Denton falls from idol to outcast

Wednesday, April 21, 1999 | 11:27 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing n' tebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

There are those who believe he has completely used his allotment of forgivable mistakes and that Jon Denton's plummet from sure-fire NFL prospect to undrafted renegade is entirely of his own doing.

The hardhearted are not sympathetic. They rip into Denton for not playing up to his potential, for not avoiding the temptations of youth, for not staying at UNLV and for prematurely announcing himself as available and ready for the NFL.

Denton, in the prime of life with his 22nd birthday coming Saturday, is, nevertheless, seen by his critics as a has-been. While he had hoped to be taken in last weekend's NFL draft, he was not selected and his challenge now is to make the best of the less-than-envious situation he finds himself in today.

All this seems a bit dramatic for a young man who is arguably the finest high-school football player to be developed in Las Vegas this decade.

After his freshman season at UNLV, 1996, his stock was through the roof. He set 10 NCAA freshman-quarterback records and finished fifth in the country in passing yardage.

A year later his numbers were down and he was twice suspended from the Rebels for off-the-field indiscretions.

Last year he transferred to Division I-AA Eastern Kentucky and was near the tail end of a marginally successful season before being suspended and leaving school and declaring himself, a year early, as a candidate for the NFL draft.

As recently as last summer, NFL draft expert Mel Kiper Jr. ranked Denton as the No. 3 underclassman quarterback prospect in the country, behind only Kentucky's Tim Couch and Washington's Brock Huard. Couch was the No. 1 pick in this year's draft, going to Cleveland, while Huard went with the 77th pick to Seattle.

Denton, meanwhile, sat in his parents' Green Valley home and stared at a phone that didn't ring. A player once mentioned in the same breath with the Heisman Trophy was, instead, categorized as too risky despite size (6-3, 210) and an arm capable of laser-like passes.

NFL executives didn't forget or overlook Denton, they simply branded him as immature and decided to keep an arm's length away.

Bypassed, he still has a few options although he badly needs a team to be receptive enough to invite him to training camp. That could happen and Denton could, of course, put on a dazzling performance and at least get a spot on an NFL team's developmental squad.

Failing that, he has to prepare for an even more nomadic existence than he has led since cutting his ties with UNLV. There's NFL Europe, the Canadian Football League, the Arena Football League and one or two other minor leagues on the drawing board.

None of those possibilities will offer much in the way of security. Maybe none will help him get to the NFL.

Those leagues are, after all, populated by only two types of players: hard workers who are looking for a break, and losers and outcasts down to their last chance.

It's pretty clear Denton would be seen as one of the latter.

If he's to salvage a professional career, his only hope is to prove he's not so much on a downward spiral as he was blind to the consequences of an occasional misdeed.

He has to show he's smarter at 22 than he was at 21.