Early’s Self-Portrait Begins To Brighten

An artist confronts no greater test of his sense of personal expression than the self-portrait.

Never is the artist so naked. There he exposes more than his creative talents to the world; there he lays bare himself.

The criticism that follows is about more than his art; it is of a time of his life.

Quinn Early, the third-year Charger receiver, painted his self-portrait last year. To look at him now at the end of a recent practice, lovingly holding his 3 1/2-month-old son in his arms, it is hard to imagine he is the man depicted in his stark self-portrait. But he is.

The black-and-white painting is of a football player, his face almost entirely hidden behind a dark shield across his helmet. His eyes are cannot be seen, if but the shield could be lifted, they would reveal a melancholy man.

This was the Quinn Remar Early of last fall. A knee injury that twice required arthroscopic surgery limited him to six games and 11 catches.

“It was a real dark season for me,” Early said.

Only recently has he again begun to see the light.

His first glimpse of hope came April 8 in the arrival of Quinn Cameron, his and wife Casandra’s first child.

“He is a great little guy,” Early said. “He never cries. We take him everywhere, even to restaurants. The only time he cries is when his diaper is dirty or he’s hungry or tired. The rest of the time he sits there and giggles.”

His second glimpse of hope came two weeks ago with the start of training camp at UC San Diego. That was when, for the first time since his second surgery seven months ago, Early said he felt and acted like a healthy player.

“At mini-camp I wasn’t sure how my leg was,” Early said, “I still had that little twinge. But I worked really hard between then and camp to strengthen my legs. Once training camp started, I felt great.”

Through it all, he had his painting to rely on for inspiration and comfort. Early said he painted 30 or 40 pictures while he was rehabilitating his knee. Some of those works were displayed in

a gallery in Bonita in February.

“I hated not playing,” Early said. “It was really hard on me, but on the good side, I had my wife and my art work.”

Early graduated from Iowa with a degree in commercial art, but his interest began 15 years earlier, with his older brother, Derrick. Derrick, 32, now has an art gallery in New York.

“He has taught me everything I know,” Early said. “Each year he teaches me something new.”

Much of his work has to do with sports, Early said. And he favors working late nights in front of the television. Not the same kind of inspiration that the great masters had, but it’s what works for him.

But his days once again are crowded with football.

“Every now and then, I break out the sketch pad and maybe dabble a little bit,” Early said. “But I am concentrating on my football for the next six months.”

So far, the indications are promising. Coach Dan Henning said Early is looking stronger than he did even before he sprained his knee in the fourth game last season. That injury, and the arthroscopic surgery that followed, kept him out until the final two games.

“He is as good as he has been since I’ve been here,” said Henning, who is starting his second season with the Chargers. “I don’t know what he was like in ‘88, but I liked him in camp last year, then he got hurt. But I think he is better than he was in camp or at the end of (last) season.”

But Early was not at full strength for those final two games. His knee still bothered him and required a second arthroscopic surgery after the season.

Always after such procedures, there are some doubts. Early tried to put them aside from the start.

“You can’t go in saying, ‘Well, I hope I don’t get hurt,’ because when you do that is when you do get hurt,” Early said. “You have to always play as hard as you can, go full bore and just have confidence about yourself.”

No one probably watched this process more intently than Henning. He needed to see the signs that told him Early’s knee was trouble-free and that he would play the same way. His 22 years of coaching have taught him what to look for.

“It’s a subjective thing from my standpoint,” Henning said. “You get a feel that the guy is giving his best effort out there; that he is not tentative. It’s little things we call body language. In a receiver, you look for explosion coming into cut and out of cuts.”

Now more than ever Henning needs to see those hopeful signs. Injuries to Wayne Walker and Troy Johnson have left the Chargers with only two receivers who have caught a pass in an NFL game.

One is Anthony Miller, who went to the Pro Bowl after a sophomore season in which he caught 75 passes for 1,252 yards and 13 touchdowns. The other is Early, who in 1988 caught 29 passes for 375 yards and four touchdowns.

Henning would like nothing better than to see a healthy Early and Miller teamed up again.

“The thing that strikes you when you first work with Quinn Early is work ethic and determination,” Henning said. “There is very little imbalance in his daily performance. He is always very close to the same level, and that level is usually high. Those are all great things to have in a football player.”