Held Up Against a Highlight : Gary Anderson Is Always Measured by One Play

He is hurt now. An ankle turned the wrong way on the fourth play of a desultory loss Sunday in Cincinnati. He scored from 10 yards on the next down, but a penalty nullified it. The ankle got worse as the game wore on. He carried the ball twice more all afternoon.

He is “questionable” on the injury report for Sunday’s meaningless game at home against the Steelers. So the whispered questions will start up all over again.

Whatever happened to Gary Anderson?

What’s wrong with Gary Anderson?

When will Gary Anderson be back?

Charger running back Gary Anderson: Is he a threat or a promise?

There are no bars, wardens, cells, guards or walls in Anderson’s jail. But his confinement is solitary.

He is the prisoner of his own enormous potential. And his sentence may be for life. Too many people have judged him to be guilty of too many unfulfilled expectations. They remember one indelible play. Nothing he has done since, nothing he may ever do again, will make them forget it.

“He is sort of a prisoner of that one play, so to speak,” says Charger cornerback Gill Byrd. “Everybody remembers it. It was shown all over the country. It was unbelievable. When you do something like that, you set yourself apart from the crowd. People expect more. And rightfully so. But I think it’s undue, unnecessary pressure to put on an individual.”

What Anderson did on third and 5 from the Miami 18 in the first quarter of the first game of the 1986 season was leap headfirst into the highlight film Hall of Fame.

“It made all the highlight films,” says Charger quarterback Babe Laufenberg, who was not with the team at the time. “I don’t remember where I was when I saw it. I mean, it’s not like the Kennedy assassination. But it seemed like it was impossible to leap . . . to get as many yards horizontally, going in one direction, yet flip your body over completely. I mean, I would have broken my neck.”

Anderson didn’t even look as if he had broken a sweat. Earlier in the period, he and Dan Fouts had hooked up for a 49-yard completion that was spoiled by an illegal motion penalty. Then, on third-and-12 from the Charger 21, a Fouts-Anderson pass produced only 7 yards. But Mark Clayton fumbled Ralf Mojsiejenko’s punt, and the Chargers recovered.

Anderson, who would finish with 59 yards in 12 carries and 8 catches for 69 yards, swept left end for 18 yards. Two plays later, Fouts dumped a swing pass to him in the right flat. The rest is celluloid history.

The 5-picture sequence hanging on the Chargers’ office walls is more graphic, if less exciting, than the video replay.

The first photo shows left inside linebacker Jackie Shipp vainly chasing Anderson from behind. Shipp has chosen an angle of pursuit. Anderson is outrunning the angle.

The second photo catches free safety Bud Brown in an attempt to cut Anderson down with a body block at the 5-yard line. But Anderson has already launched himself into the air.

In the third photo, Anderson is still rising as he crosses the goal line. Strong safety Paul Lankford and left cornerback Don McNeal arrive too late.

In the fourth photo, Anderson’s entire body is higher than the top of Lankford and McNeal’s helmets.

The final picture of the sequence shows Anderson finally coming back to earth, in a gymnastic tuck-and-roll, 4 yards into the end zone.

“I’ve been trying to figure out where the phone booth is that Superman comes out of,” Charger running back Lionel James said after the game.

The length of Anderson’s leap was probably the most remarkable aspect of the play. But you can make an argument that the height and/or the form were more striking. Not to mention the fact that he didn’t fumble upon impact.

Quick name association: Bob Beamon. Dwight Stones. Greg Louganis. Walter Payton. Tom Swift. George Reeves.

The Chargers won, 50-28, that day at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. And things haven’t been the same since. They lost their next eight games. Coach Don Coryell lost his job. And in certain critical quarters, Anderson lost credibility as a football player because he wasn’t able to repeat a feat many people refused to stop talking about.

Fortunately for himself, Anderson has learned to deal with other people’s memories of the play.

“I don’t think they expect me to dive 10 yards every time I go out on the field,” Anderson insists. “So I don’t worry about it.”

But the problem of people’s expectations goes even beyond his leap of faith against the Dolphins.

“He’s probably not any more a prisoner of that particular play than he is of his past USFL performances,” says Steve Ortmayer, the Chargers’ director of football operations. “I think the expectations for Gary Anderson are very high. He was drafted with that in mind. And I think when that falls short of our expectations, we tend to be disappointed.

“But,” adds Ortmayer, “Gary has had a very productive season this year.”

The numbers bear him out. Going into last week’s game, Anderson needed to average 95 yards rushing in the last 3 games to become only the third Charger running back in 14 years to rush for 1,000 yards. Only five Charger running backs in the 29-year history of the franchise have attained 1,000 yards rushing in a season.

The ankle injury has probably put 1,000 yards out of reach. But consider this: At 6-0 1/2 and 184 pounds, Anderson has run all year behind an inexperienced and injury-riddled line in an offense designed for a larger, more punishing, John Riggins-type lead back.

“That body of Gary’s is not the biggest thing in the world,” Laufenberg says. “But he’s not afraid to slam up in there.”

Even though Anderson missed the New Orleans and Miami games with a leg injury, his 732 rushing yards are more than twice as many as Curtis Adams’ team-leading total last year.

Anderson’s average of 4.43 yards per carry is the primary reason the Chargers rank No. 3 in the NFL in average gain per rush. And he has done this despite the fact that the Chargers have played catch-up football more often than not. Of his 165 carries, 105 have been in the first or second period. The most he has carried in the second half of a loss is seven times. He has rushed six times or fewer in the second half of 8 of the 12 games in which he has played.

“When you have to go to the passing game in the second half, you don’t get the ball as much,” Anderson says. “A thousand yards would be nice. But it would be nicer to have a winning season. If we do that, 1,000 yards would take care of itself.”

Of the nine AFC running backs with more yards than Anderson this year, only one, the New York Jets’ Freeman McNeil, plays on a team with a losing record.

Then there is the question of next year. It appears unlikely the Chargers (4-10) will finish with a record poor enough to earn them a shot at UCLA quarterback Troy Aikman, the almost-certain first pick of next spring’s NFL draft. But the Chargers could finish low enough to get a shot at Georgia running back Tim Worley.

Worley is 40 pounds heavier than Anderson, an inch taller and, according to the scouts, more talented than John Stephens, the New England Patriots’ rookie running back who will probably be the AFC’s offensive rookie of the year. Ortmayer has repeatedly said franchise-type running backs are almost as hard to come by as franchise quarterbacks.

“I’ve been hearing all my life that I’m too small,” Anderson says. “I don’t pay any attention to that. I don’t think I’m the kind of back who can take the ball 40 times a game. That’s probably out of my range.”

The Chargers have tried Anderson, off-and-on, at wide receiver. But there have been complaints about lack of discipline on his pass routes.

“As a staff, perhaps the thing you would like to see is a little more consistency,” Ortmayer says.

Moreover, the Chargers now appear committed to young wide receivers Anthony Miller, Quinn Early and Jamie Holland.

The list of teams with an immediate need for a player with Anderson’s abilities is long. Many have players that could fill the Chargers’ immediate needs in return.

“Gary’s the kind of player who’s going to make anybody’s team,” Laufenberg says.

The memory of Anderson’s spectacular dive against Miami certainly wouldn’t be as strong in another NFL city. But if the Chargers ever traded Anderson, guess which play the sportscasters in his new city would play that evening on the television news?

For now, Anderson says he is content to be a Charger.

“I have no complaints,” he says.

“He’s still having a great year,” Byrd says. “If he wasn’t Gary Anderson, and you looked at the year he was having, you’d say, ‘Wow, all right. We have us a running back here.’ ”