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Chargers get scare as L.T. is felled
August 3, 2002

Running back LaDainian Tomlinson initially thought the worst. As he lay in the fetal position yesterday morning in practice, clutching his left ankle, he couldn't help but think it was broken. The pain was that great.

But two hours later, Tomlinson was half-smiling instead of grimacing. He had a sprain instead of a break, the difference being a minimum of two days on the sideline instead of a couple of months.

"It's not as bad as I thought," said Tomlinson, who sent a chill through the Chargers organization when he had to be carted off the field. "I went to the right, put my head down and hit it up in there, and I guess someone fell and landed on my ankle. Right away I felt it. I was scared."

Maybe not as scared as those around him. If the Chargers are to enjoy their first winning season or playoff appearance since 1995, Tomlinson will play an important role.

He has that special blend of speed and power that makes him a threat each time he touches the ball. Last season, his 1,236 yards rushing and 10 touchdowns were club rookie records and his 1,603 yards from scrimmage broke Lance Alworth's 36-year-old team mark.

The Chargers tried to maintain a sense of normalcy when Tomlinson went down, moving the players to the side of the field so they could continue a 9-on-7 run drill. But the reality is that most players' thoughts were with Tomlinson, who was being tended to just to the far side of the drill.

The Chargers do not have a proven backup for the second-year pro, so the image of him rocking in pain got everyone's attention. Players from both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball walked over to check on him. Suddenly, the drill was secondary, which was obvious from the way the practice deteriorated from that point.

"LT is a big part of this puzzle," said linebacker Junior Seau. "To have him go down was definitely a setback to us as a team. The best thing about that is that we have time and he'll be back.

"But at the time that he went down, there was a lot of worry out here. He's worked so hard to get to the point where he is now. He's put on weight, he was dedicated in the minicamps and summer schools, he was there at every (weight-training session). You just hate to see someone with the character and the work ethic that he has go down."

The Chargers filled in with veteran Terrell Fletcher and undrafted rookies Vaughn Sanders and Lew Thomas. Fletcher, the projected third-down back, is a capable starter for spurts, but at 5-foot-8 and 196 pounds he's not built for the sustained pounding that can come from the power-running game coach Marty Schottenheimer favors.

Sanders (Hofstra) and Thomas (Vanderbilt) have ability, but neither has the combination of speed and power Tomlinson possesses. They also don't have the experience.

Tomlinson, who will wear a protective boot until the ankle heals, said he has a history of ankle sprains. Last year he injured the same ankle. He was slowed earlier in camp with a blister on his right big toe and is hoping that the new injury isn't a sign of things to come, not after all the hard work he put in during the offseason.

"That went through my mind," he said. "I was like, 'Man, I can't believe this.' I was just thinking: This is my breakout year, and all of a sudden . . .

"But that's football. It happens. I can blame the blister on the shoes. This is just football. Hitting it up in there, people falling down – it happens. I have sprained my ankle so many times."

The good news for the Chargers is that that's all he did this time.

"It's good that this is early and not a week from the season, because he's our guy," said wide receiver Tim Dwight. "We need him to tote that rock. He's going to make this offense go."


Chargers GM Butler fighting lung cancer
July 30, 2002

Chargers general manager John Butler has been diagnosed with lung cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy treatment, the team announced last night.

"During his treatments, he is tending to business as usual and wants everyone in the Chargers family to do the same," the club said in the statement. "While he is grateful for the kind thoughts and interest, he wants the entire organization to remain focused on bringing a world championship to San Diego."

Butler, 55, was unavailable for comment. Coach Marty Schottenheimer informed the players of his condition during a team meeting last night.

"John has been a winner and fierce competitor on and off the field his whole life," club president Dean Spanos said in a statement.

"We all have confidence that he will overcome this new challenge. We're behind John 100 percent."

Butler is known to have been a longtime smoker before joining the Chargers last year after 14 seasons with the Buffalo Bills. But a club official said he gave up cigarettes shortly after arriving in San Diego.

Butler will undergo chemotherapy for an unspecified period, after which he will receive radiation treatments, said a club official.

The cancer has not stopped Butler from attending every practice since the team opened training camp eight days ago, although he had been spending less time in the office before that.

In just two offseasons, he has stamped his fingerprints on the organization by bringing in free agents such as Doug Flutie, Marcellus Wiley, Ryan McNeil and Donnie Edwards, while drafting LaDainian Tomlinson, Drew Brees, Quentin Jammer and Toniu Fonoti, among others.

