Seau Decides $900,000-a-Year Deal Will Do : Chargers: With deadline hanging over him, USC linebacker agrees to terms. He’s expected to report to camp Sunday.

The phone rang a few minutes after Bobby Beathard’s deadline Thursday, but he didn’t mind. Junior Seau was going to play.

Seau, the USC linebacker who was the Chargers’ top draft selection this season, agreed to a five-year contract for an average of about $900,000 per year, ending a 34-day holdout.

Beathard, the team’s general manager, had faxed a final proposal to Seau’s agent, Steve Feldman, Wednesday morning and said it would be significantly reduced if not accepted by 5 p.m. Thursday.

Feldman met with Beathard Thursday morning and asked him to raise the offer. When Beathard refused, Feldman said he would call later with a decision.

It appeared for a while as if Seau might opt to sit out the season. Feldman said Wednesday night he didn’t think Seau would play for that amount of money. Beathard said Feldman told him he thought Seau could get more by sitting out and reentering the draft next year.

But Feldman said he accepted the deal after a conversation with Seau late Thursday afternoon. The difference between the two parties came down to about $62,000 a year after taxes, and Seau decided it wasn’t worth skipping an entire season over.

“He said: ‘That secures money for my family,’ ” Feldman said. “I’m not going to jeopardize that for $62,000 a year.”

Feldman said the deal included a $1.8-million signing bonus.

Though happy for Seau, who played his high school football at Oceanside, Feldman said he wasn’t completely satisfied.

“I’m disappointed the Chargers didn’t come up with the extra money if, for nothing else, than to reward Junior Seau for what he brings to the table,” he said.

Feldman’s call, which actually came a few minutes after 5, was a relief to Beathard, who put the negotiations into “a state of upheaval” with his ultimatum, according to Feldman.

“I’m glad it’s over,” Beathard said. “It’s not been fun, but that’s because there aren’t any negotiations that are fun. I hope we’re never in a position again where we have to make an ultimatum. I don’t like them. I don’t think anybody does.”

Feldman said Seau would report to camp Sunday after returning from Mexico to his parent’s home in Oceanside. His parents are preparing for a trip to Samoa, where Seau’s grandmother is seriously ill.

Seau will have a lot of catching up to do. The Chargers plan to move him from outside to inside linebacker, and he has missed a month’s worth of contact work.

“I don’t think he’s going to be as ready right off the bat as he would have been if he was here all camp,” Charger Coach Dan Henning said, “but we’ll take it from here and do the best we can, and I think he will also.”

Seau participated in the one-week mini camp last spring and the voluntary six-week summer session. That should help, but not much.

“What he did in mini-camp and summer school was like playing flag football,” said Ron Lynn, the Charger defensive coordinator. “He hasn’t been involved with 300-pounders hitting him down after down after down on every snap.”

Because of the development of inside linebacker Henry Rolling, a free agent from Tampa Bay, Lynn said there is less pressure on Seau to come in and be an instant starter. Seau will compete with veterans Gary Plummer and Cedric Figaro.

Defensive end Burt Grossman, the Chargers’ first-round selection last season, didn’t agree to terms until the week before the final exhibition game. But both Grossman’s and the Chargers’ situations were different then. Grossman didn’t switch positions, and the Chargers are deeper at linebacker this season than they were last year on the defensive line.

“There’s not a feeling of panic,” Lynn said. “A year ago, I think we felt a little different about Burt. We really didn’t have the same kind of incumbents that we do now.”

Grossman concedes he didn’t feel comfortable with his play until the sixth or seventh week of the regular season. With a position change to boot, Grossman thinks Seau might have his hands full.

“If they kept him at outside linebacker, he wouldn’t have that much of a problem,” Grossman said. “But moving to the middle I think would be tough even if you move in college. Billy Ray (Smith) had a problem with it. A lot of outside linebackers had a problem with it.”

Seau has been keeping in shape, Feldman said. Lynn said it will take him 10 to 12 days to get over the muscle soreness that comes with contact drills.

Whether he develops quickly or not, the atmosphere at the Chargers’ training camp site at UCSD was light. As late as Thursday afternoon, it appeared the Chargers might have to do without Seau. After going through that last season with running back Gary Anderson, who chose to sit out rather than accept what he considered a sub-standard contract, there was a sense of relief that the business side of the season was complete.

“It’s great,” Beathard said. “I’m not saying it’s great because we got him for any particular price. It’s great that Junior is going to be here.”

Henning took a few puffs on his cigarette and quipped: “Well, I think settling for those numbers is a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it.”

He added: “We’re just glad to have him come in because I think he’s a guy that likes to play football. I think there’s a lot of miscommunication that happens when you have a mouthpiece that speaks for you. Everything that we knew about Junior, his training, the way he works, was positive.”

What was negative were the rather messy negotiations, during which three players--Lee Williams, Gill Byrd and Joe Phillips--switched from Feldman to other agents. Williams said the Seau negotiations played a part in his decision.

“There was obviously something going on there,” he said. “I wasn’t benefitting from it.”

These things don’t quite agree with Henning, who said the system isn’t quite fair.

“It seems to be out of whack that rookie come in and command (more) money than veterans who have been doing it,” he said.