One-Time Charger Chuck Muncie Indicted on Federal Drug Charges

Former San Diego Chargers running back Chuck Muncie was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury on charges that he tried to sell cocaine to undercover drug agents.

Muncie, 35, of San Diego, will be arraigned at 2 p.m. today before U. S. District Judge Roger Curtis McKee.

Muncie is charged with one count of attempted possession of cocaine for distribution and three counts of distributing about 2 ounces of cocaine for about $3,000 last December and January.

The indictment also alleges that Muncie tried in February to sell undercover narcotic agents a kilogram of cocaine at the Town & Country Hotel in Mission Valley.

Although Muncie’s football career was marked by repeated problems with drugs, this is the first time he has faced criminal drug charges.

Muncie was a star running back for the Chargers before being traded to the Minnesota Vikings in 1985. The trade transpired after he went through a program for cocaine addiction and his drug-related suspension was lifted by the National Football League.

Muncie retired from football later that year after more drug problems, which had begun as early as 1982 when he twice went through a drug detoxification program for treatment of marijuana and alcohol abuse.

Muncie told the New Orleans Times-Picayune in 1982 that he started using cocaine as a senior at the University of California, Berkeley, and that the problem got worse when he played for the New Orleans Saints.

He claimed that his cocaine use had no influence on the Saints’ decision to trade him in 1980, and said he believed Coach Dick Nolan and members of the team’s management knew there was a drug problem but “didn’t know to what extent.”

“I think they just ignored it,” he said in 1982. “I’m not saying it was their fault.”

Muncie, who insisted that his drug use never affected his game, had one of his best seasons in 1982. That season he rushed for 1,144 yards and scored 19 touchdowns.