The team finished 5-11 last year, but there is a current of optimism this year, thanks to the hiring of Schottenheimer.

"Those two men at the top make a difference, coach Schottenheimer and John Butler," defensive end Al Fontenot said the other day.
  Flutie picked to start first of exhibitions
August 2, 2002

The quarterback battle is so far from being over, say those involved, that this can't even be looked at as a sign.

But here's the latest update: Coach Marty Schottenheimer said yesterday that Doug Flutie will start the Chargers' exhibition opener Aug. 10 against the Arizona Cardinals. Drew Brees will get into the game after Flutie works about 15 snaps.

"Don't read into it," Flutie said with a smile.

Fair enough. But it gives people something to talk about.

"Yeah, everybody is going to analyze every play and say, 'Round 1, so and so is ahead,' " Flutie said. "Everybody is going to read into everything. The bottom line is we're both going to go out there and we're both going to play, and (Schottenheimer) will make the decision (on the regular-season starter) when he makes it."

Schottenheimer said he is going with Flutie, 39, to start the exhibition opener in deference to the fact he was the starter last year. Flutie started every game for the Chargers in 2001, while then-rookie Brees played in one game.

Schottenheimer talked with his staff yesterday about the quarterbacks and said that not only is he no closer to naming a starter but that he also does not anticipate the rest of camp helping him much toward that end.

"The more we talk about it, the more I become convinced we're probably just going to have to make a decision," Schottenheimer said. "I think the competition will be so close it will be hard to maybe quantify the decision."

Schottenheimer, who hopes to decide on the regular-season starter before the final exhibition at the latest, said the competition hinges on how the two perform in practice as well as games.

While it has appeared Flutie has been the sharper of the two the first 11/2 weeks, several factors make it difficult to discern.

"The bottom line is consistency and who does (Schottenheimer) believe in to win football games," Flutie said.

Confidence based on Schottenheimer
July 28, 2002

As the NFL pulls back the curtains on a new year of training camps, the Chargers find themselves in the familiar position of not being taken seriously. One national magazine is picking them to finish last in the AFC West and separate online services have them 26th and 27th among the league's 32 teams.

In terms of shock value, this is right up there with Ryan Leaf taking the money and running. The Chargers haven't had a winning season since Hugh Grant's late-night meeting with Divine Brown – the year was 1995 for those who don't remember – and their six wins over the past two seasons are a league low.

While that might cause some to be skeptical, it was not an issue with linebacker Donnie Edwards. He spurned overtures from recognized playoff contenders in St. Louis, Tennessee and Cleveland to come to San Diego several months ago because he believes something special is at hand.

"Some people said it was because I wanted to return home, but that didn't have anything to do with it," said Edwards, who grew up Chula Vista. "When I get done playing football, my wife and I can live anywhere we want to. This was about football. It was about winning."

Chargers fans have heard this all before, of course. Every year the team trots out a new cast of characters who talk about this being the year, about the past being the past, about them making a run.

What makes this year different?

"There's a different aura now," said defensive end Al Fontenot, who has been with the Chargers since 1999. "It's almost like there's a brand-new sense of urgency and a sense of confidence – a swagger. There's a new-found swagger."

Coach Marty Schottenheimer is a big reason. To the players, his résumé carries as much weight as his words.

But Schottenheimer acknowledges that it will take more than words to turn things around. There is a mind-set that has to be changed, an opportunity that has to be seized, and it begins with changing players' habits.

"You have to have them take care of little things, like knowing the down and distance in every situation, knowing exactly how much time is in the game, and developing a sense of discipline that you don't let things that go awry affect you as you continue to play on," he said. "It really has more to do with the mental side of it than the physical side of it.

"I just feel like we're developing winning habits. You don't put the ball on the ground, you don't commit line-of-scrimmage fouls before the ball is snapped, you finish every play. Yesterday, a player caught a ball and got knocked down. He got back up and started back to the huddle. He didn't do it because he was tired; he did it because he committed to his habit. His habit is, you get knocked down, you get up and go back. But that's not what we want."

Instead, Schottenheimer insists on running backs or receivers getting on their feet in practice and running to the end zone as if they never had been touched.

"And that's what we had him do," Schottenheimer said of the player in question.

