Tolliver Says Mr. Nice Guy Days are Over

Billy Joe Tolliver laughed when first told the joke.

“I was in Texas earlier this year,” said Tolliver, the Chargers’ quarterback, “and heard it (about) John Elway.”

On Tolliver’s return to San Diego he was approached with the joke, but this time with a different and not-so-funny punchline:

“The only one who can overthrow Saddam Hussein is Billy Joe Tolliver.”

The neck becomes red, the teeth clenched, and, pardner, it’s best you be out of town by sundown.

“I had an older gentleman come up to me on the golf course and tell me the Hussein joke, and I guess he was just trying to make conversation the best way he knew how,” Tolliver said. “I let him know he was an idiot and how badly I wanted to kick the (heck) out of him. I didn’t see the humor in it. Not at all.”

The good old boy, you see, has had it. In his first two years in the league, the Chargers have been stuck at 6-10, and as blame for defeat has been meted out, the belittled quarterback has fallen on the grenade without complaint.

“I tried the like-me routine last year,” Tolliver said. “I wanted everybody to like me. But it will be different. My teammates don’t have to like me now, just respect me.

“There will be quite a bit of hell-raising and a little more in the way of expectations from some other guys around here from me. It will make me more surly in the huddle. The honeymoon’s over. If I’m going to get fired, I’m going to get fired with the best damn players I can get fired with.

“We better have some guys blocking. We better have some guys catching the football. We better have some guys making efforts to catch the football. You don’t ever have to worry about (Rod) Bernstine, (Ronnie) Harmon and (Marion) Butts. Those guys will take care of themselves; they’re professionals.

“We were a young football and now it’s time to grow up. My job is to lead them to that growing-up stage, and that’s what I plan on doing.”

Operation Billy-Get-Tough commences this weekend with the opening of a three-day minicamp at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. Tolliver returns 13 pounds lighter and more committed to proving the naysayers wrong.

In a postseason press conference, however, Coach Dan Henning said owner Alex Spanos and General Manager Bobby Beathard preferred John Friesz to Tolliver. Henning said, “There’s a feeling by Bobby and Mr. Spanos that they’re not sure Tolliver can do it.”

Tolliver’s reaction: He can whoop the world if given the chance, but he’s headed elsewhere if there’s no getting around a showdown with the front office.

“I want to buy a house, and I haven’t bought one yet,” Tolliver said. “I’m not going to buy a $500,000 or $600,000 house in a place where I’m not going to be living. You can never tell around here. When the GM and the owner say they don’t like you, who knows?

“I don’t know who calls the shots. Dan’s the coach, and I gotta believe he calls the shots. But if the owner doesn’t like me, I could win 12 games and still be gone. . . . The only thing I want is consistency. If the owner doesn’t like me at 6-10; don’t like me at 10-6. That’s all I ask.”

Tolliver’s hard line for Spanos, however, comes with an disclaimer: “If I owned the team,” he said, “I probably wouldn’t like me, either.”

Spanos won’t talk about Tolliver or any another player. Since Beathard took over as GM, he has left Beathard to discuss personnel.

“All I can say at this point is if my coaching staff and Dan Henning feels that Billy Joe Tolliver is our man,” Spanos said, “then as far as I’m concerned, he’s my guy.”

But John Friesz never looked so good. Apprentice quarterbacks--especially those behind a struggling starter--usually do. Three years ago, most of San Diego was agog over Tolliver.

“Shoot, I just need to perform better,” Tolliver said. “We’re all frustrated at not winning. I don’t want it to sound like I’m being a jerk and I don’t want you to make it sound like I’m being a jerk, but if they don’t think I can play around here, if they don’t think I can win a championship for them, then ship me someplace else. And understand, I don’t want to play somewhere else. I’m right where I’ve wanted to be from the start.”

From the outset, Tolliver has been Henning’s quarterback. Henning was as fond of Tolliver’s Texas-stubborn approach to football as he was of the second-round pick’s arm.

He played Tolliver as a rookie and went with him in 14 starts last season. Prevailing opinion has Henning staking his future as Charger coach on Tolliver.

