Their Passes Once Crossed in a Pick-Up Game : Tom Flick: This Is a Chance He Won’t Throw Away
A ballplayer reveals a lot about his ego when he presents contract demands.
The desired goodies may include a six-figure salary, paid-up insurance and a cut of the gate receipts.
When Tom Flick talked contract with the Chargers last spring, his list was modest and in keeping with his recent accomplishments. The only demand he made through agent Leigh Steinberg was for jersey No. 12, the number he’d worn all his life.
Flick once had an oversized ego, but after failing with three pro teams and sitting out a year, it curled up deep inside him. Now that he’s enjoyed a few games as the Chargers’ starting quarterback, Flick wants to keep his ego in place.
“Football used to mean everything to me,” he said. “Football was Tom. But now my ego is no longer involved. The difference is, I’ve become a true believer in the Lord. The NFL means a great deal to me and I want to succeed, but I know there’s a greater plan.
“Some people seem to think Christians are pansies, but that’s not so. Football is my career and my job, and I play as hard as I can. I’ve been blessed with talent and I don’t take it lightly, but the thing is, football is in its proper place in my life now. The game has humbled me over the last five or six years. But now I can have fun playing this game.”
Flick was unemployed after being released by the Cleveland Browns in July, 1985. He spent the winter helping his wife with the housekeeping and writing letters to the personnel directors of teams in the National and Canadian football leagues.
The Chargers were the only team that bothered to give him a tryout, and he signed with them in May. To prepare himself for training camp, he worked out at his alma mater, the University of Washington, with former Husky quarterbacks Steve Pelluer and Warren Moon.
Flick and Pelluer had been friends since their high school days in Seattle. Flick, however, was closer to Pelluer’s older brother, Scott, who later played at Washington State.
“He’d sack me, then ask what I was doing that night after the game,” Flick said.
Flick was the 90th player taken in the 1981 draft. The 91st was Scott Pelluer.
Steve Pelluer, the Dallas starting quarterback in Sunday’s game against the Chargers, was closer to Flick’s younger brother, James, who now spends seven months of the year as a professional surfer in New Zealand and the rest of his time skiing at Vail and Sun Valley.
Flick’s parents are outdoor enthusiasts who live out of a trailer and spend much of their time fishing and rafting in the West. They were in Northern California this week but planned to fly in for Sunday’s game.
Flick’s father nearly died after a 1981 plane crash that left him with a broken neck and punctured lungs, among other problems.
“His ordeal lasted into my rookie season with the Washington Redskins,” Flick said. “Coach (Joe) Gibbs was always asking me if I needed to go home.
“It was touch and go for my dad, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. He’d worked six or seven days a week all his life, but the accident forced him to change. Now he’s doing what he should be doing--fishing, rafting, shooting skeet, enjoying himself.”
Flick’s pro football career has been a five-year endurance test that has lasted far beyond his dad’s ordeal.
In his rookie year, he completed 13 of 27 passes, showing just enough to get himself traded to New England in 1982. He played one game for the Patriots, who released him a year later. The Browns picked him up, used him in one game in 1984, then dropped him the next summer. This time, he went an entire season before another team expressed interest.
“Sure, I had doubts,” Flick said. “But I have come to believe that last year was really preparation for me. During my time out of football, I prayed a lot for direction in my life. I didn’t know if I cared about football anymore.
“I had no urge to play again. I shunned people who wanted to talk football with me. I didn’t watch football on TV. Finally, after months of praying for direction, it all started to crystallize, and I felt my direction was still football. That’s where I’m hanging my hat now.”
The past couple of weeks have been both trying and rewarding. Flick got his first chance to play after Mark Herrmann suffered a concussion in the fourth quarter of a game at Philadelphia on Oct. 26. He came off the bench in a cold rain and threw a touchdown pass to Charlie Joiner.
The next week, in the midst of the uproar caused by Don Coryell’s resignation as coach, he was named the starter against Kansas City. It was basically a miserable Sunday for Flick, who completed 4 of 17 passes and had 4 interceptions.
However, he led the team to a last-minute touchdown that almost produced a victory, and it revived his belief in himself.
Flick was steady and poised last Sunday as the Chargers upset Denver, 9-3, to end their eight-game losing streak. He completed 16 of 22 passes and had only 1 interception.
He practiced this week believing, but not knowing for sure, that he would be the starter in Sunday’s game against the Cowboys. “I’m preparing to play and trying to be a student of the game,” he said Wednesday. “I think the last month affirms the value of that approach.”
Dan Fouts was named the starter Friday by Coach Al Saunders, who said Flick accepted the news in a professional manner. “He understood,” Saunders said. “Heck, Dan is considered by many as the one of the best ever.”
Flick seems able to now handle the ups and downs without damage to his self-esteem.
“I’m not a reed in the wind, blown here and there,” he said. “Football means a great deal to me. If it’s in the plan for the next five or six years, great, so be it. If the plan takes me down another avenue, let’s get on with it.”