He Gets Great Reception : Football: Browns receiver Webster Slaughter can fake and talk and dance and even run--anything to get open.

His California license plates read “WEB-STAR,” and they deliver a significant message about Webster Slaughter.

Five years after completing an outstanding career at San Diego State, Slaughter is the big-play man of the Cleveland Browns--a player of Pro Bowl stature. He will pose big problems for the Chargers when they meet the Browns Sunday in Cleveland.

Ron Lynn, the Charger defensive coordinator, talked about the task of containing Webster, a 6-foot, 170-pounder whose 19-yard average per catch last season was the best in the AFC.

“He’s a marvelous player,” Lynn said. “He makes tough catches, he makes acrobatic catches, he makes catches in a crowd. He catches balls he should catch and he catches balls he shouldn’t catch.

“He isn’t a 4.2 guy (for 40 yards)--only about 4.5--yet he’s a deep threat, for several reasons. He has good timing with the quarterback (Bernie Kosar), he sets up the defenders well, and he explodes out of the break.

“He’ll talk trash with you, and that’s part of his competitive nature. He’s such a competitive guy that you can’t let up on him. We’ll probably double-team him a lot Sunday.”

Lynn called Slaughter and teammate Reggie Langhorne “probably the most underrated pair of receivers in the NFL.”

Charger cornerback Gill Byrd compared Slaughter to a former teammate, Wes Chandler.

“He’s a faster version of Chandler,” Byrd said. “Wes had that knack of getting open all the time. Slaughter reminds me of him. He always knows where the defensive back is going to be, and he has great quickness.”

Linebacker Gary Plummer said that when the Browns use a so-called gadget play, it’s a good bet that Slaughter will be the key man.

“They go to him for big yardage,” Plummer said. “He’ll run reverses and flea-flickers, and he’ll catch halfback passes.”

Strong safety Marty Bayless cited another side of Slaughter’s competitive nature.

“He can be a showboat,” Bayless said. “As small as he is, he’s not afraid to take a lick, and when he gets up, he’ll let you know he’s around. He’ll show the ball in your face or pat you on the butt or something like that. He can get you teed off.

“The thing is, though, he’s an underrated receiver. He’s deceptive. He’ll put you to sleep, maybe take a play off, but on the next play he’ll be in the end zone dancing.”

Slaughter, who will be 26 on Oct. 19, has reached the end zone 20 times since the Browns made him their second-round draft choice in 1986. He has caught 188 passes for 3,164 yards, including six for 83 yards this season, after catching 122 for 1,647 yards in two seasons at San Diego State.

“I’m not a burner, but I can get by anybody,” Slaughter said by telephone from Cleveland. “The 4.2 guys usually don’t have good hands. I’m fast enough.”

Fast enough, indeed.

En route to leading the AFC in average per catch last year, Slaughter had receptions of 97, 80 and 77 yards. His 97-yarder against the Chicago Bears was a league high, and his 1,236-yard total set a club record.

Slaughter, who has been hampered this season by what he calls a tender knee, appeared close to his old self when he caught five passes against the New York Jets last Sunday.

“I’ve been basically nicked up since training camp,” Slaughter said. “The only thing that will help is rest, and there’s no time for that.”

Slaughter’s physical problem is one of the reasons for the anemic production of the Browns’ offense in their first two games, one of which they won.

“He’s as important as anybody we have,” Coach Bud Carson said. “He made as many big plays last year as anybody in the league except maybe San Francisco. We need him 100%.”

One can grasp the degree of Slaughter’s importance by the fact that many veteran observers consider him the Browns’ best receiver since the days of Hall of Famer Paul Warfield, who retired in 1977. In an interesting twist, it was Warfield, then scouting, who recommended that the Browns draft Slaughter.

As good as he is on the football field, Slaughter’s talents are anything but one-dimensional. In fact, he is so adept at playing a saxophone that he didn’t even try out for football until his senior year at Franklin High School in Stockton.

“I played in the band,” he said. “We were No. 1 in the nation in the music Olympics in Anaheim. I played alto sax, then I switched to tenor. I was no football player.

“Then before my senior year, one of the coaches saw me in a pickup basketball game and asked me to come out for football. Even after I made the team, I stayed with the band. I just couldn’t march at the games.

“I still play the sax whenever I get a chance, but I miss it sometimes. I like jazz and top-40 pop.”

Despite his lack of a football background, Slaughter was named to the all-conference team in his only high school season. Then he made such a good impression at San Joaquin Delta Junior College in Stockton that he received a flock of scholarship offers.

“I narrowed it down to Illinois and San Diego State,” he said. “I picked San Diego State because it was closer to home and it was warmer. I had great coaching there, and I worked with an excellent quarterback in Todd Santos. Todd and I had great rapport.”

Slaughter’s musical bent doesn’t end with tooting a saxophone, either. He and Eric Metcalf, the Browns’ game-breaking running back, were featured at halftime of NBC’s Thanksgiving Day game last year.

“I was rapping, and Eric was dancing,” Slaughter said. “The reviews were pretty good.”

Actually, the gig was written for 10 Cleveland players, but eight failed to show up. Slaughter improvised.

Slaughter adapts so easily to situations that a former Cleveland columnist, Bob Kravitz, wrote recently, “He represents the very essence of cool. Cool shades. Cool duds. Cool car.”

Slaughter is even cool when he recalls the two times he fell asleep at the wheel of his car.

“In my rookie year, we watched a highlight film downtown at night,” he said. “I left early because I was sleepy. All the way home, I kept nodding off, and finally I fell asleep and hit the stone divider on a bridge. The car was totaled.

“The following year, when we broke camp, I was going home, and the same thing happened. Luckily, I just hit a couple of mail boxes and no damage was done.”

Obviously, Slaughter does things his way. A year ago, he dreamed up an idea so drastic in the NFL’s eyes that it led to a new rule. Hereafter, all players on a team must wear solid-color shoes and all must be the same color. You might call it the Webster Slaughter Rule.

Before the Monday night game in which he was to make his 97-yard reception, Slaughter painted his shoes orange and Metcalf did the same. Most of the Brown players were wearing shoes that were all or partially orange by the end the season.

“We painted just about everybody’s shoes one way or another,” Slaughter said. “Nobody put a stop to it, so we kept on painting.

“We’re wearing white now, but we’ve been working on a secret plan, so don’t be surprised if you see orange again.”