The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 81

9 A Part III Friday. March 25, 1988 Ooa Angeles Slimes San Diego County 1 i Dave Distel UL iJ I kill 'El) jJMUjlIu Club 14's Proprietor Quietly Closes Down After a 15-Year Run Yv A '4 V- DAVE GATLEY Lot Angeid Tvmti I After it began in 1973, Dan Fouts' NFL career blossomed in the late '70s and early '80s; life got tougher toward the end. Yf G-8 Att. Ctnp Yd. Pet.

TP Lng Int. Rtg 1973 10-6 194 87 1126 44.8 6 69t 13 46.0 1974 11-11 237 115 1732 48.5 8 75t 13 61.4 1975 10-9 195 106 1396 54.4 2 57 10 59.3 1976 14-13 359 208 2535 57.9 14 81t 15 75.3 1977 4-4 109 69 869 63.3 4 67t 6 77.5 1978 15-14 381 224 2999 58.8 24 55t 20 83.2 1979 16-16 530 332 4082 62.9 24 65t 24 82.6 1980 16-16 689 348 4715 59.1 30 65 24 84.6 1981 16-16 609 360 4802 59.1 33 67t 17 90.6 1982 9-9 330 204 2883 61.8 17 44t 11 93.6 1983 10-10 340 215 2975 63.2 20 59t 15 92.6 1984 13-13 507 317 3740 62.5 19 61t 17 83.1 1985 14-12 430 254 3638 59.1 27 75t 20 88.0 1986 12-12 430 252 3031 58.6 16 65t 22 71.4 1987 11-10 364 206 2517 56.6 10 46 15 70.0 TotaU 1 181-171 1 5604 3297 43040 58.8 1 254 81t 242 80.2 oSii II FOUTS RANCHO SANTA FE-Ninety-nine percent of the messages on Dan Fouts' telephone answering machine Wednesday night and Thursday morning were from his old chums in the media, and he skipped through those. One message stopped him and made him chuckle. "I got a call from the NFL Alumni he said. "I guess that's where we're at." Indeed, as everyone had come to suspect, Dan Fouts was retiring after 15 years as heart and growl of the Chargers.

Fittingly, this man went out just as he had played. He went out as a man larger than his team or at least larger than the Chargers as an organization. In the three months since the 1987 season ended, Fouts was silent about his plans for the future. He answered questions on the subject with good humor but remained as evasive as he never was in the face of a pass rush. This silence had to be difficult, because he was being blitzed by the Charger organization's insistence that it desperately needed a quarterback.

The Chargers might have quietly shopped around until Fouts formally announced his retirement, but instead they chose to take a route that emphasized dissatisfaction with the man who had had the job for so long. It was embarrassing to watch such a man blindsided by his own team. And yet he remained silent. The final blow came this week, when a columnist reported that Fouts had already been bought off for 1988. The genesis of this information was nowhere to be found, since the article did not contain the vaguest of attribution.

But the column served the Charger front office nicely. Dan Fouts, the world had thus been informed, was a man with absolutely no bargaining position. Dan Fouts was through as a Charger. He had finally been stripped of the facade of respectability he might otherwise have been able to maintain, and his own organization had done much to chip away at the veneer. It was as if Dan Fouts had been sniped at until he was flushed from hiding.

And Thursday was his day to come out from the shadows like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in their final scene, which was to say spitting fire from both barrels. After all, wasn't that the way Fouts ran an offense? But that was not the way he ran his farewell media gathering. He was all dignity and wit and appreciation. No controversy would intrude upon this occasion. It was a day to distribute bouquets, and his neatly trimmed yard was big enough to provide all the flowers he was passing around to family, friends, teammates, coaches, fans and even the media.

Throughout the questioning, Fouts avoided implications that there was any estrangement between himself and the organization. It was easy to explain, for example, why this most private of men had called a news conference at his magnificent hilltop estate rather than the stadium. "I trust you people," he laughed. Really. "Well," he said, "it's not like I want you to come over every day." The route was maiked quite nicely with a directional sign on Via de la Valle, a sign bedecked with blue and gold ribbons.

