Bernstine Wants Ball or a Trade
Rod Bernstine, a No. 1 draft choice in 1987, said Monday he is fed up with his limited playing time and would like to be traded if the Chargers aren’t willing to give him more opportunities to carry the ball.
“I’d be agreeable to a trade now,” Bernstine said. “It’s not benefiting me to stay here on the sideline. I’m not getting any younger. If I was going out and not gaining any yards, dropping balls or something, where I didn’t deserve to play, I would sit over there without a gripe in the world. But I’m not doing any of those things.”
Bernstine, 25, a running back who has averaged 4.9 yards in 27 carries this season, has been criticized in the past for not being durable and for being an ineffective blocker.
Asked about Bernstine’s situation, Coach Dan Henning said: “If you want to have the job, be the best. He’s not the best. Marion (Butts) is.”
Originally drafted out of Texas A&M; as a tight end, Bernstine was switched to running back during the off-season. He said limited action didn’t bother him during exhibition season, but it does now.
“It slowly wears on you when you get in for a couple of plays and you think you do a decent job and then you don’t get the ball,” he said. “That kind of stuff would have anybody discouraged. It’s definitely not fun.”
Tuesday is the NFL’s trading deadline, but Charger General Manager Bobby Beathard said there is no chance Bernstine will be shipped out.
“No possibility,” Beathard said. “We recognize the talent, and we recognize that he’s a threat when he has the ball. It’s our job to get him the ball either as a runner or receiver. He’s got to touch the ball a lot if we’re going to be successful.”
Bernstine had surgery for a torn anterior cruciate ligament late in the 1988 season. He played only five games last season, starting none. He isn’t hot trade bait because of a belief around the NFL that he doesn’t have the endurance to be used in a full-time capacity. Bernstine doesn’t agree with that, and he also disputes the knock on his blocking.
“Something always is there that I can’t do,” he said. “They never talk about the positive, but it’s always something like I can’t block. I’m too big not to be able to block, so that’s not true. If you can’t block, why would you be a No. 1 draft choice?”
On the subject of his durability, he said: “I haven’t asked to carry the ball 25 or 30 times a game, but I wouldn’t mind carrying it 10 or 15 times. I’d just like to get in the ballgame and play a little while. You know, good backs can’t just go in, run one play and run off the field. You’ve got to get into the flow of the game.”
The Chargers use four running backs: Butts, Bernstine, Ronnie Harmon and Darrin Nelson. Of the four, Butts in the only one who has played on a consistent basis, 79 times for 384 yards. Harmon has carried 10 times for 46 yards, Nelson twice for nine yards.
Alternating running backs has its advantages. It eliminates late-game fatigue. But Bernstine says it also makes it impossible to build continuity.
“If you only carry the ball three times, you’re fresh as a daisy,” he said. “That’s being a little too fresh.”