Chargers’ Williams a Pro Bowl Pick

After he went to bed Tuesday night, Charger defensive end Lee Williams had three dreams. But they all had the same, happy ending--when Wednesday morning came, it would bring with it the announcement that he had made his first Pro Bowl team.

Now it was Wednesday. Time for the good news. So why was Charger Coach Al Saunders walking out the door? Saunders had just announced the team’s three Pro Bowl alternates--guard Dennis McKnight, punter Ralf Mojsiejenko and running back Gary Anderson--at a morning meeting of the full squad. Then he headed for the exit.

“I was like in a coma,” said Williams, who is tied for the AFC lead in sacks with Buffalo’s Bruce Smith at 10.

Two years ago, Williams had been leading the conference in sacks when the players voted for the Pro Bowl. And they had left him off the team. This time, there was a substantial incentive bonus in his contract for making the Pro Bowl squad.

Suddenly Saunders turned back from the door. “Oh,” he said with a wide grin, “I forgot somebody.”

“I kind of figured when he said that, I was more than an alternate,” Williams said.

Saunders confirmed it, and the entire defense broke into applause. And, said Williams, “it was like somebody had given me a little CPR.”

“It’s a compliment to our entire defense,” Saunders said later.

Williams, in his fifth year, finished behind Smith but ahead of Houston’s Ray Childress in the voting. So Williams and Smith will start for the AFC against the NFC in the Pro Bowl scheduled for Jan. 29 in Honolulu’s Aloha Stadium.

“I might find a way to put a rod in my suitcase,” said Williams, an avid deep-sea fisherman. “By the way, this will be the first watch I’ve ever won. I won’t have to ask guys what time it is.”

“Not that I’d do it,” Williams added, “But this (Pro Bowl selection) is something I can wave in a lot of guys’ faces and say, ‘I told you so.’ Guys who were non-believers.”

McKnight, a seventh-year free agent, was a popular choice among his teammates. He earned his alternate status by finishing seventh in the balloting for AFC guards. The first three--Houston’s Mike Munchak and Bruce Matthews and Cincinnati’s Max Montoya--go to Hawaii.

McKnight said his goal now is to work harder in the off-season and make the top three next year. “Nine out of 10 people who read this will think I’m not really telling the truth,” he said. “But to me, going and playing in the Pro Bowl would be more important than any incentive contract or player’s winning share or whatever.”

“Dennis plays the sport the way it is supposed to be played,” Saunders said. “He plays with a great deal of violence and a great deal of composure, and yet he has a great feeling for the people around him.”

Mojsiejenko, who represented the Chargers in last year’s Pro Bowl, finished fourth in voting for AFC punters. Anderson, who needs 98 yards Sunday against the Chiefs to complete his first 1,000-yard rushing season, wound up seventh among AFC running backs.

The AFC’s punter will be Denver’s Mike Horan. The four AFC running backs will be Colt Eric Dickerson, Patriot rookie John Stephens, Oiler Mike Rozier and Bengal James Brooks, a former Charger.

Last year’s Charger Pro Bowlers were Mojsiejenko, tight end Kellen Winslow and tackle Jim Lachey. Lachey made the team as an alternate. Winslow has since retired. Lachey went to the Raiders and then Washington via trades.

Charger cornerback Gill Byrd, the AFC’s defensive player of the week thanks to two interceptions against the Steelers Sunday, didn’t even make the Pro Bowl roster as an alternate. Only one AFC cornerback, Cincinnati’s Eric Thomas, has more interceptions than Byrd’s six.