NO WALLS BETWEEN THEM

The phone line crackled with static and clicked with interruptions. Stanley Wilson kept talking, ignoring the prying ears that eavesdrop on his every call. He could prattle on all day about his elder son, his namesake, the Stanford cornerback whose stock is rapidly rising in pro football circles.

Maybe one day he’ll even get a chance to see Stanley Jr. play.

But now, surrounded by prison walls, Wilson is left to wait for word about which team has selected his son in this weekend’s NFL draft. Stanley Jr. is expected to go in the first three rounds, and his dad is praying he winds up with the right team, the right coach, the right start.

Wilson does not worry, however, about his son making the same mistakes in life that he did.

“When he comes up here and visits me, he sees what he has to go through as a visitor,” said Wilson, 43, who is six years into a 22-year sentence imposed in March 1999 after a conviction for burglarizing a Beverly Hills home to fund his drug habit. “He realizes it’s not a road he wants to travel. He’s seen it himself. There’s no question he knows.”

Wilson, in a rare telephone interview from the Los Angeles County state prison in Lancaster, talked about his strong relationship with his elder son, whom he followed closely at Bishop Montgomery High, and, for the last four years, at Stanford. Once or twice a season, he watched his son play on TV, but more often he was transfixed by a radio broadcast.

“Being an ex-player, I could visualize what was happening,” said Wilson, a star running back at Banning High and Oklahoma who spent six seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals. “The TV doesn’t give you as broad a picture of what’s going on on the field. Based on my past, I knew what it was like when they were talking about down and distances, different coverages. I’d talk to my son after the game and he’d swear I was there.”

The elder Wilson’s football career, one that once burned so brightly -- he’s still the Sooners’ sixth all-time leading rusher with 3,198 yards -- ended abruptly in January 1989 when he failed to attend a team meeting on the eve of Super Bowl XXIII. An assistant coach went looking for him and found him passed out on the floor of his hotel bathroom, drug paraphernalia at his side. He missed the game, and the Bengals lost, 20-16, picked apart down the stretch by Joe Montana.

Henry and Beverly Wilson had traveled to Miami for the game, and they brought 5-year-old Stanley Jr. Even after getting the heartbreaking call from Coach Sam Wyche the night before kickoff, they decided to attend the game, riding to the stadium in a limousine their son had arranged before his cocaine relapse.

“My grandfather asked me if I still wanted to go to the game,” the younger Wilson said. “I didn’t quite understand what was going on, but I told him I still wanted to go. It’s awkward and surreal, because I remember it like it was a game right now. I remember being there. I didn’t know what happened until a year later when he wasn’t there anymore.”

His football career over, Wilson spent the 1990s in and out of prison, mostly for burglaries. It wasn’t until his 1999 incarceration, he said, that he finally got clean and found religion. He said that has allowed him to reconnect with his parents and has strengthened his bond with his son.

Sitting on a coffee table in his parents’ home are a pair of bookends shaped like praying hands. They bracket a weathered Bible, what Henry Wilson calls his “guidebook” for raising grandsons Stanley Jr. and Seth. (Their mother lives in New York.) The Wilsons live at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac in a modest but well-kept home, the same place they raised their two sons, Stanley and Henry. The boys were sports stars at Banning, and Stanley was among the most successful running backs in Southern California prep history.

“This house is where everything took place,” said Beverly, sitting in her meticulous living room, the same place a hit parade of college coaches -- John Robinson, Tom Osborne, Barry Switzer, Don James, Terry Donahue -- came to recruit her son. “Kids coming through here all the time, the phone ringing off the hook. And the girls would call them and come pick them up. I always thought it was supposed to be the other way around.”

Life was considerably calmer for Stanley Jr. He wasn’t allowed to play football until he was in ninth grade -- his father briefly coached his eight-man team at a Christian school -- and academics were by far the priority. That seemed to suit him fine.

“Stanley Jr. was very cordial, very obedient, just well-mannered,” Henry said. “He was always inside the rules and regulations. He didn’t tarry out there to look for those challenges. He was too busy. We kept him busy.”

The Wilsons also helped foster a bond between their son and grandson. They stressed the importance of that on the weekly 90-mile drives to Lancaster, emphasizing the importance of loving and respecting a man he knew only through letters, calls and sit-downs in a cafeteria-sized visiting room.

“You would think that a kid might have some resentment toward his dad after what we’ve been through,” Stanley Sr. said. “But he never did. One reason is I’ve always been very honest and candid with him.”

Stanley Jr. wore his father’s No. 32 jersey in high school, before eventually switching to No. 2 at Stanford in an effort to establish his own identity. Unlike his father, whose rumbling running style earned him the nickname “Stanley Steamer,” the younger Wilson is sleek and wiry, someone who looks just as comfortable on the track as the football field. He ran two of the top times in Stanford history in the 100 (10.46 seconds) and 200 meters (21.4).

