Beathard to Start Today, Will Need All New Staff

When Bobby Beathard is presented this afternoon as the Chargers’ general manager, owner Alex Spanos said Tuesday, one of the first things he’ll have to do is hire a player personnel department.

Spanos confirmed Tuesday for the first time that virtually the entire Charger front office has been fired.

“I don’t like to use that word (fired),” Spanos said from his Stockton office. “Let’s just say everyone’s been released.”

Whatever the verb, Spanos said that everyone actually was dismissed Dec. 18, the same day as Steve Ortmayer, director of player operations.

So why weren’t the moves, with the exception that involving Ortmayer, announced earlier?

It was simple, Spanos explained. He wanted Beathard to have the chance to retain them.

“I was just being fair to Bobby,” Spanos said. “Steve had a right to hire whomever he wanted, and now I’m giving Bobby that opportunity.”

The only front-office employees who will remain with the Chargers are Vice Chairman Dean Spanos, who coincidentally just happens to be the oldest son of Alex, and Rudy Feldman, who is in charge of the pro personnel department.

In other words, Spanos said: “Everybody that Steve hired is gone.”

Everybody from Chet Franklin, director of player personnel, to Les Miller, director of college scouting, to Terri Settle, Ortmayer’s personal secretary.

The hit list also included all five scouts: Dwight Adams, Dave Beckman, Steve Schnall, Bob Sneddon and Arthur Whittington.

When asked if the Chargers plan to fill the vacated positions with scouts from the Washington Redskins, Beathard’s former employee, Spanos said, “I don’t know. That’s up to him. That’s his job now.”

Beathard, who will work with NBC-TV until his contract expires Jan. 14, is scheduled to be in San Diego today for a 1 p.m. press conference at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. Beathard is expected to meet with Spanos in the morning to officially sign a five-year contract, and the two then will be made available for reporters.

“It’s very exciting, almost like a dawn of a new era,” said Spanos, whose teams have had just one winning season since he assumed majority ownership Aug. 1, 1984. “His track record speaks for itself. Wherever he’s been, there’s a winner.

“And I sure don’t expect that to change now.”

Beathard, 52, once dubbed by Sports Illustrated as “the smartest man in the NFL,” has been associated with five Super Bowl champions. The Miami Dolphins won the 1973 and 1974 Super Bowls while Beathard was director of player personnel, and the Washington Redskins won the 1983 and 1988 Super Bowls when he was the team’s general manager.

Spanos attempted to hire Beathard in 1986, he said, but Beathard was under contract to the Redskins. Spanos continued to consult him for help, and ironically, it was Beathard who recommended Ortmayer for the Charger job at the end of the 1986 season when John Sanders was demoted.

“It’ll be interesting to see if anything different happens under Beathard,” said Schnall, one of the five fired scouts, “because personally I thought they had a damn good one in Steve Ortmayer. The man was a blue-collar working man, just like we all are, and he gets fired. It’s just not right.

“People can say all they want about problems in the front office, the owner and everything else. But I’ll tell you what, the press is to blame more than anything else. If anything’s screwy about the Chargers, it’s the press.

“They cost a good man his job, and now I guess we’ll all have to sit back and see just how smart they were.”