Chargers Wander in Void Left by Fouts : Quarterback’s Retirement Leaves Team Wondering Where to Turn

SAN DIEGO — On a practice field next to San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, Life After Fouts began quietly this week.

The acronym for Life After Fouts is LAF.

But there is nothing funny about it.

For the first time since the mid-70s, the Chargers don’t know who their regular quarterback will be when the regular season opens in September.

They don’t know who their regular quarterback will be when training camp opens in July.

They don’t know who their regular quarterback will be when the team conducts a mini-camp later this month.

The front office says it is still looking for a veteran to replace retired Dan Fouts.

Meanwhile, the candidates on hand compose a rogue’s gallery of almost-weres, might-bes and know-they-never-wills. Their names--Mark Malone, Mark Vlasic, Mike Kelley, Babe Laufenberg and Ed Rubbert--are not household.

About all the Chargers do know is that Fouts will not be their regular quarterback for the first time in 15 years.

This is not the first time this has happened in the NFL. Joe Namath once left the Jets, Johnny Unitas left the Colts and Bart Starr left the Packers. All had their reasons.

All three were the heart of their teams’ offenses and were responsible for a great deal of their teams’ personality. All three are members of pro football’s Hall of Fame. The former was also true of Fouts; the latter probably will happen in 1993, the first year he is eligible.

A close examination of what happened to the Jets and the Colts immediately after the departures of Namath and Unitas doesn’t offer much encouragement for the Chargers whom Fouts has left behind:

- The 1976 Jets ended up 3-11 in Namath’s last year with the team. Their record was the same the year after they traded him to the Rams. They didn’t have a post-Namath winning record until 1981.

- The 1971 Colts finished 10-4. The 1972 Colts dropped to 5-9 before they traded Unitas to the Chargers. The Colts skidded to 4-10 in 1973 and bottomed out at 2-12 in 1974.

But history offers hope for the Chargers in the form of the Packers. After nine consecutive winning seasons, they fell to 6-7-1 in 1968. By 1971 they had deteriorated to 4-8-2. Starr retired. The next season, second-year coach Dan Devine guided the team to a surprising 10-4 record and a division title.

“We tried to build the team around the running game,” Devine said. And it worked. Durable John Brockington rushed for more than 1,000 yards in 1972.

“But our lack of passing hurt us when we got to the playoffs,” Devine added.

The Packers lost to Washington in the first round. One year later, they finished 5-7-2. Devine resigned the day after the last game of a 6-8 1974 season, amid much bitterness and a report that one of his family’s several dogs had been found shot to death. The memory of that incident lives.

At a recent Green Bay news conference for the new coach, Lindy Infante, Infante told reporters: “My wife and I and my family are very happy about coming to Green Bay. But my dog’s a little nervous.”

When Namath left the Jets after the 1976 season, first-year coach Walt Michaels had Bob Davis and Al Woodall from whom to choose an immediate successor. When Unitas left the Colts after the 1972 season, first-year coach Howard Schnellenberger was left with Marty Domres and a pea-green rookie named Bert Jones. After Starr, Devine chose a sixth-round draft choice, Scott Hunter, to run his offense.

Barring a major trade, the probability increases by the day that Malone, the lowest-rated passer in the league last year, will start for the Chargers in September. The challenge for Coach Al Saunders and the new offensive coordinator, Jerry Rhome, will be preparing Malone and selling his abilities to the rest of the team.

“What you’ve got to do is be ready to change your personnel and your offensive system,” Michaels says. “But it’s not easy.”

Saunders has already said that he wants to build the post-Fouts Chargers around a solid defense and a dependable running game. But the team finished last in the AFC in rushing last year. And it didn’t select a running back in the NFL draft last week. The Chargers did pick four offensive linemen, but none went earlier than the fourth round.

Michaels says the hardest sells are the veterans. Particularly the offensive linemen.

“Fouts was almost the establishment in San Diego,” he says. “He adjusted to situations better than anyone. The older guys will want to tell the new quarterback, ‘Hey, this is what it’s like.’

“But losing a quarterback like that is about like when a man loses his wife. Or a wife who loses her husband.”

When the Colts lost Unitas, they also lost about three-quarters of their team. They had a new owner, Bob Irsay. And they had a second-year general manager, Joe Thomas. Schnellenberger’s problems weren’t just dealing with the departure of Unitas, whose skills were already in decline. They centered, instead, around the choice between Domres and Jones.

Initially, Schnellenberger chose Jones. “It was a terrible mistake,” he says now. “Even my wife could see that Bert wasn’t ready. I tried to take a shortcut, and it didn’t work. I had to back off and get him out of there.”

Schnellenberger is now head coach at the University of Louisville. Michaels works for All-American, an East Coast company that aids bettors by selling odds and information over the phone. Devine has moved back to Arizona, where he works for Arizona State University. His title is director of community education/substance abuse.

Saunders’ immediate career goal is to retain his current title.

Devine’s advice: “You are forced to admit the quarterback position is significantly more important than any other position. I was diametrically opposed to that. But I found out it’s true. I’m willing to admit it now: The quarterback is more important. And you’ve got to have a good one who’s the kingpin of your offense.”

Give Saunders credit for hiring Rhome, who refined Joe Theismann, developed Jay Schroeder and resurrected Doug Williams in Washington.

The difference between then and now is that Rhome had more talent on offense in Washington, particularly in the line, with which to cushion his quarterbacks. He and Saunders don’t have that luxury with the Chargers. And they know it.

“You might just have to go out and take your lumps with your not-so-good quarterback until the rest of the team develops,” Schnellenberger says. “Of course, you have to be a man of great valor to do that.”

Or a man with a lifetime contract.

Saunders has talked openly about the impossibility of comparing coaches. For example, no one will ever know how Vince Lombardi would have done with last season’s Super Bowl champion Redskins. No one will ever know how Minnesota’s Bud Grant, a laissez-faire coach, would have done with the Super Bowl champion 1966 Packers, a team that responded to Lombardi’s martial approach.

Coaches rarely get credit for prodding a team with poor talent into a mediocre record the way Saunders did last year. Particularly when that team loses its last six games.

The trick, for coaches, is avoiding jobs that involve rebuilding and/or replacing legendary quarterbacks.

“Hallelujah,” Schnellenberger says, by way of agreement.

“It’s going to be tough for the Chargers,” says Devine. “The coaches will be tested. Fouts did a lot of things you didn’t realize. One was he knew what the coaches were thinking. The good ones are like that.”

Devine says it’s probably not wise to erase the memory of a longtime quarterback. Michaels says that’s precisely what he did with the Jets.

But even Alex Spanos, the Charger owner, who warred publicly with Fouts last summer over a messy contract dispute, has said he won’t turn his back.

“The era of Dan Fouts will always be remembered,” he says. To that end, Spanos has decided to retire Fouts’ jersey No. 14.

Fouts, meanwhile, recently signed a lucrative contract to announce football games for CBS-TV. It’s something he has always wanted to do.

Right now, Life After Football is treating Dan Fouts a lot better than Life After Fouts is treating the Chargers.