Chargers Get Texas Tech Quarterback
First things second. The Chargers, a team that needs a quarterback more than Capone needed a lawyer, got one Sunday in the second round of the National Football League draft.
His name is Billy Joe Tolliver from Texas Tech. And, said Charger Coach Dan Henning, “He has the strongest arm in the draft.”
“A rocket arm,” said Steve Ortmayer, the Chargers’ director of football operations.
“Right now,” Henning added, “I’m not interested in doing anything else (at quarterback) as we go into training camp in July.”
To get Tolliver, the Chargers traded a third-, a fourth- and a seventh-round pick in this draft to the Giants in exchange for the 51st pick, which they spent on Tolliver.
Henning promised Tolliver a shot at competing for the starting job next season. And he talked about Tolliver’s charisma. He stopped just short of saying the job was owed to Billy Joe.
For his part, Tolliver promised to compete for the job. “I’m not gonna go out there and lay down,” he said. “I’ll tell you that.”
Almost lost in the shuffle was the Chargers’ first-round choice, a Catholic kid from Philadelphia named Grossman.
Burt Grossman is a defensive end from the University of Pittsburgh who played outside linebacker in the Blue-Gray game.
He is rich boy from Philadelphia’s Main Line, the son of a wealthy businessman. But according to Charger scout Steve Schnall, he is a “lunch-pail guy.”
He is the half-brother of Margo Adams, the ex-girlfriend of baseball player Wade Boggs. He is also the guy the Chargers selected with the eighth pick overall Sunday when trade talks with several other teams, including the Chicago Bears, fell through. The Bears were looking to unload quarterback Jim McMahon. The Chargers showed an interest. But, said Bear Coach Mike Ditka, “if one team wants an orchard for an apple tree, it won’t work.”
Henning didn’t buy Ditka’s assessment of the trade talks. “Maybe there’s been a forest fire in the orchard,” Henning said. Henning’s point was the value of the injury-prone McMahon has dropped like a rock.
In any event, the Chargers picked a player in Grossman who many people believe is a fruit cake.
Ortmayer is not one of those people. “I love his personality,” Ortmayer said. Ortmayer said the reason the Chargers used the full 15 minutes allotted to making a first-round pick was because they couldn’t reach Grossman by phone. It was busy. “If we hadn’t gotten through, we would have picked him anyway,” Ortmayer said.
The Chargers also picked Rice center Courtney Hall in the second round (37th overall) and Elliot Smith, a defensive back from Alcorn State in the fifth round (120th overall). Rounds six through 12 will take place today. Grossman, it turns out, is many things to many people.
Before the draft, there were whispers that Grossman had tested positive for traces of steroids at the college combine workouts in Indianapolis last January. “I will not comment on that because I have no knowledge of that,” Henning said.
“I look more like a basketball player than a football player,” said the 6-6, 270-pound Grossman, dismissing the steroid rumors with a laugh.
Grossman didn’t arrive in San Diego until late Sunday night but he was already playing catch-up with with local women’s-rights groups.
It’s kind of complicated to explain why. But Grossman is a complicated person. Schnall says Grossman’s father has been married several times, which is why, Schnall says, Grossman craves attention and has treated certain coaches like surrogates for the full-time mother he never had.
At the University of Pittsburgh, Grossman kept a boa constrictor in his room. He also had a pet pit bull named “Bernie” after New York subway vigilante Bernhard Goetz.
Anyway, when the subject of his pets came up after the Chargers made Grossman the eighth player selected, he said he had gotten rid of them all.
But, he added, “I’ll probably get a dog in San Diego. Either a dog or get married. There’s less aggravation with a dog. To get rid of a dog, you take it to the SPCA and it doesn’t get half your money.”
Is Burt Grossman really a gross man? A Pitt bull?
“Actually he likes to be around adults more than he does being around guys his own age,” Schnall said. “Sometimes he acts like he’s 40.”
