Gagliano Still Runs With the Young Lions : Pro football: Veteran quarterback from Glendale competes against Peete and Ware for starting job in Detroit.

The run-and-shoot offense, geared for a thinking quarterback with quick feet and a strong arm, appears to be tailor-made for quarterbacks such as Rodney Peete and Andre Ware, but it also seems to suit Bob Gagliano.

When Gagliano dons his silver-and-blue uniform and plays quarterback for the Detroit Lions, leaving Peete and Ware wearing the headsets, the former Hoover High and Glendale College standout appears dressed to kill.

Gagliano, in his seventh NFL season, has led the explosive Lions to three of their four victories, but currently rates as the team’s second-string quarterback behind Peete. Gagliano has completed 87 of 159 for 1,190 yards and 10 touchdowns, while Peete is 100 of 191 for 1,339 yards and nine touchdowns.

“You have to accept whatever role they give you, but I want to play as much as possible,” said Gagliano, who resides in Ventura during the off-season. “I don’t look at this as a problem or a controversy; it is up to (Coach Wayne Fontes) to choose. It may put some pressure on us quarterbacks, but we are adults and we can handle it.

“Rodney and Andre are about as mature as two young men can be. When the quarterback controversy comes up, most people talk about them and my name doesn’t come up. I just kind of laugh about it, because I am right here, and Andre and Rodney know I’m here too.”

It didn’t figure that Gagliano would see much action given the other quarterbacks on the Lions’ roster, especially when one compares their college careers. As a senior at USC, Peete was runner-up for the 1988 Heisman trophy. Former Houston quarterback Ware won the award last season.

Gagliano, meanwhile, did not get a single Heisman vote for his play at U.S. International University in 1979 or Utah State in 1980. His name was not found on any All-American lists.

But there is only one vote that Gagliano wants right now: the endorsement of Fontes to be the Lions’ starter.

His performance against the Denver Broncos on Thanksgiving Day seemed to be the showing Gagliano needed. Gagliano completed 18 of 30 passes for 248 yards and three touchdowns in the Lions’ 40-27 victory.

Yet Gagliano was on the bench for the Lions’ next game, two Sundays ago against Chicago. Gagliano was summoned for action with just over 10 minutes left in the third quarter when Peete had trouble moving the offense. Gagliano nearly engineered an upset, completing 10 of 19 passes for 128 yards and a touchdown. In overtime, he drove the team into position to win on a field goal, but kicker Eddie Murray missed a 35-yard attempt and the Bears scored on their next possession to squeak out a 23-17 victory.

Monday night’s 38-31 loss to the Raiders was the first game in the last six in which Gagliano had not played. Peete led the Lions to a quick start, but his play deteriorated over the next three quarters. Peete finished 11 of 24 for 178 yards and one touchdown and had one interception.

Still, Peete will be the starter for Sunday night’s rematch against Chicago at the Pontiac Silverdome, and Gagliano will be on the bench, needed only if Peete should falter.

Gagliano emerged as a bona fide NFL quarterback while taking snaps during the Lions’ 5-0 finish at the end of the 1989 season. In that run, Gagliano completed 64 of 118 passes for 882 yards, five touchdowns and threw only two interceptions.

“When you look at the five-game winning streak at the end of last season, Bob Gagliano’s name keeps coming up,” Fontes said before this season. “But, his play wasn’t a big surprise to us. We, as a staff, felt that if Rodney got hurt that Bob was a very capable quarterback, and he proved that.”

As fate would have it, Peete did get hurt this season. Peete started the first four games before an injury to his left hamstring forced him to the sidelines. Given another chance, Gagliano led the team to a come-from-behind 34-27 victory at Minnesota, completing 16 of 31 passes for 299 yards and three touchdowns.

Evaluating the quarterback controversy after the Minnesota win, Fontes told reporters: “Rodney has the better skills. The guy with the best touch (Ware) is waiting his turn on the bench. (Gagliano) made the plays when he had to.”

The “Silver Stretch,” the sobriquet for Detroit’s free-wheeling offense, still needs improvement. Gagliano completed only five of 11 passes for 113 yards and the Lions blew a 21-point lead in a 41-38 loss to the Washington Redskins on Nov. 4. Gagliano replaced Ware in the third quarter of the rookie’s first start against Minnesota the following week, going eight for 13 for 84 yards and a touchdown, but Detroit lost the Nov. 11 rematch with the Vikings, 17-7. The Lions were shut out by the New York Giants, 20-0, one week later. Gagliano was 17 of 25 for 123 yards in that game.

Peete was impressive in his return from hamstring problems as the Lions defeated the New Orleans Saints on Oct. 28, but he injured his knee when facing the Redskins a week later. The injury raised questions about Peete’s durability, a concern that also dogged Peete at the end of his college career.

Gagliano, 32, is one of the oldest practitioners of the run-and-shoot, giving him a decided edge in experience. He became familiar with the schemes of Lions’ offensive coaches Mouse Davis and June Jones in 1984 while playing for the Denver Gold of the USFL. Davis was the Gold’s offensive coordinator in 1984 and the team’s head coach in 1985. Jones was quarterback coach both years.

