chosen by Washington in the first round.

During his one-on-one with Herock, the quarterback noted several times that he thought he could help certain teams.

"Every time I said that I think I could help a club, Mr. Herock jumped my case," recalled Ramsey. "He stressed that the term, 'I think' reflected kind of a lack of certainty on my part. I walked out of my meeting with him and knew that, when I interviewed with a team, I had to tell them that I knew I would help them. Maybe it's a subtle difference, but Mr. Herock knows the difference and what it suggests to a general manager."

	Side Lines
	On-Line The Seattle Seahawks are stumbling through another miserable season, but despite a late arrival because of a negotiating stalemate that kept him out of training camp and preseason, left offensive tackle Walter Jones is enjoying a solid year. The two-time Pro Bowl performer, who remains one of the game's top pass protectors, will need to bring his "A" game Sunday when the Philadelphia Eagles travel to Seahawks Stadium. In one of the weekend's best individual matchups, Jones will draw Philadelphia right defensive end Hugh Douglas, who is on a roll. The eight-year veteran had two sacks of Kurt Warner last week to raise his season total to 10, a number that allows him to void the 2003 portion of his contract and become an unrestricted free agent. Douglas is a big-motor guy, a player who performs with great emotion. He will move inside to tackle on some pass-rush downs but, for the most part, the responsibility of keeping him away from Matt Hasselbeck belongs to Jones, a master technician.
	The List Looking to hang a nickname on a porous Arizona Cardinals defense that has surrendered 450.2 yards per game over the team's current six-game losing streak? Try the "Sad Sacks." Once again the lack of even an average pass rush has contributed to the Cardinals' demise. The team has 16 sacks this season, which projects to 20 for the year, a total that would nudge the Cardinals just one beyond the 19 they registered in 2001. Here is a look at the teams with the 10 worst sack totals since 1990:
	Team	Sacks
	' 95 Jaguars	17
	' 91 Rams	17
	'01 Cardinals	19
	'94 Bucs	20
	'92 Patriots	20
	'93 Colts	21
	'91 Bengals	21
	'93 Bengals	22
	'94 Broncos	23
	'91 Cowboys	23
	Stat of the Week Talk about playing it close: In the 92 regular-season games since Jim Fassel became head coach, the New York Giants have scored 1,717 points and have surrendered 1,716 points.
	Stat of the Weak Chicago travels to Miami on Monday night and, even if the Bears weren't playing so poorly, the timing and venue don't bode well for them. The Bears are an anemic 6-20 in Monday night road games. Worse, they're 1-9 in Monday night road games played in December.
	The Last Word Vick Tampa Bay defensive line coach Rod Marinelli, on how Michael Vick of Atlanta compares to other run-threat quarterbacks the Bucs have faced the past few years: "All of these guys are good athletes. But this guy is something else. He's the Mercedes."

Added wide receiver Ashley Lelie, the Denver Broncos' first-rounder this year, and another former Herock client: "By nature, I tend to be a pretty shy person. He brought me out of the shell."

The endorsement of high-profile players who genuinely feel he enhanced their attractiveness has prodded Herock to try to further improve the product this year. He plans to bring in guest speakers, former NFL trainers and scouts, to augment his own pitch. And he will present all the players who sign up for the service with a videotape of their simulated interview, so that they can use it as a reference tool before the combine.

Over a very short period of time, the Herock seminars have become another key element in preparing players for the quantum leap to the NFL.

"It's another essential piece of the puzzle," said Dye. "I can retain trainers for all my (clients) and can talk to them about my own experiences and try to have them relate. But here's a guy who knows what teams are looking for because he was one of the people doing the looking. The information he can pass on to these kids is something no one is offering."

Around the league

	Miller

There is no way, league and team sources agree, that both Jim Miller and Chris Chandler will be back with the Chicago Bears next season. General manager Jerry Angelo, who on Monday confirmed our report of a week ago that coach Dick Jauron will return in 2003, has vowed to acquire a young quarterback, preferably through the draft as he plots the future. He'll probably retain one of the two veterans as a mentor, but not both. That bodes better for Miller, who is more likely to accept such a role. Chandler has never particularly warmed to the prospect of preparing someone else to take his job. Miller is still garnering lots of respect from teammates, playing with an elbow that will require postseason surgery instead of shutting it down for the year.

	Manning

Looking to find a reason for the turnaround of Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning and, thus, the reversal of the teams' fortunes? Much can be traced to the increased use of audibles by Manning, among the smartest and hardest-studying quarterbacks in the league, and to his improved decisions on the field. "Sometimes I'll totally change the play," Manning said. "And sometimes, I'll just tweak it. Sometimes, I don't change anything at all. But I'm not looking for the perfect play anymore. I'm just looking to avoid the bad play." The results are manifested in Manning's deduced interceptions over the past four games, all won by the Colts, a streak that has catapulted Indianapolis into first place. In the first eight games, which Indianapolis played at a .500 clip, Manning tossed 11 interceptions in 308 attempts, or one every 28 passes. Over the last four games, he has an interception just once every 66.5 passes, or just two pickoffs in 133 throws.

	Steussie

The folks who manufacture those collectable bobble-head figures might want to scratch the Carolina Panthers from the teams who figure to have an interest in renewing their promotional contract for 2003. The Panthers had bobble-head dolls made of coach John Fox and nine players for this year, and it seems to have been a curse of sorts to the individuals involved. Fox has suffered through a tough season on and off the field. Kicker John Kasay and rookie tailback DeShaun Foster missed the season with injuries. There is a chance that Foster will never play in the NFL after "microfracture" surgery on his knee. Quarterback Chris Weinke lost his starting job a week before the season began and, given events since then, his future with the Panthers has to be regarded as shaky. Wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad was arrested in the summer and found to have marijuana in his car, and has battled injuries. Middle linebacker Dan Morgan and tight end Wesley Walls haven't been as productive because of nagging ailments. Wide receiver Steve Smith was suspended for punching practice squad teammate Anthony Bright in a film-review session. Rookie defensive end and first-round draft pick Julius Peppers has seen a brilliant debut year end with a four-game suspension after testing positive for a banned substance. The only "bobble-head" player who has gotten through the season unaffected, at least to this juncture, is left offensive tackle Todd Steussie.