There’s No Harm Done by Bolting

No pro football in Southern California?

There is a team here that recently spent big bucks on a last-minute edit of its highlight film to include a guy no longer on the team.

The change involved the ending. The new shot was of a running back pointing to the sky after scoring a touchdown.

His name was Rodney Culver. He was killed last spring in the ValuJet crash.

No pro football in Southern California?

There is a team here that released a Pro Bowl running back last spring, in part because it was feared he was going to fall out of a bar and onto the front page.

This team also did not re-sign a Pro Bowl defensive lineman, in part because the people who run it were tired of his publicly insulting the organization.

The running back is Natrone Means and the defensive lineman is Leslie O’Neal, and although they can both still be great players, greatness on the field is not the only thing that matters to the San Diego Chargers.

“I’ll probably be laughed out of the league for saying this,” said Coach Bobby Ross, “but for me, character helps you win football games.”

No pro football in Southern California?

There is the best kind of pro football here.

It’s no-excuses, no-bull, no-high jinks football.

The San Diego Chargers are not favored to return to the Super Bowl for a second time in three years. They may not even win the division title in the tough AFC West.

But they are a lock to capture the hearts of those willing to take a two-hour Sunday afternoon drive to eat fish tacos, dance to the league’s best sound system, and remind themselves that there is still an NFL.

Coming to San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium this fall . . .

. . . Jeff Blake and the Cincinnati Bengals. Drew Bledsoe and the New England Patriots. Scott Mitchell and the Detroit Lions. Trent Dilfer and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Plus the usual division visits by John Elway, Rick Mirer, Jeff Hostetler and Steve Bono.

It’s the best San Diego lineup since Steve Garvey batted behind Tony Gwynn.

And the trip is easy--easier if you make it by train or bus. In all cases, it’s cheaper than flying to games in Oakland, San Francisco or Phoenix.

There are even people who do it.

According to a study of ZIP codes, Charger season tickets are sent to 183 addresses in Los Angeles County.

Some of them could be fans from when the Chargers debuted as an American Football League team at the Coliseum in Los Angeles in 1960. But most of them probably realize what the rest of L.A. should understand.

The NFL is gone, and, barring grand theft, it’s not coming back until the turn of the century.

Buoyed by the cumulative numbers from that third televised game each week, the TV networks are not yet complaining, so the NFL is not yet worrying.

If you didn’t get it last year, get it now.

We’re dead in L.A.

The Chargers are alive.

Quit moaning and go watch them.

The coach is a classic. Bobby Ross sometimes can’t tell you the day of the week and he still refers to this multimillion-dollar business as a “football program,” yet in 31 years he has never been fired.

“Always stayed one step ahead of the posse,” he says.

Their general manager is a classic.

If you wanted to find his name in a newspaper Monday, you could look on Page C-5 of the suburban North County Times.

In the World Bodysurfing Championships results.

Under the 55-65 age group.

2. Bobby Beathard (Leucadia).

When Beathard came here seven years ago, frenetic owner Alex Spanos had allowed a once-proud organization to become a joke.

Kellen Winslow ended his career on the suspended list. Dan Fouts ended his career with a news conference at his home.

One of the new quarterbacks, Jim McMahon, had once blown his nose on a reporter.

The other new quarterbacks were named, among other things, Mark Malone, Babe Laufenberg, Mark Vlasic and Billy Joe Tolliver.

One of the previous general managers--past and future Raider Steve Ortmayer--traded all-world tackle Jim Lachey to his beloved Raiders for somebody named John Clay, who lasted one game.

A star running back named Gary Anderson once skipped an entire season in anger.

After two seasons of cleaning up the mess, Beathard brought in Ross to keep it clean.

Then two years ago, Alex Spanos passed his out-of-contol torch to son Dean, who essentially handed it to Beathard and Ross.

The result was the Chargers’ first Super Bowl.

Last season they went 9-7 and lost in the first round of the playoffs, but a trend has been set.

San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium has become one of the best places in the league on a Sunday afternoon.

And with the exception of over-hyped Junior Seau, the Chargers are one of its best-grounded teams.

What other team in the NFL would have had the mother of a deceased player--linebacker Dave Griggs--sing the national anthem?

What other team in the NFL would induct a stubby, cigar-chomping, pizza-making part owner named George Pernicano into its hall of fame?

Where else in the NFL does an old-fashioned cannon fire--a powder charge only--at the visiting bench with every home score? When Wade Phillips was the Denver Broncos’ coach, he was so unnerved by the blast that he filed an official protest.

What other team has gone to a Super Bowl and still avoided stories about players involved in off-field problems? The Chargers find those players and cut them before they have a chance to embarrass.

At least, most of those players.

“We don’t always miss all that stuff, but we try,” Ross said. “I will take a good player who is a good person before I’ll take a great player who will give you problems.”

He laughed. “Of course, that means I need a lot of my kind of players.”

He has them. Go watch them. Their names may not be recognizable, but their game is. You will realize how much you have missed.