Chargers Cancel Circus Reveiz; Carney Hits Town

The circus is over, the zoo ahead.

Kicker Fuad Reveiz, cut Monday by the Chargers for missing too many kicks he should have made, described his past four weeks as a circus. And with that behind him, he plans to take a day or two off and forget about kicking, which has been anything but a kick for him lately.

“I’ve got to take my sons to the zoo and just relax and enjoy myself (today) or the next day,” Reveiz said. “Then I’ll wait and see what type of reaction there is around the NFL.”

The next Charger kicker, John Carney, is scheduled to arrive Wednesday. Remember him? He was the guy who was a Charger during exhibition season and missed a 27-yarder against the Rams.

Another 27-yard miss, this time by Reveiz, has put Carney back on the team. Reveiz booted his final attempt wide left in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s 17-7 loss to Houston. Monday afternoon, Reveiz left. For good.

“Right now Fuad isn’t even close to being hot,” Henning said. “He’s cold. And it’s important for our team . . . that we eliminate the cold guy and pick up a guy who was excellent in training camp but was cold for a period of time and maybe he’ll be hot this time.”

Translation: The Chargers are taking a chance on a new kicker because he can’t be any worse than the old kicker.

Reveiz, who made only two of seven field goal attempts in four games, says he is a good kicker and, if you don’t believe him, you can ask Henning or Larry Pasquale, the Charger special teams coach. They believe it. They’re as puzzled as everyone else why he keeps missing. His motion is fluid, his leg strong. But the ball never seems to cooperate.

Said Henning: “There’s been no problem with him other than the fact that he’s missed five.”

That’s like saying there’s no problem with the lifeguard other than the fact that he can’t swim. Anyway, Reveiz plans to continue to work out in hopes that another NFL team might be interested.

He was prepared for this. Along about the time the 27-yarder curved left on Sunday, it entered his mind that he might not be wearing a Charger uniform again.

“Sure did,” he said. “You just can’t miss a 27-yarder no matter what. You just can’t do that. I don’t care what the circumstances are, you’re just not supposed to do that in this league.”

If it had anything to do with popularity, Reveiz would still be around, and he might even have a raise.

“It’s tough on everybody, everybody develops a little bond with him,” Pasquale said. “You don’t like to do things like this. I think Fuad understands it’s nothing personal.”

Said Charger General Manager Bobby Beathard: “He’s a nice guy. It’s easy to let a guy go if he’s a jerk. Fuad’s not that way.”

To say Fuad Reveiz is a scapegoat would be inaccurate, though certainly the Chargers might have had more patience if their record was better than 1-3.

“When the team is 1-3 you’ve got to do something to provide a spark for the club,” Reveiz said. “And, obviously, if I was six out of six, they wouldn’t have to do that spark there.”

But Beathard said this might have happened anyway.

“Had his record been what it is, it would have been tough to stick with him,” he said.

Reveiz plans to move on and tryout with any team that contacts him. He isn’t ready to put his football career in dumpster quite yet.

“It’s just a matter of believing in yourself and not quitting,” he said. “That’s something I’m not about to do.”