Browns Bank on Chip Banks : He Wants to Be Turned Loose on Quarterbacks, as Is Taylor

Lives of the rich and famous, Trojan-style:

As a USC freshman, William (Chip) Banks roomed with a former prep quarterback from San Diego named Marcus Allen. Both went on to stardom and fortune, though in separate locales.

“Do you have a home in the Palisades like he does?” Banks’ teammate, Clay Matthews, another ex-Trojan, is asking him. “Do you have a Ferrari and girls like he does?”

Banks thinks it over.

“Nah,” he says. “I’m in the wrong town.”

Banks works in Cleveland, where it would be a plucky Ferrari that survived its first winter. Accepting that as a limitation, things are going well.

The Browns are down here having fun, even if it isn’t quite the warm California sun but the tiny-town-in-Florida one. Whatever, it’s an improvement over the one they feature in Cleveland this time of year. So the Browns have come south again to warm up before heading home for Sunday’s AFC championship game against the Denver Broncos.

Since there is no Browntown in existence, they have rented Dodgertown as they did before last week’s victory over the Jets, hoping once more to reap the benefits of sleeping under huge framed photographs of Don Sutton’s windup or Steve Yeager’s mitt.

For Banks, this season is something of a happy ending, not to mention a quick turnaround. You might wonder how this prodigy among linebackers, who is about to play in his fourth Pro Bowl in five pro seasons, could ever get in trouble, but he always figured out a way.

He chafed that the preeminent linebacker of his time was not he but Lawrence Taylor and yearned to be turned loose, as is Taylor. Like Taylor, he was huge--6-4 and 233--and incredibly quick. Unlike Taylor, who was piling up double-figure sack totals annually, Banks wasn’t allowed to rush the passer much, or even to be on the field with him.

Banks didn’t play on third down, which he protested not only to his coaches, but everyone within the circulation area of the (Cleveland) Plain Dealer and within range of the local TV stations.

There were other problems, such as salary and who was going to be paying it. When the Browns tried to trade him to the Buffalo Bills in the Bernie Kosar deal, Banks refused to report.

“Are we going to talk about things that are relevant to this season?” Banks asks. “I’d really rather not get into that.

“I was stung. Everybody knew it. I expressed it. The organization knew. It wasn’t like it was a big secret.

“It was the first time. The thing about it . . . Nah, I don’t want to get into it.”

Brought back to Cleveland, he held out for six weeks of last summer’s camp. He asked for a raise to $500,000 and a guarantee that he would stay on the field on third down.

He suggested he was really better suited to playing Matthews’ right linebacker spot, the big pass-rush position, than his own left side, which requires more sticking one’s nose in against the run. Banks pointed out that there was one coach who knew how to use him.

“John Robinson is the only man I want to play for because I know that he would utilize me correctly,” he told Browns News/Illustrated during the holdout. “I want them (the Browns) to open things up and utilize me in a way proper to my talents, similar to the way the Giants use Lawrence Taylor.”

The response was a little short of what he’d hoped for. Owner Art Modell said: “I’m tired of going through this every year with Chip Banks. Either he plays for the Browns in 1986 or he can retire.”

Cleveland columnists leaned heavily on words like selfish, petulant, spoiled and crybaby. And they weren’t talking about Modell.

Modell then signed Banks to a $1.3-million contract. The Browns let him play on third downs. His sack totals stayed low, but Brown coaches said he’d had his best season. He was voted back onto the Pro Bowl team and the Browns made the playoffs.

“I’m glad it worked out,” Banks says. “I guess it made it even more significant a milestone. I’m happy things got worked out. We got things squared away on the field and off the field.

“Things went well. I’m back in the Pro Bowl. The organization is on the rise.

“I’ve been through some down times. Things are flying high now, but there have been a lot of low points in my career with the Browns up to now. I’m just glad it’s worked out. I’ve seen the organization make big strides. It’s made a commitment (he grins) to excellence.”