So What the H is Brinson Doing as the H-Back?

Dana Brinson is an unlikely guy.

A what?

Unlikely guy.

Unlikely to what?

First of all, it had to be considered unlikely that Dana Brinson would be wearing a Charger uniform here in the sixth week of the regular season. After all, he was drafted in the eighth round, which is only a step or two above being the last guy selected in a playground basketball game.

Undaunted, he came to camp with a gold loop and a diamond stud in his left ear and flapped his mouth about derailing Little Train James, only about the most popular guy on the roster. This earned him a few cheap shots in practice before he had the sense to have his words for dessert after a team meal.

The next thing you know, James is gone and Brinson is doing the things James did. He is running with the ball and catching passes and returning kicks. And doing rather well.

All of that was unlikely enough.

And now we look up and find that Dana Brinson will be starting at H-back Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks.

Understand that Brinson stands 5-feet-9, presumably in his cleats, and weighs 167 with his jewelry. That’s just about the right size for a kick-returner, point guard or busboy, but a little small for an H-back.

Indeed, today’s H-back is more like a bouncer or body guard. He hardly even needs hands, just forearms. Joe Caravello, 6-3, 270, is an H-back. Dana Brinson could use Caravello’s pants as a sleeping bag. As a matter of fact, when you see Brinson in the locker room, you wonder if maybe he fell out of someone’s pocket.

Rod Bernstine, 6-3 and 238, is normally the starting H-back, but he is injured this week.

So Dana Brinson gets the call to play a position that would seem completely foreign to what he does best, which is run and catch. Brinson becomes a blocker, which is a little like Woody Allen playing Shakespeare. He wouldn’t seem to be into the heavy stuff.

Wait a minute, Brinson argued, we’re forgetting that he played his college football at Nebraska.

“When you’re a wingback at Nebraska,” he said, “you block. You get to run a reverse once in a while, but you spend a lot of time blocking linebackers and defensive ends . . . things of that nature.”

As Brinson sat in the locker room late one afternoon this week, he seemed a bit more subdued than the brash rookie I had been expecting to encounter.

“This isn’t a position change,” he was explaining. “I’m adding another position. I’m just going to go and give it an all-out effort. I’m not going to say I can do the same job as a bigger guy, but I’ll give that kind of effort.”

Quite likely, the harsh realities of life in the NFL have toned this young man down a bit. In truth, the mere fact that he was able to make the team underscored how tenuous a football career can be. Before training camp this year, for example, no one imagined that Lionel James’ job was in jeopardy.

In beating James out, Brinson has come away with an understanding that he, too, can be beaten out.

“You’re not just competing for a job with guys on your team,” he said. “You’re competing with guys from throughout the NFL. And the Canadian league, too. If some team cuts some other guy, you’ve got to be better than him or he’ll replace you. You can never be complacent.”

With that understanding, Brinson knows it does not hurt at all to be as versatile as possible. He has already played wide receiver, running back and returned punts, and now he gets his latest role.

“He’s developed into a guy who can fill a lot of roles,” Coach Dan Henning said. “We liked what we were seeing in training camp, and we put him into our first preseason game against Dallas, and he passed muster.”

San Diego’s high school heroes might take note of the fact that Brinson first caught Henning’s eye when Henning was coaching the Atlanta Falcons. Brinson was a kid at Valdosta High School.

“We knew of him in high school,” Henning said, “and he was already an all-around type guy then.”

When it came time for the 1989 NFL draft, Brinson’s chances of going high were hurt by (a) Nebraska’s offensive philosophy and (b) a less-than-spectacular senior year. But, said Henning, his name kept popping up on the Charger board as a backup wide receiver and punt returner. An eighth-round pick was certainly not a chancy place to take a guy who may or may not make it.

“The odds were pretty much totally against me,” Brinson said, “but I had my heart and mind set. I came here and set goals I wanted to reach.”

One, he admitted, was simply to make the team.

“Another,” he said, “is to be the best that I can be.”

Achieving the first has given him a shot at the second. He does not know how good he can be, nor does he care to speculate.

“Someone else,” he said, “can decide that.”

And so we are left with one more unlikely twist in the saga of Dana Brinson, wide receiver, running back, punt returner and now H-back. Not too long ago, it seemed very unlikely that humility would be a trait associated with the kid who calls himself D-Rock . . . especially now that he has made it.