The Last Buffalo : Others Are Extinct, But Ed White, 38, Still Roams Around the Charger Line

Big Ed and the Raiders are heading for a rematch, for better or worse.

Big Ed is what the Charger organization likes to call offensive guard Ed White, who weighs 284 pounds when he’s in fighting trim.

Their meeting at the Coliseum two weeks ago had its ups and downs. The downs were taken personally by Charger quarterback Dan Fouts, whom the Raiders sacked five times--four in the Chargers’ first 17 plays.

That made it a bad night for Fouts’ offensive line.

On the lighter side, Big Ed got his picture in the game program. It was shot by Jerry Sherk, former tackle with the Cleveland Browns. It showed White running through the countryside.

It became a famous picture. There were two cows in the background. White was not, at the moment, in fighting trim.

“It was in the off-season and he must have weighed 325,” said a Charger official.

Teammates and others have since inquired, was he jogging or grazing? How do you tell the cows from the football player? Which is bigger, Big Ed or Mr. Ed?

Said Howie Long: “I saw his picture in the program and I asked him: ‘360, right?’ He said, ‘If I had a rear end like yours, it’d be 390.’ ”

At whatever size and age, Long still rates White the best Charger offensive lineman. When Mitch Willis described his own problems with White, Long told him, “You’d better have your chin strap on or Mr. Ed White is going to knock your helmet off.”

Meet the last of the buffaloes, Ed White, a man with a large leg in two camps. He is 38, a sculptor, the holder of a degree from Cal in landscape architecture, and the father of three, one of whom is a 15-year-old high school football player.

He still keeps company with a lot of players who are closer to his son’s age. He’s a four-time Pro Bowl player, and last season, at 37, was voted the team’s outstanding offensive lineman. If he starts the rest of the season, he is going to surpass Viking Mick Tingelhoff’s 240 game starts, the most for any NFL offensive lineman.

Once, there were were lots of buffaloes around. Their names were Russ Washington, Billy Shields and Doug Wilkerson. There was a kid named Don Macek. They were the big, bad Charger offensive line, behind which Fouts retreated on his way to his annual 4,000 yards.

Remember those days? The Chargers won three straight AFC West titles, 1979-81. The Chargers might have been the best team in football that never got to the Super Bowl.

And in the rollicking middle of it all were White, Wilkerson and Washington. White is a fun-loving man who once came out for pregame introductions with his jersey on backward. Once, after getting knocked flat by a pass rusher in his Viking days, he is supposed to have asked quarterback Fran Tarkenton, “Why didn’t you throw to me? I was open.”

White, Wilkerson and Washington were rumored to have sworn to each other, in blood, that none of them would quit until they were 40.

White denies that it was a blood oath, but says they did say something like that.

“That was the type of thing, everything was going good,” White said from San Diego. “We had a great offensive line. We were winning championships, playoff games. We were all about 35 then and five years didn’t seem so long. Now, one year seems like five years.

“I never made that commitment. I learned long ago. I was in Minnesota when Ron Yary said he was going to play until he was 40. When I saw Ron couldn’t, I thought it might be tough.

“I’m the last one left. Doug (Wilkerson) just felt like he had enough. He might have lost a little bit but not much. He came in running a 4.9 40 this year. I think it’s more mental. I personally enjoy acting 21 and being 40.

“I thought I was going to retire a long time ago but they keep asking me to come back. Really, I don’t ever want to work again. I want to be a dabbler. I enjoy my art but I don’t know too many artists who don’t have to be concerned about economics.”

White is now surrounded by a bunch of kids. At last count, the Chargers had 21 players who weren’t on the roster at the end of last season, and the Raiders mowed their offensive line down a couple of weeks ago. A week later, the Chargers surprised the Broncos, so everyone feels a little better.

“We’ve got a real young team,” White says. “Things like that Monday night game affect a young team. They were very uptight. I’d bet three-fourths of our guys had never played in a Monday night game before.

“The Chargers are going to be a tremendous team in the future. It might be in the near future.”