HE’S ARRIVED : After Five Contentious Years With Cleveland Browns, Chip Banks Reports, Get This, Early to Charger Camp

For Chip Banks, happiness always has been just a holdout away. So when Banks reports to training camp a week early, you had better call whatever friends you have in Cleveland and say: “Did you hear the crazy news?”

Four times in five years, Banks had been a Pro Bowl linebacker for the Cleveland Browns, but he was traded to the San Diego Chargers in April because:

--He had just one friend in the Browns’ organization and it wasn’t a player, a coach, a general manager or an owner.

--He spent too much time incommunicado.

--His battle cry was, “Renegotiate!”

--His holdouts always cost the Browns money.

--He reminded them of a Los Angeles Raider.

The Browns’ officials say they peddled Banks because they liked rookie Mike Junkin of Duke. So they sent “headache” Banks to the Chargers for a high draft pick and selected the “heady” Junkin, who played inside linebacker in college. The Browns maintain that Junkin will easily replace Banks as their left outside linebacker.

Replace an All-Pro player with a rookie who will be playing a strange position?

Ernie Accorsi, the Browns’ general manager, finally admitted the other day: “I don’t want to analyze it, but generally I thought it better that (Banks) move on.”

And, presto, the Browns’ headache belonged to the Chargers.

But Charger Coach Al Saunders came to the rescue. Just weeks after the trade, he showed up unannounced at Banks’ front door in Atlanta and asked to come in. Banks, who didn’t even know who Saunders was, let him inside. And Saunders--wearing a suit and tie and with every hair in place--made a “great impression,” according to Banks.

At the time, Banks felt “betrayed” by the trade and was thinking about taking a year off from football. Saunders said, “Suit yourself, Chip,” and Banks said he was impressed that Saunders didn’t pressure him.

So from here on out, Banks returned every one of Saunders’ phone calls, a major development. Accorsi used to leave messages on Banks’ answering machine and never got calls back. Eventually, Accorsi just stopped leaving messages. Saunders, meanwhile, became Banks’ long-distance pal.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever had a head coach come and visit me at my home and express the interest he did,” Banks says.

Later, Saunders sent his linebacker coach down to visit Banks for a week, another major development. At one point, the Chargers feared Banks would want to renegotiate his $700,000 contract, but Banks said, “Why should I?”

And so Banks--who held out for one hour in 1984, one day in 1985, one month in 1986 and and hasn’t seen a minicamp since 1983--showed up for training camp, even though veterans did not have to report until the following weekend.

A headache?

Incommunicado means leaving the answering machine on 24 hours a day.

Now, the machine is on only eight hours a day.

Banks is no longer incommunicado because he’s suddenly an important cog. In Cleveland, he begged Coach Marty Schottenheimer to use him every down, but--until last season--Schottenheimer benched him on passing downs. He thought linebacker Clay Matthews was better.

So Banks says he lost all respect for Schottenheimer, and their frequent feuds were one reason why Junkin sounded so good to Schottenheimer on draft day. Schottenheimer said later that Junkin reminded him of Jack Lambert and Lawrence Taylor.

Meanwhile, Banks was saying: “I feel I can compete with anyone anywhere. I can compete with Junk, or whatever his name is.”

In San Diego, where the Charger defense has traditionally been junk, Banks has a new and improved role. In Cleveland, Schottenheimer used Banks on the left side--generally opposite the tight end--meaning that Banks wasn’t free to blitz and create havoc. Saunders says that Banks will play the right side in San Diego, and Banks sort of takes Saunders’ word for it.

Banks says that Schottenheimer--who was unavailable for comment--also made promises, but didn’t live up to them.

“I took his word as a man,” Banks said. “We had talks before the last two seasons, and we talked about some situations. It (his promises) didn’t come about, and it really ticked me off.”

Saunders and Banks probably will get along, because Saunders wants badly to be Banks’ friend. Saunders, after all, was the one to send linebacker coach Mike Haluchak to Atlanta, play book in hand, to visit Banks a month ago. They spent four hours a day together for a week, and Haluchak says they ran through certain Charger formations in one of Banks’ empty rooms.

See, besides wanting to play on the West Coast, Chip Banks--according to friends--badly wants to be pampered. He wants to be the end-all component of a team’s defense. He is completely comfortable comparing himself to the Giants’ Lawrence Taylor.

“We’re in the same boat, but in different streams,” Banks said. “Our defenses are implemented differently. He’s one of the best backers in the league, but, in my own way, I can be one of the best.”

The Chargers, it seems, will pamper him. Saunders says, yes, he can be their end-all component.

The Browns wouldn’t let him.

Those who know Banks well--and not many do--say he is an overly sensitive 27-year-old who was misunderstood in Cleveland.

Banks and Schottenheimer once had a screaming match during a film session because, according to Brown sources, Schottenheimer didn’t think Banks was enough of a headhunter.

But screaming is not the way to win over Chip Banks.

Said Ram Coach John Robinson, who recruited and coached Banks at USC: “At times, every once in a while--and I don’t know if it was just a stubborn streak--but if you got in Chip’s face too hard, he withdrew. He responded more to encouragement.”

Chip Banks’ one true friend in Cleveland was Ted Chappelle, a 53-year-old former police detective who was the Browns’ director of security. Chappelle met Banks as a rookie during a get-acquainted meeting with then-coach Sam Rutigliano and teammate Calvin Hill. Rutigliano talked football the whole time. Chappelle kept quiet.

When the meeting ended, Chappelle began asking about Banks’ family, learned that Banks’ parents had been divorced at an early age and listened to Banks’ problems.