But Gagliano served an apprenticeship from 1981-83 in a conventional offense with the Kansas City Chiefs before he was introduced to the run-and-shoot. Gagliano attempted only one pass during those three seasons.

“A lot of people think that the stretch is all I’ve done,” said Gagliano, who also played for the San Francisco 49ers from 1986-87. “When Mouse and June brought me to Denver in 1984, the run-and-shoot was something I didn’t think I could run.

“It turns out you don’t have to be a sprint-out quarterback. The offense involves quick reads, which I have learned to do. I’m good with the short game, making the quick reads and hitting the seams. You need to be able to make quick decisions. Once it becomes inbred in the players, running the system becomes second nature.”

Jones played quarterback for Davis while the offense was being developed at Portland State in the mid-’70s. After playing for the Atlanta Falcons as a backup to Steve Bartkowski from 1977-79 and in 1981, Jones became an assistant coach for the Houston Oilers. Having observed many quarterbacks, Jones feels Gagliano has the tools to succeed in the NFL.

“Bob has a good understanding of what we are doing, but he would have success in any system. He has enough ability and enough poise to make it as a quarterback, he has just never really had an opportunity to make it until he joined us in the USFL.”

Gagliano looks weary and worn compared to youthful media darlings Peete, 24, and Ware, 22. He has the appearance of a soldier who has lived through the battles of pro football and he tells his tale as if it were a war story.

Experience might have earned Gagliano a place on the roster, but it has come back to hurt him as he tries to gain the starting job. Most fans see Gagliano’s role as that of the sage, imparting wisdom to the new warriors. The depiction of Gagliano as the grizzled veteran who survives on intellect in his battle with superior athletes doesn’t thrill him.

“I don’t know about my intellect,” Gagliano said with a laugh, “but my athletic ability is downplayed and I feel like I have a whole lot more than anybody has ever given me credit for. I can run around in the pocket better than most quarterbacks and I have good arm strength.

“There are a lot of fallacies about me. One year, the book on me was that I had no mobility and no arm strength, which is totally ridiculous. People will say something, and once it gets in the press, it will kind of stick with you. You have to prove it over a couple of years to show that people were wrong.

“The numbers have been there. Even when I have done that, people haven’t given me credit for it. Against Minnesota, I passed for 300 yards and three touchdowns. So I have had to learn not to worry about it.”

His role on the team has earned him the nickname “The Caretaker” from his teammates. If Gagliano ever gets tired of that moniker, he might find himself being called “The Baby-sitter” or “The Teacher.” He is not perceived as the leader who can restore the roar for the Lions; meanwhile Peete and Ware are burdened with the expectation of being the next great Lion leader. Detroit fans have waited for a worthy quarterback since Bobby Layne led the Lions to two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s and have longed for a quarterback with star quality.

“It’s been a tough situation for quarterbacks around here for years,” Peete said. “Bob is a very good quarterback. The fact that he has been around the league for years makes people think of him as ‘the crafty veteran,’ but we as quarterbacks try not to pay attention when people start to label you. I’ve been through it and I’ve learned you can’t let it hinder your play.”

Fans have given Gagliano a grace period and will allow him to survive on his wits and competitiveness. But when Peete’s or Ware’s talents force Gagliano to accept his age and make Ventura his year-around address, he is expected to acquiesce and pass the torch.

Yet his own experiences at the start of his pro career have taught him that no one can rejuvenate a team overnight. He has tried to provide this insight to Peete and Ware.

“He tells me the little things that help as I learn the offense,” Ware said. “The controversy is just made up by the guys writing. We are pretty good friends and we try to help each other out. We want to help each other out. It is competitive on the field, but we are friendly in the locker room. That’s the way it should be.”

What enables Gagliano to become friends with the quarterbacks he must compete against is a mellow personality and dry wit.

These traits grew out of necessity. Gagliano’s demeanor was much different when he first came into the NFL, as a 12th-round selection by Kansas City in 1981.

“My first year, I was kind of an uppity, wild young man,” Gagliano said. “I wasn’t going to get the opportunity to play with Bill Kenney and Steve Fuller there. In the preseason, I would play, move the team and score, then get pulled out of the game. I would get so angry.

“That went on for two years, before I realized I had a lot to learn about the NFL and being a good quarterback. It was right around then that my roommate, (former linebacker) Gary Spani, gave me the key when he told me, ‘No matter what, stay even-keeled.’ I learned not to get too high about the highs, and not to get too low about the lows.”

Looking cool, calm and collected in the face of stiff competition from two potential stars, Gagliano earned a one-year, $300,000 contract this season.

His $130,000 raise proved that he had earned the respect of the Lions.

But he might have to perform like Joe Montana, Terry Bradshaw or another Super Bowl quarterback before Lion fans will accept him as the team’s unquestioned leader.