Williams is Traded to Oilers : Football: Chargers get wide receiver Shawn Jefferson plus Houston’s top pick next year.

The Houston Oilers offered the Chargers first- and fifth-round picks in the 1992 NFL draft for defensive lineman Lee Williams.

The Chargers refused to accept the fifth-round choice.

“We held out for the ninth-round pick,” General Manager Bobby Beathard said with a straight face.

Remember what Sports Illustrated proclaimed: “Bobby Beathard is the smartest man in the NFL.”

In addition to receiving Houston’s No. 1 pick next year for Williams, Beathard demanded and received speedy wide receiver Shawn Jefferson, whom the Oilers chose in the ninth round this year.

“Had we the choice of a No. 1 pick or a proven player, we would have taken a proven player,” Beathard said. “But we didn’t have that choice.”

The pass-happy Oilers liked Jefferson and refused to make this deal last week. “I was hoping they would take somebody else,” said Mike Holovak, Houston general manager. “But Bobby insisted on Jefferson.”

Williams, meanwhile, was “elated” with the trade. He said earlier he received no respect from the Chargers and he had refused to report to training camp. The club fined him $1,500 a day for his absence, but Beathard said Thursday the team would not attempt to collect $54,000 in fines.

“When I heard, it was with a great sigh of relief and excitement,” Williams said. “For the past two years my relationship with the Chargers has been eroding and I think this is best for all parties concerned.”

Williams was selected by his peers to play in the Pro Bowl in 1989 and 1990, and he needed one more sack to become the Chargers’ all-time leader with 67 1/2. He had been voted lineman of the year by his teammates the past three seasons.

“He’s a good player and obviously we’re sorry to lose a good player,” defensive coordinator Ron Lynn said. “But probably in the long run it’s going to end up being the best thing for the organization and for him.”

The Oilers immediately made Williams feel right at home: They presented him with a new $5.2-million five-year contract Thursday night.

“I’d say it worked out for him,” Beathard said. “The No. 1 thing is he gets his money. It will be interesting to watch how important it is to him to play.

“I don’t know how a player like Lee felt he was mistreated here. It seemed like everything he wanted, he got. I think being in a new environment he’ll play better. How long it will last, I don’t know.”

Beathard soured on Williams last year after Williams walked out of training camp. Williams alleged that Steve Ortmayer, the team’s former director of football operations, had promised him a new contract. Discussions between Williams’ agent, Steve Feldman, and Beathard deteriorated.

Williams fired Feldman, received a new deal and then rehired Feldman.

“Lee Williams is going to miss the city of San Diego and the players on the team,” Feldman said. “But he’s not going to miss the treatment he received from Charger management.”

Radio advertisements this week advised Junior Charger club members to stop at the local Vons for their Lee Williams trading card.

Most of the youngsters already have have received their 1991 pocket schedule with the picture of holdout Marion Butts.

Unfortunately, it’s nothing new for grown-up Charger fans, who have come to embrace Pro Bowl performers such as Earnest Jackson, Dan Fouts, Wes Chandler, Gary Anderson, Kellen Winslow, Jim Lachey and Ralf Mojsiejenko only to learn a short time later they are gone.

Jackson, Anderson, Winslow, Lachey and Mojsiejenko never played for the team again after making the Pro Bowl.

“A couple of years ago Fouts was on his way out and it got ugly,” Williams said. “Winslow was on his way out and it got ugly. Now if the end of their careers went down like that, and you’re talking about somebody like me who isn’t a household name, why should I think I’d be treated any differently.”

Williams said the club has called him lazy, unproductive and overrated. He said he started 92 consecutive games for the team, and he didn’t miss a practice in his eight years in San Diego.

He said the club went so far as to pass word around that he was having financial difficulties.

“That’s the most ludicrous thing I’ve heard in my eight years in San Diego,” he said. “That’s where this organization is at: slinging mud like that. That’s about as accurate as Jeanne Dixon’s New Year’s predictions. I’ll tell you what, it gets awful hot down here in Florida during the summer, and the last time I checked, my air conditioning was still running.”

Beathard said the problem with Williams was the Chargers could not keep him satisfied.

“You name it, if it wasn’t money, it was something else,” Beathard said. “It was always something. The guy does not like to work, and when a guy doesn’t like to work, you have a problem.

“Anytime you ask him to work, he gets upset. He doesn’t play hard enough all the time. It’s not our fault he wasn’t in the Pro Bowl last year. It’s his fault.”

Williams began his career at defensive end, but was switched to defensive tackle in 1989 to make room for Burt Grossman. He was unhappy with the position change and was told things would change. He said they never did.

“Obviously, we’ll miss him,” Grossman said. “I guess, everybody wasn’t happy with him, but apparently some people around the league thought he was good enough to give up a first-rounder.

“Personally, I’m mad. He was my roommate and he snored. I bought one of these snore alarms you put one somebody’s wrist. Now I gotta get the Oilers to reimburse me $59.”

The Oilers went searching for a defensive lineman after Ray Childress went down with a stress fracture in his leg. Childress is due back in a month, and ironically, it might force Williams to return to defensive tackle again.

The Jets also were in need of a pass rusher and had mentioned linebacker Jeff Lageman and cornerback Tony Stargell. However, Jet general manager Dick Steinberg told Beathard the asking price for Williams, 29, was too high.

“If you look at the entire Lee Williams episode, the whole thing was done improperly,” Feldman said. “The new contract that was executed came down differently than it was reported.”

Feldman said the Chargers doctored Williams’ contract after Williams signed it last November. He said Williams took a copy of that contract with him in November, but later the Chargers sent Williams a copy of a different contract.

Feldman had prepared a lawsuit and had advised the Chargers recently that the suit was going to be filed in San Diego Superior Court this week if Williams’ demand to play elsewhere was not met.

Beathard said he wasn’t concerned by legal threats.

“No way we would have done anything on that contract,” Beathard said. “I was there when he signed that contract, and I was there when he sat in the office and negotiated it. He got what he wanted.