Slim Chance This Big Guy Won’t Make It : Chargers’ Lachey--All 278 Pounds of Him--Is Ready to Play

Nobody is ever going to nickname Jim Lachey “The Refrigerator.”

Unlike Clemson’s William Perry, the 6-foot 3-inch, 360-pound nose guard drafted by the Chicago Bears, Lachey looks about as fat as an underwear model.

And Lachey, the Chargers’ No. 1 selection in Tuesday’s draft, weighs 278 pounds. Most of his bulk is concentrated below the waist, especially in the thighs.

If it’s possible to weigh 278 and look slender, Lachey is the man.

The Chargers want him to pack 15 pounds on his 6-6 frame before training camp.

Lachey will oblige. And he will do it the old-fashioned way. By stuffing his face. Back in high school, he would eat 20 or 30 pieces of chicken at one sitting.

He swears he now has the eating habits of an average person. It seems he didn’t have enough money to over-indulge during his four years at Ohio State. He wasn’t getting money on the side, but, poor thing, he still managed to gain 30 or 40 pounds between his freshman and senior years.

Lachey is convinced he can go from 278 to 290 without looking puffy.

“I never want to be fat,” he said after a workout Wednesday. “I always want to be lean and strong. I think I can gain 15 pounds of muscle without much trouble.”

No need for this fellow to take steroids--and no desire either.

“My health is too important to me,” Lachey said. “I’ve never taken steroids and I don’t think I would. I can gain the weight naturally.”

He’s always been big. He was 6-2, 175 in the eighth grade, 6-5, 220 as a freshman in high school. Given that size, he never had to be coerced into playing football.

He is from the tiny western Ohio town of St. Henry, where his father teaches physical education at the local high school, and his mother runs an AAA auto club and a travel agency.

St. Henry didn’t have a football team until 1973. If there had been no football team when he came along, Lachey said he probably would have concentrated on basketball and wound up accepting a scholarship at a Division 2 college. He might have been the Charles Barkley of this year’s NBA draft, at least in terms of weight.

In addition to football, Lachey also participated in track and field, but didn’t like the sport. His dad told him never again to quit anything, and he hasn’t.

Lachey looks entirely too innocent to be entering pro football. He has a boyish face and is a cinch to be carded on his first visit to a Mission Valley pub, if he is ever inclined to go out with the gang.

But, listen, this guy is tough. The Chargers surely could have used him that day in Cincinnati when the wind chill factor was minus 59.

And it can be very cold out there in pro football, as the average rookie quickly discovers.

It’s a given in the big business atmosphere that dominates the National Football League. You would think an agent would know better.

Particularly an agent such as Leigh Steinberg, who has negotiated millions of dollars worth of contracts over the last decade.

One of Steinberg’s clients, quarterback Ed Luther, was left out in the cold when the Chargers let him skip to the United States Football League rather than reassure him he had a future here.

Steinberg got a lesson in another form of cold--an Ohio winter--from his latest San Diego client.

Lachey was prospecting for an agent when he flew to San Francisco to visit Steinberg last winter.

Steinberg, who turns the heat on when the temperature falls below 70, was struck by the fortitude of the kid, who showed up in a T-shirt on a 40-degree day.

Later, Steinberg flew east for his first visit to Columbus, Ohio, site of Ohio State University.

“I wasn’t sure what to bring,” Steinberg said, “so I called Jim. ‘A sweater,’ he told me.

“When I got to Columbus, it was 8 degrees and snowing. Jim didn’t seem bothered by the cold. He was wearing a cotton shirt with the sleeves rolled up.”

Lachey gave Steinberg a campus tour. That night the temperature dipped below zero.

“Wonderful night,” Lachey said. “Invigorating.”

Steinberg was impressed.

“He provided me an amazing cultural experience,” Steinberg said, “by introducing me to snow. I would almost call him an Eskimo in Charger clothing.”

Lachey has several attributes beyond ability to cope with cold weather.

He is a business major and probably could negotiate his own contract, Steinberg said.

However, the Chargers can be difficult, as indicated by their failure to sign a pair of No. 1 draftees in the past two years.

Steinberg, despite the failure to reach an agreement that would have kept Luther in San Diego, said he has no problems with General Manager Johnny Sanders.

Steinberg refused to provide any insight into what sort of contract he might seek on behalf of Lachey.

Based solely on the pay standards accorded a No. 1 selection in the 1984 draft, however, Lachey might be expected to ask for $2 million over four years. Of course, rookies no longer have the USFL to provide leverage, so salaries may come down.

Lachey professed no concern. He’s still caught up in the excitement of the draft. One moment, he was watching TV and hearing Pete Rozelle call his name. The next thing he knew, he was stepping off a plane and blinking in the bright sunshine.

“This is like a dream,” he said. “This really is where I wanted to play.”

He really wants to start, but said he can accept it if he doesn’t immediately break into the lineup. The hardest thing he had to cope with at Ohio State was waiting two years to start. He doesn’t relish another wait, and you get the feeling he doesn’t expect to.

Asked about the draft’s most publicized lineman, Bill Fralic, Lachey said, “I know I can do as well. I just have to prove it . . . I don’t think the Chargers made a mistake by taking me.”