THE BIG-PLAY MAN : Free Safety Vencie Glenn Comes Through in Clutch for Faltering Chargers
The topic of discussion is big plays, and the guest is Charger free safety Vencie Glenn, who knows a ton about them.
He is asked how it feels to give his team an upset victory with an overtime interception, such as the one against Cleveland.
And what it’s like to return an interception 103 yards, the NFL record he set against Denver.
And what is going through his mind when he blocks a punt in the end zone for a touchdown, something that happened against Pittsburgh.
He answers all questions neatly and nicely. His below-all-octaves-known-to-man bass voice is patient and explanatory.
And then he talks about what it’s really like to make the big play.
He talks about seventh grade.
“I’m standing in the lunch line, when I reach in my pocket to pull out my money, a quarter and two dimes,” he says. “If lunch was 45 cents, my parents would give me 45 cents, no more, no less.
“I drop one quarter on the floor. When I reach down to get it, some guy has put his foot on it. He tells me it’s his quarter. I tell him, no it ain’t.”
By now in the story, Glenn is getting worked up. It’s like the ending of the Cleveland game, when he unashamedly danced around the field waving a towel. By now, he is fairly screaming.
“This kid has his foot on my quarter. I don’t get the quarter, I don’t eat,” he said. “So I tell him, ‘You got to the count of three to get that foot off the quarter.’
“And I count, ‘One, two . . .,’ then I smack him. We fight, I whip his butt, and we both get suspended. But I eat.”
One second. Wasn’t the bully promised the count of “three”?
“Yeah,” Glenn said with a smile, “but when it comes to war, you can’t always believe what Vencie Glenn tells you.”
Treating opponents no better than irritating schoolmates, the second-year man has spent a season fighting, as if success were a coin under a shoe. Even as the Chargers have been losing four straight, he has been winning.
- The 34-3 loss to Seattle: The Chargers’ defensive line is beaten so badly, Seahawk running backs are in the secondary before they even know there’s a defense. Thus tested, on one memorable series, Glenn makes four straight tackles. It surely seems a record for anyone not named Butkus.
“I don’t think that’s a good sign,” he said at the time. “I would rather see the rest of our defense get the credit.”
- The 31-17 loss to Denver: Don’t say you don’t remember this one. Glenn picks off John Elway’s first pass into the end zone and runs it a record 103 yards to give the Chargers a 7-0 lead. Elway later throws three balls into the end zone that are caught by his receivers, but what the heck.
“I would not have done it without the good pass rush, because Elway never saw me,” he said. “And there was Thomas Benson’s great block on Elway (on the return). Good block of Thomas Benson on Elway.”
- The 33-18 loss to Houston: Oiler quarterback Warren Moon’s first pass is picked off by Glenn, setting the Chargers up for what should have been their first score. But because of a turnover, it wasn’t.
“I never could have gotten that ball if it wasn’t for a good drop by the linebackers,” Glenn said. “Moon had to throw it over their heads, and it went right to me.”
- The 20-16 loss to Pittsburgh: On the Steelers’ first punt, from their end zone, Glenn breaks through the middle of the line and leaps on the ball as it is leaving Harry Newsome’s foot. Block. The ball bounces once, and David Brandon falls on it for a touchdown to give the Chargers a 7-0 lead. For the rest of the game they would be outscored, 20-9.
“If it wasn’t for Billy Ray (Smith), Chip (Banks), Kellen (Winslow) and Daniel (Hunter) holding off their blocks, I never would have gotten in there,” Glenn said. “The hole for me was a mile long. I was untouched.”
Perhaps we should throw in his interception against Cleveland at this point, although it actually led to a 27-24 victory.
On the first overtime series, Brown quarterback Bernie Kosar got the ball up, and Glenn grabbed it and ran 20 yards into Vince Abbott field goal range. Two plays later, Abbott kicked a 33-yarder to win it.
“That was due to Martin Bayless,” said Glenn, now passing the praise to his strong safety. “He got underneath the receiver, and Bernie was so worried about him, he threw it right to me.”
Just a thought, but is there anything Glenn will take credit for himself?
“Sorry,” he said, “but I’m the wrong person to ask about Vencie Glenn.”
Next week, the NFL will ask its players about everyone. It’s Pro Bowl voting time.
Some say that from the Chargers, tackle Jim Lachey will go. Others say a linebacker, Banks or Smith, will go.
Everyone says Vencie Glenn had better go.
“He deserves the Pro Bowl. There hasn’t been any better free safety in this league,” Bayless said. “His performance speaks for itself. Once he realized he could make the big plays, he has just taken off. You can’t believe the confidence he is playing with.”
