Being Best Rusher Gets You Bum’s Rush

Go ahead. Lead the Chargers in rushing. I dare you.

Don’t let the door hit you in the back on the way out.

If you like the change of seasons, don’t like sand, like sleet, don’t like zoos, like icy roads and don’t like over-the-line, just lead the Chargers in rushing and see where it gets you.

Out of here.

It’s the fastest ticket to Elsewhere U.S.A.

Could happiness possibly be America’s Finest City in your rear-view mirror?

Marion Butts, who set the Chargers’ all-time single-season rushing record in 1990, might well be the latest to run himself onto an outward-bound bus. He will be a training camp absentee, he says, because the Chargers are reneging on what he perceived as a promise to renegotiate his contract.

As GM Bobby Beathard himself recalled: “I told Marion, ‘If you play well, we’ll always take care of you.’ ”

Unfortunately, there seems to be a miscommunication here. Taking care of him could mean he gets traded to Tampa Bay or New Orleans instead of Green Bay or New England.

Right now, what we seem to have is another routine pre-camp exercise in rhetoric. Big back has big year and wants bigger bucks. Club says no and big back says no show. Club shrugs and says life will go on.

History suggests that Marion Butts, should he remain steadfast in his convictions, will, indeed, not be with the Chargers come September.

Look at the Chargers’ leading rushers over the past few years: Chuck Muncie in 1983, Earnest Jackson in 1984, Lionel James in 1985, Gary Anderson in 1986, Curtis Adams in 1987, Anderson in 1988 and, finally, Butts in 1989 and 1990. Not much tenure there.

Specifically, consider what happened to the 1,000-yard rushers from among those people in those years.

Before Butts rushed for 1,225 yards last year, Jackson’s 1,179 yards in 1984 stood as the Chargers’ single-season record. He never again played for the Chargers. They traded him to Philadelphia for all of two draft choices before the 1985 season.

Fast forward to Anderson and a 1,119-yard season in 1988. He never again played for the Chargers. Unhappy with the club’s contractual offer, he sat out the 1989 season and ultimately was traded to Tampa Bay.

Marion Butts probably remembers that 1989 season, because Anderson’s absence gave him the chance to carry the ball in the National Football League. Had Anderson been around, he would have been lucky to be in the lineup for short-yardage situations.

As it was, though, Butts led the Chargers with 683 yards in 1989 and the record 1,225 yards in 1990.

However, it does not appear that success leads to leverage when it comes to contractual negotiations. Right or wrong, the Chargers seem to have the attitude that someone will step up and carry the football.

After all, Marion Butts himself did exactly that when Gary Anderson disappeared over the hill. Maybe it will be Rod Bernstine or Ronnie Harmon or rookie Eric Bieniemy or all of the aforementioned. They are totally different in style from Butts, but Butts was totally different in style from Anderson.

So here comes Butts in the summer of 1991, insisting that he was told a year such as he had in 1990 would be rewarded with a reworked contract. Or, more accurately, here doesn’t come Butts.

In contemplating his situation, it is noteworthy that his contract was reworked before the 1990 season. He went from a base pay of $85,000 to a base pay of $195,000 and ultimately earned $417,500 with incentives.

Not bad.

Three years remain on that contract, which would pay him a base of $225,000 this fall.

The issue, it seems, is whether he was told that he might once again be able to renegotiate if he had a good year in 1990.

It seems ludicrous that this is an issue.

Why do these guys hire attorneys and agents? Both sides are now arguing what was or was not said, when there would be no argument had it merely been put in writing. No one in his right mind would sign a home loan with an oral assurance that maybe the interest rate would be lowered in the next year. If I were Marion Butts, I would wonder about the advice I had been given.

A point I would like to make here, in defense of Butts’ contention, is that I have always argued that NFL contracts are one-sided. They protect the club but not the player.

Butts’ contract, you see, is not guaranteed. It is a series of three one-year contracts. If he does well, the club can hold him to its terms and he is stuck. If he does poorly, he’s gone with no recourse.

If this goes the way all such similar situations have gone, Marion Butts is gone anyway.

Being the incumbent rushing leader does not help.

It hurts.