Anderson’s Agent to Chargers: ‘This Is the End’ of Career Here

The agent for unsigned Charger running back Gary Anderson said Friday that his client will not play football for the Chargers this year.

“At one time I thought Gary Anderson and the Chargers were a good fit,” Ralph Cindrich said. “But it is not now, and it never will be. The atmosphere has been poisoned. All strings, all ties have been cut.”

Cindrich said he informed the Chargers of his position Friday morning in a phone conversation with Steve Ortmayer, the team’s director of football operations.

Cindrich has been increasingly unhappy with published reports, which he claims were leaked by the Chargers, that Anderson, 28, has been demanding a $1 million-a-year contract. Those reports, he said, are not true.

Ortmayer said the Chargers’ latest offer, made Friday, would pay Anderson $1 million total for the rest of the 1989 season and all of 1990. He also repeated that the Chargers would not shop Anderson to another team.

“I will not trade this player,” he said. “There are no options. He’ll always be a Charger as long as we honor the terms of the 1982 collective bargaining agreement.”

Said Cindrich: “The Chargers have decided to make an example of Gary Anderson simply because he does not agree with the Chargers. This is the end of Gary Anderson in San Diego.”

The last straw for Cindrich and Anderson, according to them, was the refusal of Charger owner Alex Spanos to meet face-to-face with Cindrich in an attempt to get the negotiations off dead center.

Ortmayer, on the other hand, said “We have never since Day 1 had a counter offer from the Anderson people.”

Anderson was the Chargers’ leading rusher and most valuable player last year. His 1,119 rushing yards in 1988 was third best in the AFC. Anderson earned $400,000 in base salary last season on a contract that expired last winter.

Cindrich said Anderson was not asking for too much money.

“What we wanted would not have even put him among the top six or seven highest-paid running backs in the game,” he said.

According to figures from the NFL Players’ Assn., the 1988 average base salary for starting running backs who entered the league in 1983, the same year Anderson turned pro, was $737,500.

The Chargers refusal to trade Anderson, Cindrich said, would only hurt the organization and its fans.

“He’s a depreciating asset,” he said.

Cindrich also contends that Anderson will be an unrestricted free agent after this year. If that is true, another team could sign Anderson for 1990 without having to compensate the Chargers. The NFLPA has filed a lawsuit against the NFL seeking to clarify that contention in the absence of a current collective bargaining agreement.

The Chargers maintain they will continue to keep the rights to Anderson. They claim another NFL team can present Anderson an offer sheet after Feb. 1, 1990. The Chargers say they can then match that offer or let Anderson go and receive compensation in return.

“Gary Anderson has no physical, moral or legal obligation to the San Diego Chargers,” Cindrich said.

If the Chargers change their minds and decide to trade Anderson, they have until Oct. 17 to do so. That is the NFL trade deadline.