Replacement Players Prepare for Last Game : They Say the Experience Was Worthwhile Despite the Hassle From Strikers

They began their “season” being called every name in the book, scab being the least offensive. The air was let out of their tires, but they inflated their egos by winning two of two games.

San Diego’s replacement players got the news Thursday that, most likely, their final game of the season will be Sunday because the National Football League Players Assn. had ended its strike.

By Monday, these 45 players, barring the slim chance that they will be asked to stick around for the Chargers or another team claims them, will return to the lives they lived four weeks ago.

All of these players came from various backgrounds, but most agree that their four weeks in the NFL were a worthwhile experience they will never regret.

Here’s a look at three players who crossed the picket line for different reasons:

Rick Neuheisel: He did exactly what he set out to do--show the Chargers, and anyone else interested, that he can play quarterback in the NFL.

Sunday, against Tampa Bay, Neuheisel completed 18 of 22 passes, setting a team record for single-game pass percentage (.818). Dan Fouts set the previous record of 28 of 35 (.800) against Seattle in 1979.

But sometime early next week, Neuheisel will return to USC, where he was attending law school before the strike, and withdraw from classes for this semester. The class load would be too much for him to return to school for the second time this semester and try to catch up.

Even so, he thinks his short stint in the NFL was worth it.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Neuheisel said after Thursday’s practice. “I can go to law school when I’m 40. But this is something I had to do now.”

Neuheisel said that he accepted the news that the strike was over and that he was happy the replacement players will be allowed to play one final game.

“I think it’s better than having the rug pulled out from under us after we have spent the whole week preparing for the (Raider) game Sunday. Shoot, we get another crack at a win against another team on the road.”

Another victory would give the replacements a 3-0 record and the Chargers a 4-1 record. With the two victories by the replacement team, the Chargers are off to their best start since 1981. Neuheisel believes that the replacements’ efforts will not go unnoticed.

“I bet they (the regular) players are a little put off by the whole situation, but when it gets down to the last part of the season and they need one win to take a wild card, they will look back and appreciate what we have done.”

Rod Price: It can now be told. Price “fibbed” his way onto the team. Price, an offensive lineman, told the Chargers that he was with the Rams during training camp. He left out the part about just watching their practice from behind a fence.

Price, who works as a substitute teacher in the Los Angeles area, said he just wanted an opportunity to learn with the Chargers.

While playing at Azusa Pacific the past two years, Price, who bench-presses 550 pounds, was accustomed to overpowering his opponents. Technique seemed unnecessary.

“I took this as a learning experience,” said Price, who practiced with the replacement Chargers but was on their inactive roster during the strike. “I didn’t learn technique in college. You can’t just come out here and overpower people. Out here, you get whipped around a bit. It really deflated my ego.

“I just came out here to be a sponge and absorb everything I could.”

Next week, Price plans to be back in a high school classroom, as a substitute teacher.

Tony Simmons: When Simmons crossed the picket line during the second week of the strike, his former teammates on the Chargers said, “Oh, no. Not Tony.”

But Simmons, who played in 13 games for the Chargers in 1985, crossed and said he would again.

“I couldn’t see a reason why they struck,” said Simmons, a defensive end. “I felt it was meaningless. I just didn’t see the players getting free agency. That would have been dumb for the owners.”

Simmons is convinced he will be selected by some team now that the strike is over.

“I’m playing to be picked up or kept by the team,” he said.

And Sunday’s game against the Raiders will be his last chance to prove himself.

“Knowing this is my last game, I don’t want to show up and say, ‘I’ll take the money.’ I want to win and be part of a winning percentage.”