COMMENTARY : The Mild, Mild West Is Showing Signs of Real Football Power

What was supposed to be a year of embarrassment for the National Football League’s American Conference West has turned into a year of hope.

The Denver Broncos revamped an aging Super Bowl loser into a more serious challenger to the Lombardi Trophy.

After ridding themselves of an outsider head coach, Mike Shanahan, the Raiders are playing a little like the intimidating Raiders of old.

The additions of President Carl Peterson and Coach Marty Schottenheimer are teaching the bumbling, inept Kansas City Chiefs how to win.

With these three teams still in the playoff hunt, the Mild, Mild West suddenly doesn’t look as mild as it once did.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is how well these three teams did against non-division opponents. They are 10-6-1, and that has enabled the division to have a 15-15-1 record against the rest of the league with nine non-division games remaining.

Last year, the AFC West won only 14 games out of the division. The AFC East turned out to be the league’s weakest division this season.

Through adversity, each of these three franchises found a plan to improve themselves.

- Broncos Coach Dan Reeves shook up his coaching staff, trimmed his bloated scouting staff and made some bold and profitable trades.

- Raiders boss Al Davis junked Shanahan’s state-of-the-art offense and, with longtime Raider Art Shell coaching, started playing “Raider” ball again. Expect Davis to start reacquiring the rogues and scoundrels that have found their way onto the rosters of the Philadelphia Eagles and Houston Oilers.

- Schottenheimer is a master of turning teams around. With the Chiefs, he inherited a defense that could have as many as six or seven players go to the Pro Bowl over the next couple seasons. Starting in the off-season, Peterson will try to supplement the Chiefs’ one-dimensional offense so that Christian Okoye can be asked to carry the ball fewer than 30 times a game.

What about the division’s duds--the Seattle Seahawks and San Diego Chargers? At the moment, neither has a long-range plan.

Seahawks President-General Manager Tom Flores and Coach Chuck Knox aren’t on the same page about the two- or three-year rebuilding plan that will be needed. Knox occupies himself totally with the upcoming game. Flores still is learning his new job and still doesn’t fathom the headaches ahead with 37 unsigned players after Feb. 1.

In San Diego, the Chargers’ only hope of rebuilding the franchise rode a surfboard last week. Bobby Beathard, the former Washington Redskins general manager who could go to the Chargers, New York Jets or Detroit Lions, visited his home near San Diego last week and went surfing.

Beathard is a general manager with a plan, but his friends know that he is a little skeptical about the ownership of Alex Spanos, whose occasional interference in the football operation cost this franchise five victories a season and 25,000 fans a game since he purchased the team in 1984.

“I was out . . . in the water with a couple of guys,” Beathard said. “I was sitting out there. It was 75 degrees. The waves were good, and I’m thinking, ‘With all these rumors going around about me working in these different places, I was just wondering: Is there really any other place?’ I couldn’t imagine a more perfect day and being exactly where I wanted to be, and I thought, ‘God, this is unbelievable.’ ”

Sounds like even Spanos can’t chase Beathard away. Beathard can right the wrongs of the Chargers front office, one that in two seasons dumped two Pro Bowl players--tackle Jim Lachey and punter Rolf Mojsiejenko--in exchange for tackle John Clay, halfback Napolean McCallum and a seventh-round draft choice. At least they still have the seventh-round draft choice.

They let Pro Bowl halfback Gary Anderson sit out the season with a contract dispute. Even what appeared to be a smart move to add life to the offense backfired. Quarterback Jim McMahon was acquired from the Chicago Bears. His leadership was supposed to fire up the offense and add a few victories.

With a tough finishing schedule, the Chargers are expected to finish 4-12, two games worse than a year ago. Because McMahon played nine games, they must give the Bears a second-round draft choice, which probably will end up being the 27th choice in the draft.

Beathard has told friends that if he takes the job, one of his first moves will be to trade a first-round choice for players and/or draft choices. Then he would start rebuilding the offensive line.

Spanos had better hope that Beathard hangs 10 with the Chargers. It will be his only hope of keeping up with the rest of the division.