The street sign itself was wrapped in blue and gold crepe paper. You see, Fouts' problems are not with the real Chargers and never have been. His battles have always been with the folks at the upper edges of the organization. Fouts' people have always been the worker bees. Forget the owner's box.

Give him his teammates and the secretaries. Give him the people in the trenches. For years and years, Club 14 has been the most exclusive and private organization in town. The membership included Fouts and the Charger secretaries, and they met each Friday afternoon during the season for a little chitchat. A similarly exclusive occasion was the Saturday night dinner, Fouts hosting the interior offensive linemen.

He ran through some of the names Don Macek, Ralph Perretta, Ed White, Doug Wilkerson and Russ Washington. "The next day," Fouts mused, "we'd go out and put 40 points on someone. That's what it was all about." All the linemen Fouts named are gone, and that is significant. Their departures surely hastened his, because his health has not been the same since injuries and retirement began to erode the wall in front of him. Of course, the most significant organizational change took place in the fall of 1986, when Don Coryell was eased out as coach.

Never before, perhaps, had a coach and quarterback been so perfectly suited for one another. Coryell was the Plutonium and Fouts was the neutron, and they produced the NFL's most explosive offense. "If it wasn't for Don," Fouts said, "we wouldn't be here, this house wouldn't be here and I sure as heck wouldn't be here." Fouts insisted that the decision to retire was his alone, just as Coryell had insisted that the decision to resign was his alone. Fouts said he was no longer capable of playing, at least to his standards. But the haunting reality was that the club had already been callous enough to make it known that Fouts could no longer play to its standards.

Maybe Fouts was providing some insight into his own feelings when he was talking about Don Coryell's dismissal. "Personally," he said, "it was tough to see him treated that way. Professionally, it just shows that it always comes to an end. That's the way it goes. That's the game." Goodby, Club 14.

Hello, NFL Alumni Assn. Continued from Page 1 For the record, two names Don Coryell and John Jefferson came up over and over in flattering references during the formal and informal portions of the news conference. The names of Al Saunders, Charger coach, and Steve Ortmay- But, when asked if he expected to be in a broadcast booth by next season, Fouts said, "I think that's a reality." Throughout his playing career, Fouts was often a difficult interview. He did not suffer fools gladly, and he was often moody. But he also could be charming and incisive.

"I know that I've not always been the easiest guy to get along with after some of those ball-games," Fouts told the assembled media, "but I realize and I appreciate the difficulties of your job. And I hope now that I'm no longer a player that I will be able to work with you in the future and get to learn from you." Fouts said he also will remain involved in Fouts Financial, a local commercial real estate business run by his brother, Bob. The biggest single highlight of his career, Fouts said, was probably the 1982 playoff game against the Dolphins, in which Rolf Benirschke kicked a 27-yard field goal after 13 minutes 52 seconds of overtime to er, director of football operations, did not cross his lips. Also for the record, the Chargers officially are without a starting quarterback for the first time in 15 years. "It's the passing of an era," Ortmayer said of Fouts' announcement.

"It will be strange to look and see the San Diego Chargers without No. 14 in the lineup." "For 15 years, Dan Fouts has been the epitome of this organization as a player," Saunders said. "There is a sadness. We will miss him a great deal. He was something special." Added Spanos: "We've been waiting for him to make his decision.

I wish him all the luck. I hope he achieves his goals from here on as he did in his 15 years with the Chargers." Fouts' announcement took no one by surprise. Last November the team negotiated a buyout of the final year of his contract, which freed them of any contractual obligations to him for 1988. "My decision to retire is a mutual much fun as you can have. But I came to the realization that physically I just don't think I can play, and play to the caliber I would feel comfortable at.

