Rattay again proves his doubters wrong

The quarterback overcame long odds in high school, again at junior college and now again in the NFL.

By Rick Stroud
Published December 24, 2006

Everyone overlooked Tim Rattay.

He had to wait until his senior year at Phoenix Christian High before playing quarterback on the varsity - and throw a state-record 40 touchdowns.

The stubborn coach never second-guessed his decision, even in the wake of such a stunning performance. Rattay never confronted him, either.

He knew better. It was his father.

"We had an all-state quarterback, Michael Marino, playing in front of him," said Jim Rattay, who has won a combined eight state titles in Ohio and Arizona during his 30-year coaching career.

"I guess (Tim) kind of burst onto the scene. But even after the year he had, nobody offered him a scholarship. I guess a lot of people look more at the tangibles than the intangibles."

At 6 feet, 200 pounds with an average arm, Rattay has never been a player whose physique or personality attracts attention.

But teammates and coaches say he is fiercely competitive. His family will tell you about an overachieving kid from a rich football tradition, the son of an Ohio state high school Hall of Fame coach who set NCAA passing records and beat tall odds to forge a career in the NFL.

This afternoon against the Browns, he will spend Christmas Eve making his first start for the Bucs.

He will be home for the holidays.

His grandfather, John Rattay, quarterbacked his team to the city championship in 1948. That game was played in Cleveland Municipal Stadium in front of 63,000 people, the third most ever to see a high school game.

Jim Rattay began his coaching career in Ohio in 1976 by winning the first of his three state championships. The family moved a dozen years later, when Tim was 10, to Arizona due to Jim's asthma.

They will all gather at Cleveland Browns Stadium to see if Rattay can prove someone wrong again.

"My dad ... has some friends that are still back there," Rattay said. "And he was a Browns fan growing up. So it will be fun to go back to play in Cleveland."

Rattay, 29, was buried on the Tampa Bay depth chart until the offense was on the brink of desperation, having gone 12 quarters without a touchdown.

Bypassed for rookie Bruce Gradkowski when Chris Simms sustained a season-ending injury in Week 3, Rattay entered with 3:51 left in the second quarter last week and rallied the Bucs with 268 yards and three touchdown passes in an overtime loss to the Bears.

It was only the second regular-season appearance for Rattay since coming from San Francisco in October 2005 for a sixth-round pick. The previous week against Atlanta, he replaced Gradkowski in mop-up duty.

"Obviously, I'm extremely excited to be able to play again," Rattay said. "It's been a while, and it seemed like a long time. I enjoy playing. I love to be out there with those guys and playing, so I'm looking forward to it, definitely."

Up by as many as 21 points, the Bears attacked Rattay with an array blitzes. But he stood cool in the pocket. When nothing was there, he threw the ball away. When he got man-to-man coverage, he made the Bears pay with a 64-yard touchdown to Joey Galloway and 44-yarder to Ike Hilliard. He also hit Alex Smith for a 9-yard touchdown.

It was the kind of plays many veterans believed Rattay could have been making all along because of his experience.

"You saw the preseason when he was the No. 2 and he got beat out," quarterbacks coach Paul Hackett said. "He got beat out by a young guy (Gradkowski) who came in and made a lot of plays in the preseason. I think maybe that's something (Rattay) sat and looked at and said, 'Hey, I'm better than all these guys. But I had my chance in the preseason, and I didn't play up to what I should've. And I'll be damned if that's going to happen again to me.'

"I think one thing about Tim is that he's a great competitor. He's quiet. He doesn't say much. But he is an extreme competitor. You see it on the field, in the classroom. You see it every moment."

Being an underdog is familiar to Rattay. With no scholarship after high school, he attended Scottsdale (Ariz.) Community College and was the sixth-string quarterback during spring practice.

"They didn't have meetings. They just went out on the field every day, and the other quarterbacks knew what they were doing," Jim Rattay said. "He said, 'Dad, they won't teach me the plays. I don't know what routes the receivers are running.' "

In the fall, it was a different story. Jim figured Tim might never get on the field. But the week before the season opener, Tim announced he was going to be the starter.

"I don't know if he's fearless. But he's not bothered by the pressure, and most quarterbacks are going to be little cognizant of the pressure," Jim Rattay said. "That's probably one of the gifts God has given him," His edge is mental. He locks his mind into the routes, and he's oblivious to the pressure. He's able to hang in there longer than some guys are."

By the time current Bucs backup quarterback Luke McCown arrived at Louisiana Tech in 1999, Rattay was already something of a legend in Ruston, La. Rattay led the nation in passing as a sophomore, junior and senior, averaging an NCAA-record 366 yards.

Most of Tech's big games came on the road, where Rattay put on a show. In 1999 alone, he threw for 590 yards in a 56-27 loss to Nebraska, 405 in a 45-19 loss to Southern Cal and 368 in a 29-28 upset of Alabama.

In the season opener, Rattay threw for 183 yards in the first half against Florida State. Even though he was held to 57 in the second half of a 41-7 loss, Seminoles coach Bobby Bowden called him "the best quarterback that has played in Doak Stadium since Dan Marino."

"The legend was he completes everything he throws,," McCown said of Rattay. "That was the standard that was set for any quarterback coming in to run that offense.

"You throw every kind of throw you can imagine; every ball you can even conceive of throwing; every route. Every situation you can throw in, you've done it; changing the angle of your arm. And you learn how to read guys. You learn how to read the body language of their route because that's what you do all day long."

At 3-11, it's too late for Rattay to salvage the Bucs season.

But two more solid performances might change the way the rest of the league views Rattay, who can become a free agent after the season. His experience in the west coast offense - he spent five-plus seasons with the 49ers - enables him to be effective without taking many practice snaps.

"He's not the strongest-armed guy, so he gets the ball out of his hand quickly," Hackett said. "His experience (playing) this style of offense for seven years gives him a good feel. And I think now that he's had a year and a half to sit and watch, he has a sense of what (coach Jon Gruden) wants."

Maybe Jim Rattay has the best advice for the Bucs.

"As a coach, you have to play the best players," he said, "because the players know who should be playing."

[Last modified December 24, 2006, 05:26:32]