The Thing Is, Watts Can Help Chargers : After a Year Off, Former Raider Is Trying to Corner an NFL Job

Defensive back Ted Watts has a lot of “things” going on right now. For instance, he said the other day he’s no longer into the Raider thing, but is definitely into the Charger thing. And he’s also into the team-concept thing and into the winning thing and into the making-money thing.

Truth is, the best thing about Ted Watts, 29, is all the things he has been through.

He’s trying out for the Chargers, but he began his career for Raider owner Al Davis in 1981. Lester Hayes was the cornerback on one side; Watts was on the other. And since Hayes was All-Pro, all the balls were thrown Watts’ way.

He was a typical Raider. He liked to hit you when you weren’t looking.

There was a time in San Diego when he leveled Charger receiver Wes Chandler in the end zone. Chandler was knocked silly, and the Chargers, who kind of a dirty hit. They came back to take a 27-20 lead, but the Raiders eventually won, 41-34.

According to Watts, playing in the Raider secondary was a “brotherly thing.”

He says: “It was close-knit. It was like we were all brothers, and we got along like one happy family. Me, Lester, Mike Davis, Vann McElroy. Being back there, we knew what each other was thinking. And if a guy got beat, we’d say, ‘Shake it off, man. Get ‘em next play.’ Everybody gets beat. But the key is, can you come back tough the next play?”

Most everybody around the Charger camp thinks Watts will bring a much-needed Raider nastiness to their secondary.

“We’re talking about two different things,” Watts said. “That was a Raider thing, and we’ve got a Charger thing going here. I can’t bring that here. I can’t bring that closeness. The Chargers are the Chargers. I’m not a Raider no more.”

The Mike Haynes Thing

In November 1983, the Raiders acquired Mike Haynes, who had been holding out from the Patriots. Watts had been doing fine, but Haynes had Pro Bowl status and would do better. Eventually, Haynes took Watts’ place in the lineup and helped the Raiders win a Super Bowl two months later.

In 1985, Watts was traded to the New York Giants.

“Trades happen,” Watts said. “I’m a grown man. It’s not Mike’s fault. He’s a man, I’m a man. It’s like you have a regular job for three years and they throw someone in there for you. The guy who goes in there, it’s not his fault. I’ve got nothing against Mike.”

Playing behind Hayes and Haynes, he learned much.

“It’s an advantage playing with them, but also a disadvantage,” Watts said. “You’re learning from these two cover guys, but you can’t do anything. You’re just standing there.”

The Giant Thing

He played with the Giants in 1985 but was released before last season.

He still can’t fully explain it.

“I wasn’t into the game,” he said. “I had other things in my life that kept me from doing what I had to do on the field. Mentally, I wasn’t there. Just sometimes you get that way. I can’t explain it.

“I don’t know, it could have been the cold weather. It just wasn’t there for me. It’s hard to pinpoint.”

But Len Fontes, the Giants’ secondary coach, said Watts was never able to extricate himself from the Raiders.

“It’s so difficult to play for us right away,” Fontes said. “We’re more of a zone-type team. We’re not a bump-and-run-all-the-time team like the Raiders. Our techniques are different. So it was tough for Ted to get the old habits out. He thought it would be easier than it was.

“And also, I think he was still a Raider at heart. He’d come in on Sundays and ask for the Raider scores, and he’d wear his silver and black Raider jacket all the time. We wear blue here.”

But saying goodby was hard for Watts to do, especially when the Giants went on to win the Super Bowl.

“I accepted it and dealt with it,” he said of getting cut. “I could have gone to pieces, but you’re still in the same boat if you do. I sat down and talked to myself. I said, ‘Ted, get a job.’ ”

Making-Money Thing

So he says he worked for an investment firm in New York.

“Just to see what the real world was like,” Watts said. “Nine-to-five, man. I did it six months.”

For once, he had Sundays off.

“You wake up and you look at it (football) every Sunday. It would sort of blow your mind. I had to turn it off a bunch of times.”

No other NFL teams called.

“Canada called, but I didn’t want the Canada thing,” he said. “Nothing against Canada, but I wanted the NFL. I just wanted a tryout, that’s all.”

He missed the entire season, but didn’t miss any meals and gained 25 pounds.

“I had money in the bank, plus I worked,” Watts said. “Wasn’t like I was starving. Listen, I learned you better put money in the bank because your day will come. After what happened to me, you go through that perspective thing, man.”

The Charger Thing

Steve Ortmayer, the Charger director of football operations, was with Raiders when Watts was there and knew him well.

“One of the reasons we (the Raiders) traded Ted was Mike Haynes,” Ortmayer said. “We had the feeling Ted wouldn’t be happy. But he could still play. We signed him here (with the Chargers) because we just thought he had the versatility to play a lot of positions. And we liked him as a competitor. The ball’s in his court now.”

Whatever happened to Watts with the Giants, it’s not happening here.

“This year, I’m completely different,” he said. “It was one of those things last year. Now, I’ve got a second chance.”

Ron Lynn, the defensive coordinator, said Watts will play cornerback, strong safety and free safety. Watts has stood out in scrimmages, rather than drills, and that’s why the Chargers use words like gamer to describe him.

“If he continues this way, he has a real good chance of making this team,” Coach Al Saunders said. “And it’d be great because we need his experience.”

With starting strong safety Jeff Dale out with a back injury, Watts currently is battling with John Sullivan for Dale’s starting assignment.

“I haven’t played safety since Texas Tech,” said Watts. “I missed playing there.”

Team-Concept Thing

In a scrimmage against Dallas the other day, Watts separated man from ball with a vicious hit. His teammates started chanting, “Teddy! Teddy!”

It probably stems from his Raider thing.

“Those guys knew me from there,” Watts said. “But, listen, when I make a hit, I make it for my 10 other guys on the field. I don’t say, ‘Wow, put me on a pedestal.’ I’m into the team thing, you hear me?”

The Hunger Thing

Lynn calls it Watts’ new “lease on life.” Whatever it is, Watts spent a year away from the NFL last year and is playing with renewed enthusiasm.

“I ain’t getting younger,” he said. “It’s getting to be an age thing, you know?”

And that was the final thing he said.

Ted Watts

‘We’re talking about two different things. That was a Raider thing, and we’ve got a Charger thing going here. I can’t bring that here. I can’t bring that closeness. The Chargers are the Chargers. I’m not a Raider no more.’