IN BRIEF : Chargers Release Babe Laufenberg

Babe Laufenberg’s Cinderella story with the San Diego Chargers is over. The Chargers decided against offering him a contract for 1989, team spokesman Bill Johnston said today.

Laufenberg, 29, becomes a free agent again, a status he is familiar with after being released eight times by four teams since his 1983 NFL entry as a sixth-round draft choice of the Washington Redskins.

“I am disappointed,” Laufenberg said, “but I’m not bitter. In effect, they fired me. . . . But I didn’t make the big plays last year. I would like to have had a second chance.”

Laufenberg emerged from a 1988 training camp competition with Mark Vlasic and Mark Malone as the Chargers’ starting quarterback. The Chargers went 2-4 with Laufenberg as the starter. Malone finished the season as the starter.

New Chargers Coach Dan Henning has said he wants to upgrade the Chargers’ quarterback situation through either the draft or a trade.