Plummer Excelling in 3 Ways

William (Refrigerator) Perry became famous around the world a few years back when the Chicago Bears let the offense borrow him from the defense and then handed him the football.

Of course, part of William’s charm was that he could wear the Equator as a belt.

The Chargers now have a character doing almost exactly what Perry did. They too have a defensive starter who has become an offensive goal-line specialist.

You’ve seen that funny number in the backfield.

50.

You don’t expect anyone wearing the number 50 to be in position to handle a ball unless the game is basketball . . . or the guy is a pitcher. In football, centers and linebackers wear numbers in the 50s.

Gary Plummer is a linebacker.

He is the mystery man who wears 50 in the Chargers’ offensive backfield.

Or maybe he’s not such a mystery man any more. You can be assured that the Kansas City Chiefs, this week’s opponents, are fully aware that Plummer is not in the backfield to serve as a bodyguard for Marion Butts or Rod Bernstine or Ronnie Harmon.

The idea in using a guy like Plummer in the backfield is that he presents the potential for surprise. A lot of teams, for example, use interior offensive linemen as tight ends or wingbacks in short-yardage situations, but seldom are they taken seriously as people who could hold the ball if it was handed or thrown to them.

So the Chargers take the inside linebacker and run him onto the field with the offense and turn him loose with the ball.

Understand, now, that Plummer has not exactly become a workhorse in the offensive backfield. What he is, to be sure, is a workhorse on the field, period. He does these cameos in the backfield in addition to handling his regular chores as a defensive starter and more regular chores as a special teams performer.

In a different way, Gary Plummer is a triple threat.

He has led the Chargers in tackles since he joined the team as a free agent in 1986. This fact alone should come as a bit of surprise, because this is not exactly a no-name defense. What’s surprising is that none of the big names, such as Billy Ray Smith or Lee Williams or Leslie O’Neal or Gill Byrd, led this team in tackles.

This free-agent guy does. The Chargers’ leading tackler played JC football at somewhere called Ohlone College, which no longer plays football; walked on at Cal, which only recently seems to have rediscovered how to play football; and started his professional career with the USFL, which has gone the way of Ohlone. This background would not suggest this guy came to the Chargers a can’t-miss prospect.

All the guy does is his job . . . and two or three other people’s.

That Plummer became a fullback, a position he has never played in all of his life, came about because of the one-back offense. All of the backs were basically tailback types and the coaches wanted a fullback type for short-yardage situations.

“They asked the defensive staff who they’d recommend,” Plummer said, “and they said myself and Henry Rolling. I learned all the goal-line plays, but I never thought much would come of it.”

However, the box score now tells us that Plummer has caught one pass (for a touchdown) and run once (for a touchdown). The pass was against Pittsburgh and the run was last Sunday against Denver, both from the one-yard line.

“It was just a dream that I’d ever score,” he said. “When it happened against Pittsburgh, it was like a little moment of glory for all the blue-collar workers . . . because I consider myself to be a blue-collar worker.”

That moment would pale compared with the touchdown run against Denver in front of a sold-out home crowd. This game, eventually a 19-7 victory, was up for grabs before Plummer’s dive into the end zone.

About the only thing he didn’t do well was spike the ball.

“I like to see linebackers show extra-curricular skills,” mused Billy Ray Smith, Plummer’s linebacking sidekick, “but we’re going to have to have a session to work on that spiking.”

True to his nature, Gary Plummer thanked Coach Dan Henning and offensive coordinator Ted Tollner for having the confidence to hand him the ball.

Also true to his nature, he is still just a blue-collar guy. This defensive starter turned offensive surprise has not found himself inundated with endorsements or late-night (or early morning) television appearances.

This is not William Perry revisited.

“I think people got into the Fridge thing because he weighed 370 pounds,” Plummer said. “I’m about 130 pounds shy of that.”

Again, he is just too ordinary a guy for such commotion.

However, this has brought about subtle changes in the Plummer household.

“Yes,” he said, “it has had its drawbacks. My wife complains that she can’t do the housework any more when the offense is on the field.”

Yes, the only time Leigh-Anna Plummer can be sure her husband is not on the field is halftime. When he comes home with a trombone, she will know she has to watch then , too.