Edwards didn't have to do any homework while weighing whether to sign with the Chargers. He knew their personnel from playing them twice a year for each of the past six years.

"These guys play hard," he said. "They had some tough breaks in the past, losing games at the end. But these guys play hard, and I respect that. And now you've got a guy named Marty Schottenheimer that's a proven winner, that's got all the credibility in the world and I believe in him. These guys are going in a different direction."

To get there, they will have to forget some bitter seasons. Easier said than done? Only time will tell.

"It's very tough to leave that in the past," said Fontenot. "You can't just close your eyes and say last year's over with, this is a new year; because until you get that first win, compounded with that first winning season, first playoff appearance and first Super Bowl appearance, that bad taste will always be in the back of your mouth. You have to lay that foundation of success."

Which is what the club will try to do over the next four weeks.

"Everybody's raising the bar," said cornerback Ryan McNeil. "Everybody's raising his level of play and expectations. This year, we're not going to talk about it. Our attitude is, let's just go out and do it."

Back Chargers.itgo.com

Chargers put faith in the credo of hard work
August 4, 2002

Somewhere on the Qualcomm Stadium floor, moments after Super Bowl XXXVII is concluded on Jan. 26, a player from the only team that can boast anymore will most definitely boast.

He will proclaim that what just transpired is a reward for all the hard work he and his teammates put in. He will say it started in the summer, that no team worked harder.

The scene is a certainty. Such recognition of one team's toiling has become the vogue post-championship refrain, practically supplanting thanks to the Almighty.

If hard work in the summer is the magic ingredient, perhaps it will be a Chargers player who is standing there crowing.

The fact is, it is impossible to quantify which team works the hardest in training camp.

But it certainly seems the Chargers are working the longest without a break.

A week from today will be the players' first day off since veterans reported July 26. That's 16 straight days, with the 16th being Saturday night's game against the Arizona Cardinals.

A random survey of 14 other NFL teams revealed none that even approach the Chargers' ceaseless schedule. Only the Cowboys (12) and Eagles (11) surpassed nine days without a rest.

"That's as gangsta as it gets," defensive end Marcellus Wiley, the Chargers' man of many phrases, said of the 16-day stretch. "It don't get much tougher than that."

This year's training camp, under new head coach Marty Schottenheimer, is particularly, um, gangsta, for a team that has in the past been a participant in what was reputed to be the NFL's cushiest camp.

Said one team official yesterday: "We've had more practices in pads this year than in three years under Mike Riley."

While the anticipation of grueling Schottenheimer two-a-days has not lived up to its billing – "It's overrated," said the coach – neither has it been easy.

The Chargers held six consecutive practices in pads – with escalating degrees of contact each day – after veterans reported. Schottenheimer changed the schedule Wednesday, making the afternoon practice a "shells" workout.

And when not on the field, players are not lounging around much either.

They are required to wake up and go to breakfast at 6:30 a.m. Practices last between two and 21/2 hours. There has been a meeting after every practice, a meeting after dinner and a meeting after the after-dinner meeting.

Schottenheimer, who has been holding more meetings this year than even he normally does because he and his staff are introducing schemes that are new to the players, on Friday discontinued the meeting that normally followed the afternoon practice.

"They're working very hard," Schottenheimer said in explaining his lightening the load. "We're getting done what we need to get done. I have no problem modifying."

It is no longer safe to be in the path of players as they hurry out of camp following the afternoon session. (They still have to be back for the 7:15 p.m. special teams meeting.)

Under Riley, players recall one or two practices and one meeting a day. And, said another team official, only about three of those practices were in pads.

Said fullback Fred McCrary, "That was love."

This year's schedule is something with which the players have grown to have a love-hate relationship. Meeting virtually all day every day is not something men do easily.

"Of course, it was like, 'Whoa!' " McCrary said of first seeing the schedule. "But you've got to be mentally strong. He's just testing us to see how mentally strong we are. It has been tough. It's a grind."

McCrary also said this when asked if he felt the grind would be worth it: "Yes. It teaches us discipline."

To a man, in fact, the Chargers players say they see the benefit of the schedule. They are willing to sacrifice comfort in August for winning in all the other months in which winning has been so rare recently.

"We're making a conscious effort collectively," said cornerback Ryan McNeil. "We're trusting Marty's program. He's saying this is what it takes to win, and we're buying into it."