Chargers : Figaro Looks Ahead After Tough Year

One year ago, Notre Dame linebacker Cedric Figaro, the Chargers’ pick in the sixth round of Monday’s NFL draft, was singing a sad song.

Figaro had been involved in an incident at a pub in South Bend, Ind. Details are sketchy, and no charges have been filed with the local police.

But witnesses say it started with words. Then somebody threw beer on the 6-foot 1 1/2-inch, 250-pound Figaro. A scuffle ensued.

Notre Dame officials immediately suspended Figaro, causing him to miss spring football.

But according to school officials, Father Theodore Hesburgh, in his last days as Notre Dame’s president, was so furious with the delay in the appeal process that he eventually threw out charges brought against Figaro by a university tribunal.

Hesburgh did stipulate that Figaro would not be allowed to attend summer school.

After learning of Hesburgh’s edict, Figaro took several independent study courses home with him over the summer to Lafayette, La. He is one semester short of earning a degree in psychology in Notre Dame’s college of arts and letters. He hopes to graduate this spring.

“I feel like I got the short end of the stick,” Figaro said Monday. “But that’s all behind me now.”

For better or worse, Figaro’s lyrical surname will be with him forever. He was in fast company at Notre Dame where teammates included the Francisco brothers, Hiawatha and D’Juan. The Irish also have a walk-on kicker on campus named Reggie Ho.

Headline writers are already waiting for the game in which Notre Dame beats USC, 9-7, on three Ho field goals.

HO! HO! HO!

Notre Dame sports publicist John Heisler says Notre Dame has an incoming freshman wide receiver from Wilkes-Barre, Pa. with a name that makes Cedric Figaro sound like John Doe.

His name: Raghib Ismail.

And despite what ESPN announcer Chris Berman might tell you, Ismail’s nickname is not “Call Me.”

According to Heisler, Ismail’s moniker is “Rocket.”

Figaro’s nickname at Notre Dame was “Fig.”

Asked to name a weakness in his game, wide receiver Anthony Miller, the Chargers’ No. 1 pick, said, “Catching the ball across the middle.”

But he said it’s a weakness only because he never got the opportunity at Tennessee.

“I was always the guy clearing it out there,” he said.

Miller injured his knee in the first game of the 1987 season. And his coaches told him he could sit out the rest of the year and return in 1988 to complete his eligibility. Miller told them he wasn’t interested in that option despite the depth of wide receivers in the 1988 draft.

With the 15th pick, the Chargers made him the fourth wide receiver selected. The first three were: Notre Dame’s Tim Brown (6) to the Raiders; South Carolina’s Sterling Sharpe (7) to Green Bay and Miami’s Michael Irvin (11) to Dallas.

The Chargers had more needs to fill than any other team in the AFC West but less firepower in the draft selection than any other team except perhaps Denver.

How did they compare?

“I think we did really well in relation to the rest of the division with the possible exception of Denver,” said Steve Ortmayer, Charger director of football operations. “The Raiders had a lot of picks and got some good players. It would be hard to fault their draft. It was a very typical Raider draft in that they went for size and speed.”

Ortmayer served as the Raiders’ director of football operations before he came to the Chargers on Jan. 27, 1987.

Perhaps the most interesting pick the Chargers made was New Mexico State’s 236-pound Joe Campbell in the fourth round. Campbell is an outside linebacker but is expected to become a pass rusher.

The Chargers have stopped just short of publicly admitting that defensive end Leslie O’Neal won’t make it back in 1988 from the knee injury that ended his rookie year late in the 1986 season. But they are hoping Campbell will fill some of the void.

“You win football games sacking the other quarterback,” said Gunther Cunningham, defensive line coach. “I think you all remember the Super Bowl. John Elway was on the ground.”

Elway, Denver’s quarterback, was sacked five times in the Broncos’ 42-10 loss to Washington.

Cunningham said Campbell reminds him of a “small Lee Williams” with “some of the athletic skills of Leslie O’Neal.”

Williams led the Chargers last year with eight sacks.