To Schroeder, Laufenberg, This Trip Home May Mean Last Chance to Win a Job

Two Southern California kids are coming home to the Coliseum Sunday to fight for a backup quarterback position, even if it is with the Redskins in faraway Washington. What the heck, a job is still a job.

The (perhaps) leading contender is Jay Schroeder of Palisades High and UCLA, not to mention Medicine Hat, Canada; Florence, S.C., and Kinston, N.C. The last three stops were courtesy of the Toronto Blue Jays, for whom he toiled in the hopes of becoming the next Johnny Bench.

The third pick in the 1979 baseball draft, Schroeder got a reported $120,000 bonus but never hit more than .234, or rose above Class A. He is now intent on becoming the next Joe Theismann.

The (supposed) trailer is Babe Laufenberg, of Crespi High and Stanford, Missouri and Indiana.

Laufenberg already knows something about backup quarterback. At Stanford, he was behind Steve Dils, Turk Schonert and John Elway, and he backed up all the way to Mizzou.

There he ran into someone named Phil Bradley, who ended the competition, made All-Big 8 and is now hitting over .300 for the Seattle Mariners.

So Laufenberg transferred once more, to Indiana, where he finally became the big guy.

Laufenberg was also drafted by a baseball team, the San Francisco Giants, when he graduated from high school, a right-handed pitcher with a 90-m.p.h. fastball.

“They say they’re going to choose between us,” Schroeder was saying from the Redskins’ Carlisle, Pa., camp, before flying west for Sunday’s Raider exhibition. “We’re just working to prove to the coaches that they don’t have to go outside for a quarterback.”

Schroeder signed his baseball contract before enrolling at UCLA, playing football under the rule that allowed a student to be a professional in one sport and an amateur in the rest. In his sophomore season, he was in a three-way race with Bernard Quarles and Tom Ramsey.

Ramsey opened the 1980 season and went most of the way. By the end, though, Schroeder was coming off the bench earlier and earlier.

Schroeder came off to throw the pass that Freeman McNeil turned into a game-winning 57-yard touchdown play against USC. Schroeder started the last game of the season, suggesting that he’d have opened up No. 1 the next year.

Except he opened up in Medicine Hat.

“Coming from L.A., it was different,” Schroeder said. “I was way out in the middle of nowhere. The town was small. Only a couple of stores, one main street.

“At the time, I had a chance with baseball. It had been a dream of mine since I was a little kid. But I didn’t hit as much as I should have. I was playing all the outfield positions, third base, first base. I was kind of being moved around. I wanted to play one position.”

One thing he showed, though, was a big right arm. In Billings, Mont., he won a bet that he could throw a baseball out of the park. He flung one over the left-field fence, collected his six-pack and, coincidentally, impressed the Blue Jays, who years later, asked him to play one last position: pitcher.

Not in this league, he said.

“I started to wonder if I was doing what I really wanted to do,” Schroeder says, “whether I had a chance to go back. I got hold of Homer Smith, the quarterback coach at UCLA, who was still a good friend. He offered to work me out and get me back in shape. He wrote letters to all 28 NFL teams.”

Schroeder went back into a draft, the NFL’s this time, and was taken on the third round. He collected his second bonus, and now he’s trying to win his first big-league job.

So far, in spite of Redskin Coach Joe Gibbs’ protests that his two California kids are running even, Schroeder seems to have the lead.

He has run the second unit in drills since camp opened and is listed second on the depth chart. In the Redskins’ first exhibition, he followed Theismann into the game, played all of the second and third periods, completed 11 of 20 passes and built a 7-0 lead over the Atlanta Falcons into 17-0.

Laufenberg got to play the fourth period, with the Falcons blitzing on most plays. He went 1 for 5. Gibbs has suggested that he might reverse the playing time Sunday.

So, they’ll both say hello to their families and go down to the field to see if it’s safe to send out their laundry for another week. They wish they both could be Redskin backup quarterbacks, but only one will be.

Raider Notes

The game will start at 1 and will be nationally televised, though blacked out in Los Angeles. . . . Doubtful for the Raiders: Todd Christensen with bruised ribs, Kenny King with a tender knee, and Cliff Branch, whose hamstrings tightened again. Branch also missed the first exhibition. Raider Coach Tom Flores: “I wouldn’t use the word ‘prove,’ but he’s going to have to stay healthy if he’s going to help us. This week was the best one he’d had in camp. He’d shown some spark, some life. It’s not a major thing, but it is an aggravating thing.” . . . The Raiders cut tight end Dan Upperco and brought back Ken Rose, a lightweight, powerlifting linebacker they cut last week, for one last look.