Police: Thief steals football playbook of national champs Miami Hurricanes, posts on Internet

<br>CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) _ Call it an interception: A thief stole copies of the playbook used by the national champion Miami Hurricanes and posted parts of it on the Internet. <br><br>Police said someone

Thursday, April 4th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) _ Call it an interception: A thief stole copies of the playbook used by the national champion Miami Hurricanes and posted parts of it on the Internet.

Police said someone stole the football team's playbooks last month and later returned the 150-page books in manila envelopes. The books contain the offensive and defensive plays used by the undefeated Hurricanes last season.

Police told The Miami Herald they learned of the theft March 28 and are working on the case but have no suspects.

Police officials did not immediately comment Thursday to The Associated Press.

Jeff Merk, the university's director of football operations, who gave the original statement to police, and team spokesman Mark Pray declined comment to the Herald.

According to the police report, two manila envelopes arrived by mail at the university's Hecht Athletic Center on March 28. Each envelope was postmarked Tampa on March 22 and had no return address.

One was addressed to ``Ken Dorsey c/o LB Coach'' and ``Ken Dorsey c/o QB Coach.'' Dorsey is the Hurricanes' quarterback, a Heisman Trophy finalist last season.

Defensive coordinator Randy Shannon opened the envelopes, the report said.

The report said the playbooks were taken from the office of linebacker coach Vernon Hargreaves and the playbook pages were removed from the binders but the binders were left in the office.

Merk told police that team officials checked the Internet and found playbook pages scanned on the Web site ``Sandman's 4-3 Defense On-Line.'' The site is named after a popular defense in which four linemen are backed by three linebackers.

The Web site, which was not accessible Thursday morning, asked for submissions of playbooks that detail the 4-3 defense and requests that people e-mail the site to exchange addresses.

Team officials told police they didn't know how the playbooks were removed. Merk told police that ``occasionally unauthorized person(s) find their way into the area of the coaches' offices and occasionally doors are left unlocked.''