It’s First and 30 Minutes : Tonight’s Game Might Be Flick’s First and Last Chance at No. 3 Job

His hands have been on his hips for weeks, but tonight Tom Flick gets his hands on the football. He is here on a whim and a prayer, but the bottom line is that he might not be here tomorrow.

Tom Flick, once a quarterback of magnitude in college, is now just a quarterback. When Dan Fouts comes out in the first half of tonight’s exhibition game against the 49ers, Flick will run out for his one and probably only chance to earn a spot as the No. 3 Charger quarterback. Barring injuries, the top two quarterbacks are expected to share time in next week’s game.

Charger coaches have ignored Flick since the opening of training camp, letting relative unknowns such as Rick Neuheisel and Mark Vlasic prove their worth in the first two exhibition games. Because of a coaching whim--the coaches weren’t clear on their quarterback rotation until Tuesday--Flick will play two quarters tonight. His exhibition season will be 30 minutes long. He must succeed in a swirling Candlestick Park wind. He must succeed against a swirling 49er defense.

But that’s where the prayer comes in. Tom Flick, whose faith in football has diminished, kneels down and prays every night for inner peace. It was a run-in with a football coach that helped him find God. So if he never finds a receiver tonight, he won’t really be feeling incomplete.

“Because of my faith, it’s a win-win situation,” Flick said. “I can’t lose. I just can’t lose. If I make this team, fantastic. And if I don’t play at all, so be it. But there is something great ahead.”

Back in 1981, that’s just what Washington Redskin coaches expected from Flick--great things. Joe Gibbs, the Redskin coach, scouted Flick at the University of Washington, and the Redskins drafted him in the fourth round. Joe Theismann, then the Redskin quarterback, was having difficulty with Gibbs’ offense, and Gibbs pulled Flick aside--according to Flick--to say: “You will take Joe’s place. You will be our quarterback.”

But Flick was homesick. After that ’81 season, he went home to Bellevue, Wash., to be with his wife and mom and dad. Meanwhile, Gibbs wondered where his quarterback was. Gibbs wanted Flick working out every day--in Washington, D.C., not Washington state.

When Flick showed up for training camp in 1982, Gibbs kept looking away. Flick said he wondered what the problem was. Before, their relationship hadn’t been coach-quarterback; it had been like father-son. But something had happened.

In an exhibition game against Tampa Bay, Flick handed off to a running back, but the running back fumbled. The next series, Flick threw a completion, but the receiver fumbled.

When Flick ran off the field the second time, he says Gibbs and several of the other coaches got in his face. The fumbles weren’t Flick’s fault, but Gibbs would rather starve than have his team turn over the football. The next night, Gibbs knocked on Flick’s door at 11.

“Let’s take a drive,” Gibbs said.

They drove around Carlisle, Penn., where the Redskins train, for 45 minutes. Flick says he heard Gibbs raise his voice for the first time. Flick raised his voice back. According to Flick, Gibbs said: “I needed to depend on you. Why didn’t you stay in town this spring and summer? You haven’t proven you can lead this team. What’s wrong?”

The next day, Flick was traded to the New England Patriots.

“I had played football my entire life,” Flick said. “Your God is football, and all of a sudden, it fails you. It hurt, more than anything in my life.”

From then on, football wasn’t his religion anymore. Religion became his religion.

Which brings us to 1986. After stints with the Patriots and the Browns, he and his wife, Molly, sent a letter to every NFL team, every United States Football League team and every Canadian team.

Two teams called back--first, the Saints because Flick personally knew the coach, Jim Mora; and second, the Broncos because he had been a Bronco ballboy as a kid. Still, neither team offered him a tryout.

But just before the 1986 training camp, Flick’s former high school coach happened to see Gunther Cunningham, the Chargers’ defensive line coach, at a clinic. He asked Cunningham if the Chargers needed quarterbacks. Cunningham said: “Maybe.”

The rest is recent history. Flick made the team by throwing for four second-half touchdowns in an exhibition game against Philadelphia. Then, he started and led the Chargers to their biggest victory of the season, a 9-3 triumph over the Broncos, who would eventually play in the Super Bowl.

He completed 16 of 22 passes that day in Denver, and Flick said it was the first time since his days with the Redskins that he felt like a quarterback.

“I hope the Charger coaches remember that game,” he said the other day.

They do. Al Saunders will never forget it because it was his first victory as a head coach. Still, in a way, Saunders wishes he could forget.

“See, it’s hard for me to cut people who I really admire,” Saunders said of Flick. “And I really admire Tom Flick. The hardest part of coaching is releasing people. I can’t let personalities get in the way.”

Flick, 28, has spent much of the last three weeks getting out of the way. He watched Neuheisel and Vlasic take the majority of the snaps. Hands on hips became his most frequent position.

Saunders and Roger Theder, the quarterback coach, had warned him that his practice time would be minimal anyway. Neuheisel and Vlasic needed to show what they could do; and unfortunately for Flick, Neuheisel ended up showing a lot.

According to a team source, Neuheisel still has the upper hand in the race for the No. 3 spot behind Fouts and Mark Herrmann.

The part that confuses Flick is that Saunders says: “Tom Flick is our incumbent No. 3 quarterback. He’s still the No. 3 guy.”

Flick says: “It is kind of ironic then that he doesn’t play me.”

Saunders response: “Our No. 3 quarterback has to be able to prove he can play without getting much work.”

So that’s where Flick is. He’s here today and maybe gone tomorrow. It could depend on 30 minutes of football.