Although he was barely mentioned in preseason publications, Wilson is now regarded by many NFL scouts as a solid third-round pick. “He’s got some bad habits he’s got to break with his footwork, but you’ve got to like his speed,” a personnel executive for an NFC team said.

“His athleticism is superior to mine,” his father said. “I knew more about football when I was his age, but he’s an athlete learning how to be a good football player.”

More important, Stanley Jr.’s grandparents worked on instilling values in him. They emphasized the need for him to stand proud, no matter what he read or heard about his father. After that fateful Super Bowl, for instance, Henry returned to his job as a manager at a lock-making plant and acted as if nothing unusual had happened.

“There were 700 sets of eyes on me, waiting for me to go off in a corner and curl up in a fetal position and cry, ‘Oh, Lord! Oh, Lord!’ ” he said. “I wouldn’t do it.”

He said that at the end of that week, at least 10 co-workers approached him -- one of them being his boss -- confided their children had problems with drugs, and asked advice about staying strong.

Last week, the Wilsons, along with Henry Jr., a former Oklahoma receiver who lives in Los Angeles, had a six-hour visit with Stanley in prison. “We’re still a family,” Henry Sr. said. “That was a blessing for me, being with my sons.”

When her son’s drug problem first came to light, Beverly Wilson began to see something different on the homeless people she passed on her way to work every morning -- actual faces.

“I’d go through skid row thinking, ‘That’s somebody’s son. That’s somebody’s daughter,’ ” she said. “In the past it was, ‘That’s just some drunk on the street. That’s somebody strung out.’ ”

Stanley Jr., it seems, is already equipped with that compassion. He talks about his relationship with his father without a hint of embarrassment or hesitation. And his goals, although common for a rookie-to-be, somehow sound different coming from him.

“It’s my dream to get to the Super Bowl and win it,” he said. “Since it didn’t happen for my dad, he’d probably be thrilled.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

NFL Draft Order

First three rounds of the NFL Draft will be held Saturday (9 a.m.-4 p.m. PDT, ESPN), and the last four rounds Sunday (8 a.m.-3 p.m., ESPN, ESPN2). Round 1 order:

*--* TEAM W-L TEAM W-L 1. San Fran. 2-14 17. Cincinnati 8-8 2. Miami 4-12 18. Minnesota 8-8 3. Cleveland 4-12 19. St. Louis 8-8 4. Chicago 5-11 20. Dallas-c 6-10 5. Tampa Bay 5-11 21. Jacksonville 9-7 6. Tennessee 5-11 22. Baltimore 9-7 7. Minnesota-a 8-8 23. Seattle 9-7 8. Arizona 6-10 24. Green Bay 10-6 9. Washington 6-10 25. Denver 10-6 10. Detroit 6-10 26. N.Y. Jets 10-6 11. Dallas 6-10 27. Atlanta 11-5 12. San Diego-b 12-4 28. San Diego 12-4 13. Houston 7-9 29. Indianapolis 12-4 14. Carolina 7-9 30. Pittsburgh 15-1 15. Kansas City 7-9 31. Philadelphia 13-3 16. New Orleans 8-8 32. New England 14-2 a-from Oakland; b-from N.Y.Giants; c-from Buffalo

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Wilson Statistics

STANLEY SR.

Stanley Wilson’s statistics as a fullback for the Cincinnati Bengals:

*--* Year Gms Rush Yards Avg TD 1983 10 56 267 4.8 1 1984 1 17 74 4.4 0 1986 10 68 379 5.6 8 1988 15 112 398 3.6 2

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STANLEY JR.

Stanley Wilson Jr.’s statistics as a cornerback at Stanford:

*--* Year Tackles Pass Block Int 2001 2 0 1 2002 32 6 2 2003 27 6 1 2004 54 5 1

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Top Cornerbacks

Top cornerback prospects for this weekend’s NFL draft and the round in each is projected to be drafted:

*--* Player School 40 time Round ADAM JONES West Virginia 4.43 First ANTREL ROLLE Miami 4.48 First CARLOS ROGERS Auburn 4.46 First or Second JUSTIN MILLER Clemson 4.46 First or Second MARLIN JACKSON Michigan 4.49 First or Second COREY WEBSTER Louisiana State 4.48 Second FABIAN WASHINGTON Nebraska 4.29 Second ERIC GREEN Virginia Tech 4.49 Second BRYANT McFADDEN Florida State 4.45 Second STANLEY WILSON JR. Stanford 4.39 Second or Third STANFORD ROUTT Houston 4.31 Third

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