Charger Picks Like Their Odds : Davis and Dale Talk a Good Game

So many bodies. So few jobs.

The Chargers administered strength and agility tests to 77 athletes on Friday. Most of them were rookies and free agents. A select group will be invited to training camp in July. A half dozen, at most, will make the team.

The odds may not be favorable, but don’t tell cornerback Wayne Davis or safety Jeff Dale, both second-round picks in this week’s draft. They are not shy, retiring football players, and they are not dismayed by the odds. These guys could almost persuade an interviewer they’re in the company of Mike Haynes and Lester Hayes.

Dale, in fact, wants to intimidate rivals like the Raiders do. Davis is more modest. He would settle for making the all-rookie team.

Charger fans aren’t used to defensive backs with big goals or big heads.

“That’ll change,” a skeptic said.

Davis certainly doesn’t have the physique (5-feet 11-inches, 170 pounds) or the pedigree (Indiana State) to inspire confidence.

But check him out. The guy favors Technicolor outfits and matching sunglasses. He isn’t much bigger than Stevie Wonder, to whom he bears a passing resemblance. He has no gold records to his credit, but to hear him talk, you would think his bust had already been cast in bronze for shipment to pro football’s Hall of Fame.

“I don’t really have a weakness,” Davis said. “I’ve been called arrogant and cocky, but that’s not it. I am very confident. You have to be that way to be a cornerback in the NFL. I don’t know why I’m this way, it’s just part of me.

“I’ve always been so superior in basic athletic things--running, jumping and changing direction--I’m just trying to use it to the best of my ability.”

The way Davis sees it, if he acts scared or uncertain, a receiver is going to pick up on it and burn him. You’re only as good as the vibrations you send out, or something like that.

If just a little of this attitude rubs off on the San Diego secondary, it has to help.

Davis is aware there have been some problems here. Just in case the word hadn’t filtered back to Terre Haute, Ind., assistant coach Jim Wagstaff gave him the lowdown. The Chargers, it should be noted, drafted five defensive backs.

“They need help here,” Davis put it, being careful to offend no one. “Way I see it, Jeff and I are the luckiest and happiest defensive backs in the league. We’re in a beautiful city with a team that can win and that needs help at our positions.”

This guy is half brag and half Garv.

Davis admitted one fault. Lack of size. He would like a few more pounds. The Charger training table featured cheeseburgers on Friday. Davis was careful not to get any ketchup on his ensemble that featured a blue- and lavender-striped sport shirt with black shorts and blue-rimmed shades.

“I know I have to prove myself, and I plan to,” Davis said.

Dale, five inches taller and nearly 50 pounds heavier, is nearly as brash. He fancies himself as a sort of a cross between Darth Vader and Jack Tatum.

He’s been sharing a room with Davis at a local hotel the last couple of days. He concurs fully with the Davis view that a defender who gets beaten and then lowers his head in dismay is a defender prime for being burned again.

“I’m a confident player, but you meet a lot of confident players at this position,” Dale said. “If you don’t believe in yourself, the people in the stands won’t, either.”

The people in the stands, cynical after years of porous secondaries, will have to be persuaded by these outspoken rookies.

That’s fine with Dale.

If he scares receivers half as much as he intends to do, the results should be apparent.

“I’m an intimidating type person,” said the former LSU strong safety. “I like to hit a guy so hard he walks back to the huddle thinking a linebacker tackled him.”

A linebacker--or a Raider.

“I like the Raiders,” Dale said with equal parts respect and ignorance. “Their whole team is intimidating. I think we can make this team more like the Raiders.”

He clearly believes in what he says.

“I know defense has been the downfall of the Chargers in the past, and that’s why they need players of the Raider style. I’m in that mold.”

The Raiders play an aggressive man-to-man in the secondary. Some scouts questioned whether Dale had the skills to play man-to-man, because LSU was basically a zone team for three years, until Bill Arnsparger took over as coach last season.

Arnsparger diminished the zone coverages in favor of more man-to-man. He also told Dale and his sidekick they were as good as the safeties he left behind with the Miami Dolphins.

That wouldn’t hurt a guy’s confidence.

“If the people here want a winning team, it will take some youngsters to play and show leadership,” Dale said, firing off one last round. “I won’t change what I am.”