“I could be wrong, but let me take the mystique out of Chip Banks,” Chappelle says now. “In his case, I think the thing lacking in his life was a father’s image. If he called my house during the season, he’d always have a long conversation with my wife, too. And it surprised some people in this organization.”

After the 1984 season and after they had just renegotiated Banks’ contract, the Browns tried trading Banks to the Buffalo Bills for the No. 1 choice in the supplemental draft and the rights to quarterback Bernie Kosar. The Bills asked if they could decide between taking Banks or the Browns’ No. 1 choice.

The Browns agreed.

When the Browns alerted Banks to the possibility of the trade, he said thanks, but he’d rather retire.

The Bills tried reaching him but could only get the answering machine, so then-coach Kay Stephenson called Schottenheimer, who called Chappelle.

Schottenheimer said: “Teddy, get the Bills in touch with Chip, will you?”

The Bills, desperate to make their decision, asked Chappelle to fly to Atlanta the Sunday before the Tuesday draft, where he was to try to arrange a meeting between Banks and Buffalo officials. According to Chappelle, he went to Banks’ home and asked him to talk to the Buffalo people, but Banks wouldn’t do it.

“(The trade) was a knock on Chip’s pride, because Kosar was involved,” Chappelle said. “Here was an unproven quarterback, and Chip was a proven star. He’d be going to the bottom of the rung in Buffalo.”

So the Bills decided the Monday before the draft that they wanted no part of Banks. He was still a Brown, but he was asking the Browns to trade him because they had just tried trading him to Buffalo.

By then, Chappelle had returned to Cleveland, but the Browns asked him to turn around and go back to Atlanta to appease Banks. So for the second time in three days, Chappelle arrived at Banks’ home for a pep talk.

When Banks showed up for training camp the next year--a day late--he held this conversation with reporters:

Question: Are you ready to put the trauma of the trade behind you?

Banks: Ask Art (Modell, the team owner).

Q: Modell says it’s over.

Banks: That’s news to me.

Q: Are you here to stay?

Banks: This is a business. Everybody comes and goes.

Q: You seem to be unhappy. You still want a trade?

Banks: I’m here now. So far, so good.

Q: If you’re not happy, what’s the problem?

Banks: Ask Art.

Reporters asked Modell, who said he would meet with Banks and get it solved. At times, Modell has been gracious to Banks--remember the ’84 renegotiation?--but last season’s holdout apparently was too much for him.

Before the 1986 season, Banks wanted to renegotiate, for the second time in three years, and held out for 26 days, even though the Browns eventually offered a two-year, $1.3-million deal.

At one point, Banks threatened: “Pay me, or you’ll never see me again,” and Modell retaliated with an ultimatum: Report or retire.

Only once before had Modell issued such an ultimatum--in 1966 to running back Jim Brown. At the time, Brown was late for camp because he was filming a movie in Europe. Modell said, “Report or retire.” Brown retired.

But Modell was really angry this time. He accused the Raiders “or some other West Coast team,” of tampering with Banks, of orchestrating his holdout so they could eventually work out a trade for him.

Modell, a longtime adversary of Raider managing general partner Al Davis, said at the time: “I have no doubt he has been tampered with. . . . If Al Davis tampered with him, it will surface. It doesn’t become moot if he signs with the Browns. Tampering is tampering.”

At the time, Davis had an assistant named Steve Ortmayer, who now is the Chargers’ director of football operations.

“There was no tampering at all in terms of the Raiders,” Ortmayer said. “One thing the Raiders have not done is dealt in anything so (inappropriate) that they might lose a draft choice. And that’s what would happen if it were tampering.”

Eventually, Banks negotiated the deal for himself, taking over for his agent, Harold Daniels of Los Angeles. Accorsi and Daniels never got along well, and they reached an impasse. “I stepped to the forefront,” Banks said. “I put everybody to the side and worked it out.”

Actually, Banks made a pretty good agent, Accorsi said. “It never got nasty.”

Banks got a $200,000 bonus and agreed to the two-year, $1.3-million deal they had previously offered.

“Not bad if I say so myself,” he said.

So he was all set to sign it a week before the season. He requested that the Browns send Chappelle down to Atlanta with the contract.

Chappelle, making his umpteenth visit to Atlanta, flew down, dialed Accorsi and handed the phone to Banks. Later, as Banks was about to sign, Chappelle gave a play-by-play description to Accorsi over the phone: “He’s got the pen in his hand, he’s signing. Yes!”

So Banks played in the season opener and even made the Pro Bowl. Schottenheimer played him on passing downs, and the Browns came close to going to the Super Bowl.

Banks told friends he might even make it to the next mini-camp.

So, the eventual trade to San Diego was a shocker to Banks, especially because the Browns never called to let him know. Saunders finally got to him.

Saunders said welcome aboard and also: “Call me anytime.” He gave Banks his home number, which was more than Schottenheimer had ever done.

Soon after the trade, some of Banks’ apartment furniture was found in a Cleveland park. Some people assumed he’d done it in protest of the trade, and the police assumed it was the result of a burglary.

According to Banks, he was leaving town and wanted to give his furniture to the Salvation Army. But he says he met some men outside the Salvation Army office, and they wanted to buy the furniture from him. He negotiated a deal and sold it to them.

A few days later, that same furniture was found in the park. “I got caught doing some guys a favor,” Banks said.

The bottom line, he also said, is that he wasn’t really upset about this trade. Instead, for what seemed like the millionth time, the Browns had hurt his feelings. But the more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea of being a Charger, of being an end-all component.

So that’s the big news. Chip Banks, a week early, has brought his answering machine to San Diego.