Chargers’ Cuts Cross Strike Line : 4 Regulars Are Gone, 11 Replacements Kept as Roster Pared to 55
Just as the first-place Chargers were talking about bygones and all that, the football strike exacted another price Tuesday.
In paring the roster to a league-maximum 55, the Chargers cut four regular players. And they retained 11 replacements.
Andy Hawkins, the opening-day starting inside linebacker, was cut.
Mike Humiston, a replacement inside linebacker, was kept, and he probably will start Sunday against Cleveland.
Said Hawkins, a six-year veteran: “The hard part is, all of the benefits I was fighting for, they will be enjoyed by somebody who was playing while I was striking.”
Said Humiston: “This is a lousy thing to say, but hey, that’s the hard knocks of pro ball. Better him that me.”
One other member of the pre-strike 45-man roster was cut: second-year linebacker Angelo Snipes. Two were cut off the pre-strike injured reserve list: guard Curt DiGiacomo (ankle) and defensive end Mack Moore (knee). Moore, along with injured safety Jeffery Dale, were the only two Chargers to cross the picket line.
In trimming their roster from 68, the Chargers also waived seven replacements. Foremost was quarterback Rick Neuheisel, who helped the replacement team compile a 3-0 record. Also gone are safeties Walter Harris and Darrel Hopper, linebacker Patrick Miller, tackle Greg Feasel, guard Dwight Wheeler and running back Keyvan Jenkins.
For the four cut regulars, this list will go down hard.
Whereas Hawkins and Snipes were cut, replacement linebackers Humiston, Jeffery Jackson, Randy Kirk and John Taylor stayed.
Whereas DiGiacomo was cut, guards Curtis Rouse and Dan Rosado stayed.
Whereas Moore was cut, defensive ends Les Miller and Joe Phillips stayed.
The other three who stayed were cornerback Elvis Patterson and wide receivers Al Williams and Danny Greene.
There are also three replacements on the injured reserve list, from which a player cannot be cut. They are tackle Blaise Winter and linebackers Brian Ingram and Chuck Faucette.
Winter was placed on the list Tuesday, as was regular linebacker Gary Plummer, bringing the roster to 55.
The Chargers must activate 45 of the 55 players Saturday for Sunday’s 1 p.m. game against the Cleveland Browns in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. Under the new post-strike rules, they must cut the roster to 50 by next Tuesday, with a final cut to 45 likely the next week.
“I guess whether or not this is unfair, it depends on who you are talking to,” said Hawkins, who started that first game against Kansas City in place of holdout Thomas Benson, and then was relegated to a backup role. This was his second season with the Chargers after being traded from Tampa Bay.
“I could look at it as being unfair. I could look at it like, a replacement took my job.
“But everyone walking that picket line, we knew somebody had to lose.”
Two of the other three waived regulars didn’t have the same reaction.
“Nothing to say,” said Mack Moore as he carried away his belongings.
Said DiGiacomo, who was awakened by a 9 a.m. telephone call from Coach Al Saunders with the news: “I’m disappointed that we didn’t have a real chance to compete side by side with some of those guys, like training camp.”
Snipes was unavailable for comment.
Alternate player representative Gill Byrd said that because the strike is over, the union would not look at these cuts any differently from others.
“Right now, it’s not any different than other guys leaving in the middle of the season,” he said. “Guys are getting waived all the time.”
But there was disappointment Tuesday, and it wasn’t confined to the regulars.
Neuheisel said he was upset that, once the strike ended, he never really got a chance. He said it hurt worse because he came to the Chargers after turning down two other replacement team offers because of a sense of loyalty.
“It wasn’t like there was any quarterback competition here. It was the same three-quarterback lineup when the strike started, and when it ended--I’m not sure why they kept me,” Neuheisel said. “But no sour grapes. I had fun.”
Humiston, who originally took this replacement job to make extra money to care for an 8-year-old son who suffers with muscular dystrophy, is surprised to have made it this far.
“It’s a tremendous surprise, and a tremendous opportunity,” he said.
Charger Notes
Gary Plummer said he wasn’t sure how he broke his left hand, but that he dislocated his fingers during one of Sunday’s kickoffs against the Kansas City Chiefs. “The hand could have happened anytime during the game. Those kinds of things you tend to forget,” he said. “But I remember on the finger, I dove for the ballcarrier and I hit his shin with my hand and I look up and bone is coming through the skin. I remember that one.” Because of the injured reserve rules, he will miss at least four weeks. . . . Plummer’s injury is the only serious one resulting from Sunday’s game. Wes Chandler suffered a bone separation in the shoulder area, but on Tuesday he was no longer wearing a sling and will probably play Sunday against Cleveland.
