Butts, O’Neal, Miller Picked to Start Pro Bowl : Pro football: Chargers’ Lee Williams, Gill Byrd are not picked to play in the game, upsetting some teammates.

Three Chargers have been selected to start in the Pro Bowl: running back Marion Butts, receiver Anthony Miller and linebacker Leslie O’Neal.

For the first time in three years, defensive end Lee Williams wasn’t chosen.

Cornerback Gill Byrd didn’t make it either.

Again.

Byrd, whose seven interceptions ties him for the AFC lead with Houston’s Richard Johnson, was chosen as an alternate. In eight years with the Chargers, he has never been to the Pro Bowl. That doesn’t sit well with many of his teammates. Particularly safety Vencie Glenn.

“An alternate?” Glenn said. “What kind of satisfaction can you get out of being an alternate? He’s going to be at home and (he’s) going to say: ‘Yeah, I could have alternated on that play.’ Point blank, I think it’s bull . . . that he doesn’t get the recognition. And I think it starts with PR.”

Glenn said the Charger public relations department needs to make more of an effort during the season to promote Byrd’s accomplishments. Charger General Manager Bobby Beathard doesn’t agree.

“I think that’s pure bull . . . ,” Beathard said. “I think it comes from the player’s play on the field. . . . The PR department doesn’t make a good player.”

Byrd took the news calmly. He isn’t one to throw tantrums and, besides, he’s used to being omitted from the Pro Bowl roster. Both last season and the season before he was on top of the AFC in interceptions--and he didn’t make it.

“I have no control over it,” Byrd said. “I take it all in stride. It’s just a learning process.”

A somewhat painful one.

“I’m disappointed, there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “But I accept it. Not enough of the right people know about me.”

Williams started the past two Pro Bowls. His chances to return for a third consecutive year likely were diminished when the Chargers switched him from a defensive end to an interior lineman. On the Pro Bowl ballot, he was listed as a defensive end, a position largely evaluated on the basis of sacks.

As an interior lineman, Williams often has been the victim of double coverage. With two games remaining, he has 7.5 sacks. Last season, he finished with 14.

“There’s a lot of underlying factors as to why I haven’t been as productive,” Williams said. “I know what they are and that’s as far as I’ll take that because I don’t want to open up a can of worms. We’ve had enough distractions around this place the last two weeks.

“Yeah, I’m disappointed. Being elected a starter for two years you kind of grow accustomed to feeling like that’s your job. And this year I’ll be sitting home watching someone else play.”

Which brings us to O’Neal, Miller and Butts. O’Neal, a Pro Bowl alternate last season, made statements last week suggesting the Charger front office plays favorites when it comes to promoting players. He wasn’t sure if that would put a damper on his chances.

“I’m happy,” said O’Neal, third in the AFC with 12.5 sacks. “I didn’t know whether the situation last week would have helped or hurt. . . . You don’t know. It’s something negative. In as much as players have a vote, coaches have a vote too. You don’t want to get on the bad side of any coaches.”

Miller, a non-starter at last year’s Pro Bowl who now is ninth among AFC receiving leaders with 57 receptions for 872 yards, was surprised he was selected as a starter. Asked if he deserved to be chosen as a starter, he said: “Probably not as a starter but as far as making it, yeah. I felt last year I should have been a starter. I guess they did take into account that I’ve been double covered a lot.”

Butts, the NFL’s leading rusher with 1,225 yards, wasn’t sure he’d make it either.

“I don’t know how the system works,” he said. “I’m new. There’s a lot I have to learn.”