New Start Lets Malone Make Himself at Home

To say that Mark Malone is back may well be a befuddling statement to most of those who will watch him take the field tonight as the Chargers’ starting quarterback in the exhibition opener against the Dallas Cowboys.

“Back?” they will understandably wonder. “When, pray tell, has he been here before? What did he do? Drive through on the way to Mexico? Take his family to the zoo? Isn’t he a Pittsburgh guy?”

It has, in fact, been 13 years since Malone played a home football game hereabouts, and that was for El Cajon Valley High School.

He could not have disappeared more thoroughly from the San Diego area landscape if he had run off with a circus.

But after four years at Arizona State and eight years with the Pittsburgh Steelers, he is back.

Professional athletes are not supposed to be sentimental about such things. They are supposed to gruffly snarl that they go where they are paid to play. They are supposed to have a “Have Gun, Will Travel” mentality.

However, a little warmth and sentimentality feels comfortable to Mark Malone.

“Very few athletes get the opportunity to come back and play professionally where they grew up,” he said. “Young kids are all infatuated with the dream of being a professional athlete, and a few lucky ones make it. And fewer lucky ones on top of that get to play in their home towns.”

It is particularly nice because anyplace would be better than where he was, at least in a professional sense.

“The biggest advantage,” he said, “is to be out of a situation like Pittsburgh. This is a fresh start, a new ballclub, a new philosophy.”

And . . . new fans.

Pittsburgh’s fans did not treat Malone kindly.

You see, the problem was that the Steelers of the 1980s were not the Steelers of the 1970s. The “one for the thumb” has never followed the four Super Bowl championships of the ‘70s. The Steelers’ fans have never been able to comprehend why their mighty had to fall.

It was dissatisfaction with the club as a whole, but the quarterback always takes the brunt of the blame. Mark Malone was not, after all, Terry Bradshaw.

“Terry was a great quarterback,” Malone said, “but he was by no means responsible for four Super Bowl rings on his own. Look at the people he had around him, and I don’t mean just on offense.”

For the record, the Steelers’ 50th anniversary all-star team included 20 players who played in the soaring ‘70s . . . and four who did not.

“That team was a dominant force,” Malone said. “And it may be the last time we ever see a team like that.”

And so Mark Malone was left to be quarterback of a team that would be up and down, just as everyone else in the National Football League seems to be these days. He took the verbal abuse, and he was the target of derisive banners. Defensive linemen did not have to listen to taunts comparing them with Mean Joe Greene, nor did wide receivers hear about the legacy of Lynn Swann. Malone was the quarterback, the focal point.

“It’s a high-profile position,” Malone said. “We all realize that. You can’t let the fans dictate your thinking process in terms of self-evaluation, or you have a real problem.”

Malone understood the fans’ abuse. He did not like it. But he understood.

“Even the great ones go through it,” he said. “After Terry had won four championships, I saw fans cheer once when he was carried off the field, and I heard him booed when he went through a bad spell.”

It might seem logical to suggest that Malone is once more stepping into an oven. He has not been officially named the Chargers’ opening-day starter, but he seems the likely choice. And the man who takes that opening snap will be the successor to Dan Fouts.

The suspicion here, however, is that Malone will not have to endure being compared with Fouts.

The Chargers have changed so thoroughly since the glory days of Air Coryell that a new quarterback is merely another step in an ongoing transition. It is nothing as traumatic as a new kid on the block trying to blend with a collection of successful veterans.

What’s more, Mark Malone will not be running the offense Dan Fouts ran. The Chargers will use the running game as their bread and butter and look for an occasional long pass to be dessert.

“I guarantee the quarterback’s stats will not be what they were when Dan was here,” Malone said. “We’ll have big games and hit big plays, but we’re not going to roll up big numbers. We want to win regardless of the quarterback’s stats.”

Mark Malone is a nice fit for this offense. He has the mobility to move around and try to make something of broken plays. He has the arm strength to get the ball upfield. He can run, if necessary, and it may well be necessary with an uncertain offensive line. And he has experience.

He seemed enthusiastic and upbeat as he talked.

“I am,” he said. “This is almost like being a rookie again.”

And being home again is like completing one of those long passes . . . like dessert.