Trade Gives Personality to Chargers

Jim McMahon is joining the San Diego Chargers. All right! Now I can name one San Diego Charger.

Ever since Dan Fouts hung up his lightning bolts, I haven’t paid much attention to the Chargers. Hey, who has?

The only time I’ve gone to Jack Murphy Stadium was to see the Super Bowl there, since I was guaranteed two neutral teams.

I’m not even sure if Kellen Winslow is still around, or if Little Train James gained 100 yards a game last season or 100 yards the entire season.

I seem to remember that the Chargers did trade Jim Lachey, an All-Pro offensive lineman, for John Clay, a No-Pro offensive lineman.

Also, unless I’m mistaken, their quarterbacks last season included Brandon Hugh (Babe) Laufenberg, the pride of Encino, and Mr. M.M. Malone, the joy of El Cajon. Over the last two seasons, Malone has thrown something like 608 passes, 12 of them for touchdowns.

Fouts used to throw for that many in any given month.

Anyhow, the Chargers have been lumbering along, avoiding the Super Bowl at all costs. There was a lot of talk about Bobby Beathard leaving his job with the Washington Redskins to come run the Chargers, but that would be a little like leaving the Taj Mahal to move to Pee-Wee Herman’s Playhouse.

When they needed a new coach, the Chargers went out and hired another guy with the Redskins on his resume, Dan Henning. In his only head-coaching hitch, Henning racked up a 22-44-1 record in four seasons with the Atlanta Falcons, which, considering the talent on the Falcons, probably makes him a genius.

The poor old coach, though, has been in a quandary over what to do with the Chargers at quarterback. A coach can only have so much going for him in the smarts department before he ends up needing a Joe Montana or a Phil Simms or a Doug Williams to take him to the promised land.

Or, for that matter, a Jim McMahon.

Surely you remember Jim McMahon. He was Brian Bosworth before Brian Bosworth became Brian Bosworth.

When he is physically healthy, McMahon can be amazing. When he is mentally healthy, McMahon can be even more amazing. Still, you never know when he is likely to start dropping his trousers in view of passing airplanes, or hiring some acupuncturist to drop by and darn him into shape.

McMahon, who will turn 30 Monday, has been traded to San Diego, granting his long-held wish to work on the West Coast. Since he is a Chicago Bear with frequent physical disabilities, we are sort of surprised McMahon wasn’t acquired by the Raiders, who have been cornering the market on bad-news Bears.

McMahon says he and Bear Coach Mike Ditka did not exchange so much as one word during training camp this summer, that Ditka had already made up his mind to make Mike Tomczak the No. 1 quarterback going into the season.

Whether this is true or false, we have no inside knowledge, but we can say that this parting of company has been long expected and long overdue, because Chicago, while being a very large city, is not large enough to accommodate the egos of both McMahon and Ditka for too long a time. These guys have had the fattest heads in Chicago since the stockyards closed down.

Is McMahon good news for San Diego, though?

You bet your sweet hash marks he is.

If the guy is reasonably healthy--and he sure looked sound during last Monday’s exhibition victory in Miami--McMahon gives the Chargers everything they need: A passer. A winner. A leader. A drawing card. A conversation piece. A shot at the playoffs.

At his best, McMahon was among the best. We can still picture some of his great throws: The bomb to Willie Gault in Super Bowl XX at New Orleans. The flip to the Fridge. Those second-half touchdown passes on a Thursday night in Minnesota. Those nine touchdown passes he threw in his first four games. (Mark Malone, please note.)

Also, although McMahon got a lot of attention for his antics and headbands and sunglasses, it is worth noting that he also gave a considerable amount of his time to the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, the Brian Piccolo Cancer Research, the Chicago Boys Clubs, the Special Olympics and the Chicago’s Children’s Hospital. The guy might have a large head, but he also has a large heart.

Some Chicagoans seemed to grow bored with his never-ending ailments, his know-it-all attitude, his obsession with talking about golf and his unwillingness to make public appearances in the restaurant that bore his name, which eventually went out of business. Maybe somewhere in San Diego he can open a nice little taco stand.

It will be interesting to see how he plays. Charger players--whoever they are--undoubtedly are excited at the coming of McMahon, who is not only somebody they recognize as an outstanding player, but somebody they recognize , period.

Hello, Season Ticket Sales? Sign me up for 16 weeks of exciting San Diego Chargers football! Finally, there’s somebody worth watching at Jack Murphy Stadium besides Tony Gwynn.