There’ll Be a Mora on Each Side When Chargers Meet Saints

Jim Mora Jr. is excited about it, but he doesn’t consider it a big deal.

If this sounds incongruous, so be it. Mora has mixed feelings about coaching against his father for the first time when the Chargers meet the New Orleans Saints Sunday at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

To Mora Jr., 26, the key to Sunday’s game is that it shouldn’t be looked upon as a head-to-head thing. After all, he is only a defensive staff assistant with the Chargers. Jim Mora Sr. is head coach of the Saints.

“I’m low man on the totem pole here,” Mora Jr. said. “Anything the coaches don’t want to do, I do. Considering my role compared to my dad’s in New Orleans, I’m sure our meeting isn’t that earth-shaking to him.

“It will be fun seeing him on the opposite sideline, but he’ll be so much more involved than I will. My part is minuscule.”

On the other hand, the idea of having the family divided for an afternoon is too much of a rarity to take completely in stride.

“It’s really a unique situation for us,” Mora Jr. said. “Every other game the Saints play, I live and die with them. When they pulled that game out Monday night (against the Dallas Cowboys), I was on Cloud 9. Now, just a few days later, I’ll be doing everything I can to beat them.”

The elder Mora, 53, was the NFL’s coach of the year last season after leading the Saints into the playoffs for the first time in their 21-year existence.

“We talked last night,” Mora Sr. said by telephone from New Orleans. “Jim Jr. said, ‘Remember, Dad, this is war.’ So you know he’s taking it seriously.

“Really, though, I don’t make a big thing of it, and I don’t think he does, either. After the game, we’ll shake hands and go on about our lives.”

Mora Jr. was asked if he would be able to spend much time with his father after the Saints arrive in San Diego today.

“I’ll see him at the hotel for a little while,” he said. “But this is a business trip for him, so he won’t be here to socialize. He’ll be here strictly to do a job.

“But I talk to him or my mother or my two brothers every day. We all talk. Our phone bills are atrocious.”

This is Mora Jr.’s fourth season with the Chargers, following a playing career as a defensive back and linebacker at the University of Washington. It is Mora Sr.’s third season with the Saints, part of a 32-year coaching career that includes successive United States Football League championships with the Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars in 1984 and 1985.

Mora Sr. was born in Glendale, played tight end and defensive back at Occidental College, and earned a master’s degree from USC. At Occidental, he roomed with Jack Kemp, who went on to play quarterback for the Chargers and Buffalo Bills before becoming a New York congressman and presidential candidate.

Asked if he had considered hiring his son while with the Saints, Mora Sr. said, “I feel that the best thing for him is not to work for me. It’s best if he establishes his own identity, and he couldn’t do that under me.

“When we talk, we have typical father-and-son conversations. I never discouraged him about going into coaching, and I never steered him into it. He grew up in it, so he knew what he was getting into. My two other sons have no desire to get into it.”

Mora Jr. had no trouble picking a college when he graduated from high school in 1980. His father had been defensive coordinator at Washington from 1975 through 1977, then stayed in Seattle as defensive line coach of the Seahawks from 1978 through 1981. The Moras also had been neighbors of Washington Coach Don James.

Mora Jr. played with current Cowboys’ quarterback Steve Pelluer at Interlake High School. Pelluer, the state player of the year, received a scholarship from Washington. Mora went as a walk-on and got a scholarship in his freshman year.

“I was kind of a nickel back my second and third years, and my fourth year I was more of a nickel linebacker,” he said. “In my four years, I played in two Rose Bowls and two Aloha Bowls.

“I never had any pro aspirations. I knew the odds were heavily against me. I had good size for a safety (6-1 1/2 and 200 pounds), but I was too slow.”

Along the way, Mora Jr. complemented the coaching knowledge he had picked up from his father by playing under James, one of the most successful and highly respected coaches in the country.

“James was a great coach to play for,” Mora Jr. said. “He’s a great motivator, very thorough, very well-organized, and honest. He’s also great, just great, at getting teams up for a big game.

“I had known him a long time, because our families had been friends for so long. I used to baby-sit his daughter, Jenny. I even played dolls with her.

“Of course, once I was on the Washington football team, all that changed. James doesn’t talk much to his players, so in my four years there, we probably talked four times. When he does say anything, you take it to heart.”

Mora Jr. joined the Chargers fresh out of college, and that’s a story in itself.

“I was a marketing major at Washington, and I was thinking about graduate school,” he said. “But I really wanted to get into coaching, so I wrote to 14 NFL teams, sending a cover letter with my resume.”

And?

“I got 14 rejections,” he said. “So I wrote them all again. Still no luck. So I decided to write them all a third time, and Johnny Sanders, who was general manager of the Chargers, got hold of the letter. He had coached my dad in the city-state all-star game in Los Angeles, and he recognized my name, so he invited me down for an interview.

“They didn’t really have anything, but a couple months later, Johnny asked me if I wanted to work here and fill in where needed. I jumped at the chance.”

At first, Mora Jr. was only a general handy-man. He did some computer work, provided dinner for the coaches and kept the meeting rooms in order, among other things.

But he gradually moved into responsible assignments and now is a valuable aide to Coach Al Saunders and his staff. He breaks down the opponents’ film, feeds the scouting reports into a computer and gives the opponents’ plays to the Chargers’ scout team during workouts.

On game days, Mora Jr. sits in the press box and keeps in touch with the defensive coaches by phone.

As for his goals, Mora Jr. said, “I have some in mind. My dad doesn’t know, but my mom does. She’s the only one I feel confident about discussing that stuff. For the time being, though, I’ll let the chips fall where they may.”

Connie Mora has suffered through a very difficult year. She was diagnosed as having breast cancer, and after completing radiation treatments, banged up her knee in a skiing accident and underwent surgery. On top of that, she and her husband were held up at gunpoint by intruders on their wedding anniversary.

Although she is now feeling fine, Connie Mora has opted to pass up the meeting of her husband and son.

Mora Jr. explained: “She’d have to cheer for the Saints, and she couldn’t bear to cheer in person against her son.”

Actually, Mrs. Mora’s inability to be neutral is logical.

Said Jim Mora Sr.: “She’ll be rooting for the guy who brings the paychecks home.”

Charger Notes

Charger running back Gary Anderson, the team’s leading ground-gainer, was held out of practice for the second consecutive day Friday because of a bruised thigh. “He should be fine for the game,” Charger Coach Al Saunders said. Cornerback Elvis Patterson probably won’t play against the Saints; he is suffering from a bruised sternum and will be replaced by Roy Bennett. . . . How about this headline? “Flutie To Quarterback Chargers.” It will happen Sunday if Charger quarterbacks Babe Laufenberg and Mark Malone go down with injuries. Unfortunately for the Chargers, it wouldn’t be Doug Flutie. It would be his younger brother, Darren Flutie, a reserve Charger wide receiver. Flutie ran several plays from the quarterback spot at the end of Friday’s practice, and Saunders said he will quarterback the team in an emergency.