Fouts Says Word Near on Status
Versions of quarterback Dan Fouts’ contract status with the Chargers varied depending on who you talked to Tuesday.
More important was the emerging probability that Fouts’ will announce his retirement before the end of the month.
“I will have something to say in the near future,” Fouts said by phone late Tuesday.
Fouts wouldn’t specify the exact nature of the promised announcement. But one Charger front office official in San Diego confirmed that the organization expects the announcement to center around Fouts’ expected retirement.
Charger owner Alex Spanos, contacted in New York Tuesday, said he hasn’t talked to Fouts since the end of the season. Spanos also said he has been waiting for Fouts to inform the Chargers what he intends to do with his football future.
“I just hope it’s soon,” Spanos said.
Steve Ortmayer, the team’s director of football operations, stressed the importance of an announcement from Fouts (one way or the other) soon. “The draft is a month away,” Ortmayer said.
At the recent league meetings in Phoenix, the Chargers talked with several teams about making a deal that would bring a new starting quarterback to San Diego for the 1988 season. Fouts, 36, has spent 15 productive seasons as the team’s quarterback. But injuries have slowed him in recent years.
It’s no secret the team has decided it wants a younger, more durable, more mobile quarterback to run the attack-scheme new offensive coordinator Jerry Rhome will begin installing at the team’s mini-camp in late May.
The NFL draft will take place April 24-25. But Charger officials have already conceded there are no college quarterbacks available that project as immediate rookie starters. Ortmayer and San Francisco Coach Bill Walsh spent the better part of the week in Phoenix denying rumors that there were plans to trade 49er quarterback Joe Montana for two Charger No. 1s and either linebacker Billy Ray Smith or running back Gary Anderson.
Meanwhile Fouts was unhappy with a report, published Tuesday, saying he and the Chargers reached an agreement last November that ended the team’s contractual obligations to him for 1988.
“I’ve got no comment on that,” Fouts said.
The report said the Chargers paid Fouts his 1987 guaranteed base salary of $750,000 and the $375,000 that was guaranteed him in 1988, the last year of his six-year contract. In exchange, the Chargers reportedly were freed from any contractual obligations to Fouts for the 1988 season.
“It’s somewhat accurate,” Spanos said of the report.
Added another highly-placed Charger executive when asked about the report: “It is speculative. There were some adjustments.”
Said Ortmayer: “The only thing I can say is I will continue to stand on what I’ve said all along: We came to a meeting of the minds (in November). We came away from the meeting feeling everybody had an understanding.”
Spanos said contact between Fouts and the Chargers since the end of the season has been through Ortmayer. Ortmayer said contact between Fouts and the Chargers since the end of the season has been through Coach Al Saunders.
Fouts has already said that when his playing days are over he will devote more time to a financial firm in which he holds part interest. He has also expressed continued interest in pursuing a sports broadcasting career.