Anderson Wants Out; Chargers Won’t Budge : Redden Traded; Cuts Loom Today

He once leaped high over a Miami Dolphin defender to score one of the most memorable touchdowns in Charger history.

Now, he simply wants to jump to another team.

Gary Anderson, the Chargers’ acrobatic running back and two-time most valuable player, says he’s tired of waiting for the wrinkles to be ironed out in his contract. As he sees it, the only option is a trade.

“The Chargers seem like they’re not interested in me anymore,” Anderson said Sunday in a phone interview from his home in Tampa, Fla. “I don’t see why we should sit around and fool each other. If they’re not interested in me, I’m not interested in them. They’re just stringing me along. So I think it would be best if they just go ahead and trade me.”

The Chargers have a different opinion.

Steve Ortmayer, Chargers’ director of football operations, reiterated Sunday the team’s position: If Anderson plays this year, he will do so in a Charger uniform.

This isn’t the first time Anderson and the Chargers have been tangled in negotiations. The Chargers selected him in the first round of the 1983 draft, but he opted to sign with the Tampa Bay Bandits of the United States Football League.

The Chargers continued to pursue Anderson for nearly 2 1/2 years, during which time he collected 2,731 yards rushing and 1,707 receiving in three seasons with the Bandits. The Chargers finally won him over in 1985 with a four-year, $2-million contract.

Yet after four successful seasons, 2,250 yards rushing and 1,978 receiving, things have become complicated again. Anderson said contract negotiations have been called off. Anderson said the Chargers’ most recent offer, which he said is four years at $688,000 a season, is lower than their previous offer.

“That’s what’s mind-boggling about the thing,” he said. “They turn around and just change the numbers up, but it actually came out lower in average than the first one. It’s really frustrating. I gave my all to the Chargers, and they treat me like a piece of meat.”

Anderson, 28, is reportedly seeking a four-year contract worth $4 million. He won’t confirm that in so many words but says: “I just want what everybody else is getting.”

He made the decision to request a trade after a discussion with his wife, Ollie, who said the Chargers haven’t handled contract negotiations as efficiently as other teams do.

“I don’t really understand what the Chargers are doing,” she said. “(Other teams) sign their top players real quickly and quietly and (the players) don’t have to go through these types of things. I’m beginning to conclude this is just how the Chargers handle things.

“The season’s getting ready to start. We should be in by now if we’re going to be part of the organization.”

If negotiations stall and the Chargers stick to their no-trade position, Anderson will be forced to sit out until the end of the season, when he would become an unrestricted free agent. That would enable him to sign with another team, which would not have to compensate the Chargers.

At this time, though, Anderson is talking about playing rather than sitting.

“If they seriously want to negotiate, we’re all for that,” he said. “But right now, I’d really like to be traded if they don’t want to negotiate further.”

The Chargers traded running back Barry Redden to the Cleveland Browns Sunday for a conditional 1990 draft pick.

Redden, who played five years with the Rams before coming to the Chargers in 1987, started only two games in the past two seasons. He gained 66 yards in 30 carries and caught eight passes for 57 yards as a Charger.

All teams have to trim their rosters to 47 today.

Billy Joe Tolliver, the Chargers’ rookie quarterback, stayed up all night after breaking his collarbone on the second-to-last play of Friday’s 21-20 victory over Phoenix.

Part of the problem was the pain of his injury. A bigger part, though, was the pain of what he considered a lost preseason.

“All I could sit there and think about was how I blew it,” said Tolliver, who is expected to miss six to eight weeks. “All I could think about was, ‘You just wasted four to six weeks of training camp.’ I had a lot of time to think about some things. There’s no way you could go to sleep.”

See, Tolliver didn’t just plan to hand the ball to Jim McMahon. He was out to prove he wasn’t a long-term project.

“I wasn’t going to give up to the fact that Jim McMahon was the starter,” he said. “I planned on giving everything I had and letting the chips fall.”

Still, Tolliver was realistic about his chances. McMahon has two things Tolliver doesn’t--experience and a Super Bowl ring.

“Quite honestly, I was not fully prepared to start the first game of the season,” he said. “They definitely didn’t bring Jim in to sit on the bench, but that didn’t mean I had to sit down and take a back seat.”