“He has become an impact player,” said veteran safety Mike Davis, who has seen a few. “He approaches with high intensity, he plays with intellect, he’s always a factor.”
Glenn, 23, takes all of this with the same nonconforming, unassuming style that induced him to first put on that diamond earring five years ago, back when nobody had ever heard of Brian Bosworth .
“Pro Bowl?” he asked. “I don’t know anything about that game. I know it’s played after the Super Bowl, out in Hawaii somewhere, right?
“I’ve never been in it, I know nothing about it, I got nothing to do with it,” he continued. “I’m not thinking about any Pro Bowl. I’m thinking about Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indianapolis.”
That’s the Chargers’ opponent Sunday. When Glenn intones their name three straight times, or anything else three straight times, he sounds like the plant in “Little Shop of Horrors.” You have a tendency to believe him.
“He likes to talk,” Bayless said. “On the field, he is yelling at everyone, directing the secondary, calling out all kinds of things.”
That’s good, because Glenn fills every role he can. He makes so many big plays simply because is in so many different places.
He is fourth on the team in tackles, with 57, just one behind Banks, who gets paid just for that. He is second on the team in sacks with five, one behind defensive end Lee Williams, who gets paid just for that.
He is tied with Smith for the team lead in interceptions with three. It’s an impressive figure when you realize that only one other member of the Charger secondary even has one interception, and that was Elvis Patterson’s game-winner against the Raiders in a strikeball contest.
“I got to be honest, I do surprise myself,” Glenn said. “There are times I do say, ‘Damn, I did that? I made that play? That was me?’
“You never picture yourself making big plays like that.”
Especially since, in the past 15 months, two things have happened that have caused Glenn not to picture anything but what’s in front of him.
1.) He felt that his career died when he was traded to the Chargers from New England.
2.) He felt he was dead, period, when his truck was blindsided in the middle of an intersection.
“What I do now is never try to live but for this day,” he said. “I’m not a big man on the future. I’m just lucky to be here.”
He wasn’t so sure Sept. 29, 1986, when, as a rookie second-round pick from the Patriots, he was traded to the Chargers for a fifth-round choice.
Trades are as common in the NFL as are sacks of Dan Fouts. And players recover just as uneasily.
“It’s like, you think you can play, but then hear they are trading you,” Glenn said. “What does that mean? Do they know something you don’t know? Maybe you can’t play?”
He settled down to earn a starting job in the final seven games. He thought he was happy, and upon finishing the season, he returned to Indiana State to work on his degree. It was a March afternoon in Terre Haute that made him realize he was more than happy.
Today, he is one safety who will never say that getting hit by some running back was like getting run over by a truck. Because he has been run over by a truck.
While driving his ’87 Bronco through an intersection that March day, he was blindsided by a pickup. It hit his car on the driver’s side and ran the Bronco into and up a light pole.
“Darn thing was standing on its side, run up this pole,” Glenn remembered. “I thought I was dead, but I wasn’t sure. I climbed out of the back of my truck, down through his truck and ran to call my uncle.”
While talking on a gas station phone, the pain and shock suddenly hit him. He dropped the phone and dropped to the ground.
When he looked up next, he was in an ambulance. Turns out he just had a bruised collarbone and bruises over the rest of his body. He was released from the hospital that night.
“I’m no fool,” he says today. “I know what could have happened to me. I know how lucky I am.
“Now I only deal with reality. I’m not a Pro Bowler yet. I’m not a superstar yet. I do a lot of bad things that fans don’t see or blame on someone else.”
What is Vencie Glenn, then?
“I am just a fighter,” he said. “My back is to the wall. I may not win, but I will fight. I will die fighting.”
Right, and he’ll give you a count of three to believe him.
Charger Notes
Center Don Macek, nursing a torn calf muscle, didn’t practice Thursday, and his chances of playing Sunday against Indianapolis have severely diminished. “It feels better, but I have a ways to go,” Macek said. He remains questionable, so Dennis McKnight remains probable as the center Sunday. . . . Defensive end Les Miller felt good enough in Thursday’s practice to flip 285-pound tackle Jim Lachey over his back like something out of a circus. Needless to say, his severely sprained ankle has improved, and he could be active for the first time since the Nov. 22 Seattle game. “It was much better, and we have hopes he will be ready Sunday,” said Coach Al Saunders. . . . Although wide receiver Lionel James said he is “not completely” over his concussion-related headaches, he will play Sunday. “I’m not feeling totally great yet, but if I thought it would be a problem, I wouldn’t go out there,” he said.
