Don Coble

Athletes/Owners
By Don Coble
Morris News Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Terance Mathis, the most celebrated receiver in Atlanta Falcons history, has learned the racing world runs on money, not gasoline. He came into the sport thinking it was about fast cars, only to learn it's more about money.

Without help from a sponsor, the best race car never leaves the garage.

Mathis, who joined a growing list of former National Football League players starting second careers in NASCAR, has spent months working the telephones, trying to find backing for his Victory Motorsports. He has a lot of interest, but until he gets a signature on a contract he can't rest.

"It's been real frustrating, but I'm not about to give up," he said. "I'm still trying to find sponsorship. There are a lot of opportunities out there, but I'm just waiting on somebody to say, 'Let's do it.' I've been out of the league for (15) months. I understand the process. It takes time. I have a lot of irons in the fire; I'm just waiting for somebody to give me the OK."

Undersized and not especially fast, Mathis built a successful career by out-working his competition. He finished his career with the most catches (573), most yards (7,349) and receiving touchdowns (57) in Falcons history. He's trying to use that some work ethic in racing.

"This is a new hurdle for me," he said. "Everyone knows about diversity in racing, but this is about results. We may end up going down to Daytona and showing everyone what we're worth and going from there. I've never been afraid to put it all on the line before."

If he gets his Chevrolet into the Daytona 500, Mathis will join a lot of other fellow football players along pit road. Former Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman started Hall of Fame Racing this year and will have a Chevrolet in the 500 with Terry Labonte as a driver.

Jim Kelly and Terry Bradshaw are owners on the NASCAR Busch Series, and former Oakland Raiders receiver Tim Brown is building a team for the 2008 season.

Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs has as many Nextel Cup Series championships as he does Super Bowl victories -- three.

Brett Favre, Dan Marino and baseball's Mark McGwire are former car owners in NASCAR.

Hollywood also is interested in running in circles. Burt Reynolds used to own a team with director Hal Needham. Keenan Ivory Wayans and his brother Damon Wayans said they want to own a team.

"We've gone about it a lot differently than other teams have," Aikman said. "We've been very diligent and very careful about how we've put this team together. There's been some other people that said, 'Hey, we want to get involved in NASCAR.' We've learned from some of their mistakes."

Hall of Fame Racing will get cars, engines and technology from Gibbs. That means Cowboys and Redskins working together.

The team was clever to put hire Labonte for the first five races and for both road courses. Tony Raines will drive the other 29 races. By using Labonte early in the year, they can use his past champion provisional exemption to lock in a spot in the starting lineup. Without his exemption, the start-up would be required to make each race on speed.

Aikman and Staubach have been deliberate in their preparation. They've worked for more than a year getting the team up to speed.

"We said if we're going to get involved in this thing, let's do everything we can to give ourselves the best opportunity to have success," Aikman said. "Now that doesn't guarantee anything. There are generations of families in NASCAR that are struggling. But we've done everything that we feel we can do."

"If we can be in the top 25, that would be realistic. I want to win every race, but I know that's not possible. Making the Chase isn't really realistic. We're an expansion team competing at the highest level, and we know this is going to be difficult."

Aikman and Staubach combined to win five Super Bowl rings for the Cowboys and both are part of the Football Hall of Fame -- Staubach already is in, Aikman will be inducted in July. Success in racing, they said, won't be as easy.

"Success in this sport is different from what I'm accustomed," Aikman said. "When someone says you finished in the top 20, you've been successful. I've never heard of such a thing. I'm used to you finished second, you weren't very good."

Staubach owns a successful real estate company in the Dallas area.

"We are going to be successful," he said. "If this thing doesn't work, that's how it's going to be remembered, and Roger and I realize that. We're extremely motivated. We're going to be as involved as we have to be to make sure it doesn't fail."

Staubach said the toughest part is not being able to contribute on the field.

"As an athlete, this is the first time in my life where I'm not in control of the situation," he said. "When I was playing, I could contribute to the outcome. As an owner, I'm not going to be able to do that. It's going to take some getting used to. When I played, I was never on a losing team except for one year at Navy. But this is something entirely different."

Staubach is taking his racing seriously. In fact, he made an unusual pledge to Labonte, telling him if he won the Daytona 500 he would get Staubach's Heisman Trophy.

Kelly and Bradshaw were winners in football who've struggled in the Busch Series. Neither have won or have a top-10 finish in the point standings.

Kelly added former CART Champ Car champion Paul Tracy to his roster this year, although that team will race part-time.

"I'm a big NASCAR fan; I've always been," Bradshaw said. "When I decided I wanted to get into it, I met a few teams and really didn't like them. I didn't want to go Cup. I really wanted to build a team from scratch."

Five years later Bradshaw is still looking for his first win.

"I never knew how hard it is to field a competitive team," he said. "How much money it takes, how many people it takes. It's really difficult to find the right people."

Mathis and Brown are hustling just to get their cars on the track.

"This is all new to me and it's not easy," he said. "Give me the chance to show you what I can do and I'll be all right."