He’s Part Standout, Part Stand-In : DeBerg Has Found a Home With the Chiefs . . . for Now

First stop, 49ers. They had Joe Montana.

Next, the Denver Broncos. They got John Elway. On the road again.

Next, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Those guys had no sense of humor, whatsoever. They brought in Steve Young and Vinny Testaverde. You, with the little salary, can we call you a cab?

Kansas City. Bill Kenney? Looks like home to me.

This is your pro football career, Steve DeBerg.

He’s in Kansas City now, both a Chief and a chief, even if his new coach, Frank Gansz, says they got him to be a backup. After that $6 million or so in aggregate annual salary DeBerg had been backing up before, he must have liked his chances.

By the Chiefs’ second game, he was playing. And by their third, he was starting. In their fourth, a 17-17 tie with the New York Jets, he threw for 312 yards, making it 4 teams for which he has had 300-yard days. Of course, he knows what to expect next, and it’s a lot more career-threatening than the Raiders Sunday.

Right, Troy Aikman.

“Pretty good chance of it,” said DeBerg, laughing.

“But it usually doesn’t happen the first year. It usually takes 2 or 3. It’s probably somebody else. I don’t know his name or where he’s from, but he’s out there.”

It’s not as if this is DeBerg’s first shot at a No. 1 job. He started for a couple of seasons in San Francisco, for one in Denver and for three in Tampa. A year ago, his Tampa teammates voted him their most valuable player . . . after which the team traded him.

DeBerg complain?

Hardly. His contract was up, and he selected the Chiefs as his new team because he liked their playoff chances.

A handicapper, he ain’t. The Chiefs, 4-11 last season, are 1-4-1.

What, him worry?

“Really, this football team only has to start playing at the level it’s capable of,” DeBerg said.

“Like, at Tampa, we were constantly trying to play better than we were to try to win some football games. This team just has to play as good as it is.”

Or maybe this team is a little overrated?

What about that young offensive line, with all those huge prospects?

DeBerg, though adding that the line has the skill to be very good, is remarkably candid:

” . . . You know, I really have been beat up 2 weeks in a row, and basically gotten knocked down on a majority of times I’m throwing the ball, whether it’s through sacks or knockdowns after the throw.

“This offensive line should be playing better than that.”

Of course, with DeBerg starting the Chiefs are 1-2-1.

Maybe they’ll stay committed to him? Nah . . .

“I’ve always kind of had fun with it,” DeBerg said. “It’s been a little bit frustrating”--he laughed--”but it just kept happening over and over again.

“I just kept saying it can’t happen again. I’m kind of saying that in Kansas City, but as soon as you say that, they have to bring another quarterback along.

“It’s funny, they always started out to be great situations. When I was in Denver, Craig Morton had just retired. I established myself as starting quarterback with a very good football team. They’d just drafted Chris Hinton on the first round and an offensive guard on the second. They had good receivers. It looked like a perfect situation, and about a month later, they traded for John Elway.

“Then I went to Tampa. I became the starting quarterback and things were looking real good. Then Steve Young came along. Two years later, Vinny Testaverde came along.

“Now I’m in Kansas City and this looks like a great opportunity for me, and once again, the next Joe Namath is going to be coming along.”

Hey, some kind of Joe Namath is waiting for all of us.

Opportunity calls, seize the moment anew.