Columnist Ron Kantowski: Late position switch costs JT big bucks

Tuesday, April 29, 2003 | 9:58 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

If there was one thing that Jason Thomas learned during his checkered UNLV football career, it was how to call a timeout when he was confused at the line of scrimmage.

And so it was appropriate that the last chapter of his Rebels career should end the same way that so many others did during the past two years -- in a ball of confusion that would have done the Temptations proud.

It was only a week ago that Thomas and his high-profile agent Leigh Steinberg said that Thomas was bound and determined to become an NFL quarterback, which probably is not his natural position.

"Some scouts told me that I'd be an impact player and a Pro Bowl player if I would move to tight end or wide receiver," Thomas said for a story in last Monday's Sun. "I could have gone in the middle rounds somewhere."

So what does Thomas do Sunday, a few minutes after NFL teams had finished scraping the bottom of the draft barrel for tight ends and wide receivers from Western New Mexico and Gustavus Adolphus? He signs a free-agent contract with the New York Jets -- as a tight end/wide receiver.

If what Thomas says is true, that means he bypassed a significant signing bonus -- or at least one larger than the $2,500 he reportedly received -- by not agreeing to switch positions until after it was too late.

For instance, the agent for Nevada-Reno wide receiver Nate Burleson, selected in the third round by the Vikings, said they were seeking a $530,000 signing bonus.

Had Thomas been picked in the draft, it also would have given Jets fans at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden a chance to boo his name, as they do all of the team's picks.

Of course, Thomas would have been used to that. That's the same treatment he received from UNLV fans during much of his senior season.

There's no doubting that Thomas, an athlete's athlete at 6-foot-4 and 240 pounds, is still a pro prospect. But the way his future was handled has to be the worst example of management around here since the All-Star Cafe went belly-up.

Two years ago, before his coaches managed to screw him up, Thomas was listed as the top quarterback prospect in the entire land by no less a guru than Mel Kiper Jr., who is to the NFL draft what the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was to John, Paul, George and Ringo.

But Thomas' fields didn't stay strawberry forever. His progress retarded by niggling injuries and a boring offense that rarely utilized his considerable running ability, Thomas struggled to complete passes from the pocket on third-and-9.

Until Sunday afternoon, it appeared his next assignment was going to be throwing passes on second-and-9, as Thomas and Steinberg indicated that the former planned to continue as a quarterback in the Canadian Football League.

So what happened to change their mind?

My guess is that Steinberg did the math and figured 5 percent Canadian is not worth as much as 5 percent American.

But the image I have of him is running for his life against Utah in the 2001 Las Vegas Bowl. During one series early in the game, he was sacked three consecutive times putting the Trojans in a fourth-and-38 hole, or something to that effect.

That's an experience that will probably serve Palmer well, considering that he'll begin his NFL career in Cincinnati.

"That could never happen in real life," said auto racing purists and Roger Ebert.

Well, last week it did happen in real life -- and to no less than a living (somehow) legend at that.

When 63-year-old Mario Andretti agreed to shake down a car for an injured driver at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the idea of possibly qualifying it for next month's Indy 500, I'm sure he never anticipated winding up, as they say in racing parlance, "in the fence."

In Andretti's case, it was nearly over the fence.

Speeding along at more than 200 mph, he ran over a piece of debris in Turn 1 that launched his car high into the air and into a series of frightening flips. The car thankfully landed right side up and Andretti walked away with only bumps and bruises.

But an eyewitness said had Andretti's car not struck the overhang on the debris fence that separates the track from the grandstand, he might have wound up halfway up the bleachers.

Can you imagine the carnage that would have caused on race day, when more than 300,000 spectators pack those grandstands?

A car has never gone into the crowd at Indy, but it did happen in the 1955 24 Hours of Lemans, when a Mercedes driven by Frenchman Phillip LeVegh crashed on the pit straight.

Eighty spectators and LeVegh were killed. Mercedes withdrew from racing, not to return for some 40 years.