Mullins May Catch On as Successor to Charlie Joiner : He Has the Head--and the Hands--to Make the Grade as Chargers’ Big-Play Threat

Eric Mullins is currently leading the Charlie Joiner Look-Alike Contest, which means he has a tendency to catch everything thrown at him--including footballs.

Joiner--who caught 750 of those footballs in 18 seasons--retired last winter, and the Chargers need someone who has a clue about what to do on third and eight.

Not only did Joiner have great hands, but he had a great head. And so we introduce Mullins and his 3.4 grade-point average at Stanford. Mullins has been cut twice by National Football League teams, but he has terrific mental endurance. He just finished a year in medical school and plans on being a full-fledged doctor sometime around 1992.

In dissecting the Chargers’ offense, it’s not difficult to see it needs wide receivers. Wes Chandler, soon to be 31, is the incumbent on one side, and that leaves Trumaine Johnson, Timmie Ware, Jamie Holland and Mullins fighting for a job on the other side. Because running backs Gary Anderson and Lionel James also are deft receivers and because the Chargers are committed to keeping four tight ends, there are probably only two open wide receiver jobs.

Barring a trade, Mullins might be just what the doctor ordered. The Chargers haven’t played an exhibition game, but Mullins has dropped only a ball or two since training camp began. He remembers all the plays, too.

“Charlie Joiner has caught more balls than anyone else in history,” Charger Coach Al Saunders said. “So nobody here is a Charlie Joiner.”

But Joiner said of Mullins: “He’s faster than me.”

Which is true, because Joiner never ran the 40-yard dash in 4.38 seconds. Mullins, who is 6-feet 1-inch tall and weighs 181 pounds, says he ran that fast when scouts timed him in 1984. In college, he had to sprint that fast just to run under John Elway’s 60-yard bombs.

The Houston Oilers drafted Mullins before the 1984 season, just about the time Baylor University accepted him to its medical school. He chose football because doctors don’t reach their prime in their 20s.

Mullins made the Oilers and caught seven passes for a 3-13 team. It was quarterback Warren Moon’s first season in Houston, and Oiler offensive linemen couldn’t protect their biggest star. Consequently, Moon kept throwing on the run, and Mullins could hardly make an impact.

A year later, he injured his ankle and missed the first five weeks of training camp. He should have missed the sixth week, too, but he made an early return to practice. They cut him a week later.

It was too late to begin medical school, so he found a job in the Houston Adult Probation Department. There, he interviewed people who were being considered for release from jail on their own recognizance. He would stay in shape during the day and interview at night.

The San Francisco 49ers signed him last off-season, but they had Dwight Clark and Jerry Rice and Mike Wilson, among others. He was the last receiver cut.

So it was time for medical school. This time, he enrolled at the University of Texas-Houston, and he did his share of two-a-days in the library.

“I’d be in class all day, from 8 a.m. till 4 p.m.,” he says. “And then I’d study up until 11:30, 12. I’m one of these guys who has to study a lot. I had to put in the time. Some people, it seems like things come so easy to them. I’ve got to study.”

His father, a Houston physician, had an influence on his career choice. And he consulted Milt McColl and John Frank, 49er players who have mixed football with medical school. McColl finished in five years; Frank has two years left.

“I’m in no rush,” Mullins says. “I can finish going to school when I quit football. That would be fine with me. Now, I still want to play ball.”

Trumaine Johnson was supposedly the front-runner to team with Chandler at wide receiver, but that is changing. Holland--the rookie sprinter from Ohio State--might have the best tools, but he’s young, Saunders said. In a training camp prank Monday, Charger veterans taped Holland to a chair and stuck him in the middle of a water sprinkler.

In the meantime, Mullins is the one who’s not all wet.

“He’s a smooth striding kid who kind of sneaks up on you,” says Joiner, now the Charger receiver coach. “He could do some damage.”