Gunther Cunningham, the Chargers’ defensive line coach, found this out when he spent six hours, one-on-one, with Grossman April 13. “Everybody has a stereotype of the defensive lineman who can’t do anything but grunt,” Cunningham said. “But Grossman is not typical.”
“He’s a smart guy who could have made a career on Wall Street if he wanted,” said Schnall.
Both Cunningham and Charger defensive coordinator Ron Lynn acknowledged the Chargers already have two proven defensive ends in Leslie O’Neal and Lee Williams. But they also said it would be no problem getting all three--O’Neal, Grossman and Williams--on the field at the same time. Grossman, for instance, can play inside.
Henning put it this way: “I don’t think there is any team in baseball, that if they had two .350 hitters, wouldn’t take another. I don’t care that there’s a perception that we might be too strong at that position. There are areas on your football team that you collect great players.”
Grossman was a shotputter at Archbishop Carroll High School in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., who impressed scouts with his 30-inch vertical leap, a 4.65 second clocking in the 40-yard dash and bench press of 410 pounds. He was the top-rated defensive lineman in the draft.
In 1986, starting for Pitt at left end, Grossman led a pass rush that limited Maryland quarterback Dan Henning Jr. to two completions in 10 attempts. He sacked Henning twice although Pitt lost, 10-7. Point being: Dan Henning Jr. is the son of Grossman’s new coach, Dan Henning Sr.
Hall won’t be 21 until August and was the youngest available player in the draft. He played his prep football at Banning High in Wilmington and was a national merit scholarship semifinalist.
He attended a nursery school at the age of 2. And was recognized as a gifted child by the state of California. He entered high school at 12. He was 16 when he started his first game at Rice where he double-majored in business and economics.
But can he play football?
Henning compared him to perennial all-Pro Miami center Dwight Stephenson. Henning also said that soon after the Chargers selected Hall, they received a call from another team offering their No. 1 pick in 1990 for Hall. Henning declined to name the team. Hall is 6-1 1/2 and 275 pounds.
“Some day this guy (Hall) is gonna be the center on the San Diego Chargers’ football team,” Henning said. How soon that happens depends in large measure on how well veteran starter Don Macek’s encouraging off-season shoulder rehabilitation efforts progress.
For Tolliver to become a starter, he would have to beat out incumbent Mark Malone and backups Mark Vlasic and David Archer. Malone had the worst-listed quarterback rating in the American Football Conference the last two years. Vlasic is recovering from major knee surgery.
Tolliver, 6-0 1/2, 218 pounds, threw 40 interceptions and 38 touchdown passes in 3 1/2 years as a starter at Texas Tech. But he impressed Henning who worked him out personally at a recent session in Texas. In his senior year, he hit 190 of 354 passes for 2,869 yards and 20 touchdowns with only 11 interceptions. He closed out his career by passing for 456 yards and two touchdowns against Oklahoma State.
Henning wouldn’t rule out the the possibility of the Chargers participating in the supplemental draft in early July at which time there will be a lottery that may give them a chance to draft Washington State quarterback Timm Rosenbach or Miami quarterback Steve Walsh.
“That remains among our scenarios,” Ortmayer said.
CHARGER DRAFT, DAY 1 Where Picked: Rd. 1, 8 Overall Name: Burt Grossman School: Pittsburgh Pos: DL Hgt: 6-6 Wgt: 270 Comment: Reputation for flaky behavior but best defensive lineman in draft. Where Picked: Rd. 2, 37 Overall Name: Courtney Hall School: Rice Pos: C Hgt: 6-1 1/2 Wgt: 275 Comment: Coaches want him to become an immediate starter. Where Picked: Rd. 2, 51 Overall Name: Billy Joe Tolliver School: Texas Tech Pos: QB Hgt: 6- 1/2 Wgt: 218 Comment: Henning fell in love with his arm strength and charisma. Where Picked: Rd. 5, 120 Overall Name: Elliot Smith School: Alcorn State Pos: DB Hgt: 6-2 Wgt: 192 Comment: Prototype corner, smooth athlete, track star.