Sevier Leaving Chargers : On Way Out the Door, He Defends Ortmayer Over Recent Trades
The Chargers lost their special teams coach Friday when Wayne Sevier accepted the same position with the Washington Redskins.
But before he left, Sevier defended Steve Ortmayer, the Chargers’ director of football operations, against critics of Ortmayer’s trades.
Specifically, Sevier said that every member of the Chargers’ coaching staff was given the opportunity by Ortmayer to speak out in a meeting against the trade last July that sent tackle Jim Lachey to the Raiders in exchange for John Clay and draft choices (used to acquire the rights to running back Napoleon McCallum). No one, Sevier said, told Ortmayer he was about to make a bad trade.
Lachey had been a Pro Bowl alternate in 1987. Ortmayer became a target for criticism when it was later discovered that Clay had back problems and was overweight. Among Ortmayer’s critics was Al Saunders, then the Chargers’ coach.
“I felt Jim Lachey was a good potential football player,” Sevier said Friday. “But he was certainly not an accomplished football player when he left. I felt he should have made a commitment to lifting weights when he was here, and he should have lived here during the offseason.”
Conversely, Sevier said he was very high on Clay in the 1987 draft when the Raiders made him a first-round pick. And, he said, McCallum, who won’t become available to the Chargers until 1990 because of a service obligation to the Navy, “is a joy to watch and worth waiting for. I think it was a heckuva trade at the time.”
But a neck injury ruined Clay’s 1988 season, and Ortmayer continued to take heat for making the deal. The Raiders traded Lachey to the Redskins, where he became a starter.
“Everybody thinks we lost a great football player in Jim Lachey,” Sevier said. “And that was not the case. He was not producing the way we thought he should be.”
Ortmayer confirmed that Saunders had the opportunity to speak out against the Clay trade before it was made but chose not to.
“Al was a part of the staff and was a part of that meeting,” Ortmayer said. “And I think we walked from that meeting in unanimity that this could be a good trade for the San Diego Chargers.”
Yet within days, Saunders was openly downgrading Clay’s abilities. Saunders’ inability to shield his opinions about several Ortmayer moves eventually led to his firing Dec. 19. Thursday, the Chargers named Dan Henning as a replacement for Saunders.
Ortmayer still refuses to deny the Clay deal might have been a mistake. “The bottom line on the John Clay trade at this point is that it has not been a good trade, and that’s my responsibility,” Ortmayer said. “But I would emphasize ‘at this point.’ ”
It bothers Sevier that Ortmayer still bears the brunt of criticism for a trade no other member of the staff spoke out against when given the opportunity. “I don’t want to turn this into a rip of Al Saunders,” Sevier said. “I learned an awful lot from Al Saunders. Every single thing he promised me, he delivered. I simply want to come out and say Steve Ortmayer is a good football man.”
Sevier also said the 1987 Barry Redden trade wasn’t a bad deal. Sevier said the reason for Redden’s lack of productivity in 1987 was his weight. It was 225. Sevier said when Redden showed up for the 1988 season at 205 he was running and cutting like the player the Chargers thought they had gotten a year earlier when they sent Buford McGee and second round draft choices to the Rams. (He wound up spending two months of the season on injured reserve because of a broken bone in his wrist.)
Saunders also criticized the Redden trade. It was just one of many front office differences of opinion between Ortmayer and Saunders.
“I think many, many things are misjudged and misperceived,” Ortmayer said. “But I realize I bring them on myself by being more candid openly.”
Of his move back to Washington, Sevier said he would have been happy to stay on with Henning. Sevier has strong San Diego ties, having attended Sweetwater High School and San Diego State, where he was a quarterback.
But, he said, Redskins Coach Joe Gibbs is a persuasive man.
“When Joe sinks his teeth into something, he’s pretty good at accomplishing it,” Sevier said.
Sevier’s wife, Barbara, will resume work as Gibbs’ secretary, the same position she held before 1987, when her husband returned to the Chargers. He also was an assistant in San Diego in 1979-80.
Charger Notes
New Coach Dan Henning said he reached agreements Friday with assistants Mike Haluchek (linebackers), Charlie Joiner (receivers) and Gunther Cunningham (defensive line). All three will return. Henning said he expects running backs coach Bobby Jackson, with whom he worked in Atlanta, to return as well. He has yet to talk with offensive coordinator Jerry Rhome. If he returns, Rhome probably will lose his current title. Henning said he needs to find a quarterbacks coach and an offensive line coach. Henning said he has spoken with three NFL assistants--Tampa’s Larry Beightol, the Jets’ Dan Radakovich and Buffalo’s Ted Tollner (former head coach at USC)--about coming to San Diego.