You just can't realize how big and strong and fast these guys are and how slow and and puny and weak I am and what a mismatch it is." The Chargers have been talking for several months with several other NFL teams about obtaining a quarterback. They recently received permission from the Kansas City Chiefs to work out Todd Blackledge. "Todd had a good workout," Saunders said. Ortmayer said talks are continuing with the Chiefs about Black-ledge, 27. He also said Philadelphia quarterback Randall Cunningham's name has come up in discussions with the Eagles.

Ortmayer will meet with Cunningham's agent, Jim Steiner, Monday morning. But he insisted that Cunningham will not be the focus of that meeting. Cunningham, 24, completed 54.9 of his passes last year with 23 touchdown passes against only 12 interceptions. His strong points are arm strength and mobility. Ortmayer also said the Chargers will work out Steve Fuller, a former Bear, Chief and Ram quarterback.

Fuller spent the entire 1987 season on the Bears' "physically unable to perform" list after he underwent surgery on his (right) throwing shoulder last summer. Fuller, 31, resumed practicing with the Bears near the end of the season. But the Bears released him after the playoffs, and he is a free agent. Both Blackledge and Fuller are former No. 1 draft picks, and Cunningham was a second-rounder.

Without Fouts, the Chargers are left with three quarterbacks: Mark Herrmann, Mark Vlasic and Mike Kelley, a former USFL player who started one game during the 1987 strike. Vlasic played sparingly as a rookie last year and didn't complete a pass longer than 10 yards. Herrmann, 29, is a seven-year veteran who never has been able to establish himself as a front-line NFL starter. "The guys we have now are capable," Fouts said. But, Ortmayer said, all three current Charger quarterbacks lack "on-the-field experience." He said finding a quarterback with sufficient on-the-field experience will "become our quest." Said Saunders diplomatically: "I'm certain we'd fare well with any of those three Vlasic, Herrmann or Kelley) as our regular quarterback next year.

But certainly you'd like to upgrade yourself at every position possible." Fouts repeated his intention to become a sports broadcaster, and he hopes it will happen as early as next fall. A spokesman for Neal Pilson, president of CBS Sports in New York, said negotiations between Fouts' agent, Howard Slusher, and the network are under way. Slusher also has contacted the other major networks. Another network spokesman said Slusher is asking for an inordinately large contract from CBS. But, the spokesman added, the two parties are close to a deal.

CBS has historically paid higher salaries to former athletes with marketable value than NBC or ABC. Fouts did an audition tape recently for CBS, but he said he wasn't satisfied with his performance. He worked as an analyst on the tape with play-by-play announcer Dick Stockton. The game used for the audition was last season's NFC championship game in which the Redskins beat the Vikings, 17-10. "A defensive struggle," Fouts said, feigning a yawn.

beat Miami, 41-38. Fouts threw for 433 yards and three touchdowns. His biggest disappointment: the 1981 AFC championship game, in which the Raiders beat the Charg ers, 34-27, in San Diego. "It was a wild and crazy game," Fouts said. Ana tne electricity in the air before the game was something I had never felt before.

I'd never seen two teams play as hard and with the emotion that there was that day." The last pass Fouts threw in the NFL wound up in the hands of Colt defensive back Eugene Daniel. An decision coming from me and the Chargers coincidentally," he said. Ortmayer said the Chargers will place Fouts, 36, on the "reserve-retired" list. That means they will own his rights indefinitely. And that means Fouts, in the unlikely event that he decides to un-retire, can't shop his services as a free agent unless the Chargers subsequently waive him.

"I'd still like to play," Fouts said. "Scoring touchdowns is about as interception. It's a distinction that puts Fouts in fast company. The last NFL pass thrown by Joe Namath wound up in the hands of Bear safety back Gary Fencik. Fouts had better luck Thursday.

He completed his career. Td still like to play But I came to the realization that physically I just don't think I can play, and play to the caliber I would feel comfortable DAN FOUTS.