“That’s the same pressure that’s on me, brother,” Tolliver said. “Another 6-10 season and we’ll all get fired. Dan’s on the hot seat like me, but I plan on keeping Dan around here for another 10 years.”

Last year at this time, Tolliver was handed the job as starting quarterback. And last year at this time, as strength and conditioning coach John Dunn recalled, “Tolliver was concentrating more on his golf game.”

Tolliver went on to play himself out of the starting job in training camp, and Mark Vlasic opened the season against Dallas.

“The biggest problem last year was the day they said I was the man,” Tolliver said. “At that point in time I wasn’t mature enough to handle it. In my opinion, I fat-catted my way through training camp and got my butt on the bench.

“I didn’t work in the off-season and in training camp as hard as I should have, and it left me with something I’ll never forget as long as I live. I got embarrassed in my home state of Texas by sitting on the bench for the opening game.”

Tolliver still has a firm grip on his golf game, but this off-season he made a $5,000 investment in exercise equipment for his home. He’s logged between 20 and 25 miles a week on a treadmill, and while he’s not ready to model swimwear, he’s dropped from 228 pounds to 215.

“I’ve been impressed with his commitment to improving himself,” Dunn said. “If it wasn’t for the size of his neck, he’d look like a skinny guy. But his neck gives the illusion of a thick guy.”

The Chargers, although more concerned with percentage of body fat than pounds, took Tolliver to San Diego State’s Human Performance Center after the season and hydrostatically weighed him.

“His body fat was at 16 percent,” Dunn said. “We’re looking at 12 percent, or around 212-213 pounds.”

A turtle is a turtle, though, and slow-footed Tolliver still is going to move like a snail on crutches.

“The weight itself will be a factor but not as much as it means to his commitment and the understanding that he’s going to get every edge he can to make it,” said Ted Tollner, the team’s quarterbacks coach. “It’s a statement as to what he’s willing to do to win this job.”

Tolliver will continue to shed the pounds, but Jenny Craig won’t be getting his money.

“If I want a snack these days I substitute fruit for the Cheez Whiz and pretzels,” he said. “Instead of eating two meals a day, I eat one.”

Although he’s eating less, he’s still packing the same engaging and self-effacing personality that has made him a favorite among teammates and coaches. Winning friends comes quite naturally to Tolliver. Winning football games has been more troublesome.

“I thought it was going to be a lot easier to play in the NFL than what it is,” he said. “Now that I realize how tough it is, I’m progressing as good as any who have played the game. Better than most, matter of fact. . . . Tell me, who has lived up to people’s expectations in their second year?”

Tolliver has started 19 games for the Chargers and has compiled an 8-11 record with 21 touchdown passes and 24 interceptions. By comparison, in his first two years in the league, Dallas’ Troy Aikman, the first player selected in the 1989 draft, has a 7-18 record as a starter with 20 touchdown passes and 36 interceptions.

“If you look at Troy’s numbers they aren’t vastly different than Billy’s,” Tollner said. “But for various reasons they’ve got a longer commitment in him.

“They’ve probably been a little more realistic in his development than we have been in ours of Billy. And it’s kind of ironic because one guy comes out as the first pick and this guy comes out with some subjective opinions that are different on whether he can play or not play. And yet we wanted results fast.”

Tollner believes Tolliver will triumph over past disasters and earn the embraces of Charger fans.

“But it’s time for him to make that significant jump,” Tollner said. “I think it’s fair for us to expect him to raise his completion percentage five or six or seven points so that he’s in the high 50s. And it’s time to make the right decisions in the two-minute situations and not throw balls that are dumb interceptions.

“For him to have big numbers of unbelievable touchdowns to interceptions and great yards and 65 percent of his passes completed, no, it’s not time for him to do that. But if he takes that gradual step, instead of losing three or four games that are close, we’re gonna win them, and then we’re pushing above the .500 mark. That’s realistic.”

Another reality is that the Chargers still seek a wide receiver to complement Anthony Miller and a quality left tackle to protect the quarterback’s blind side. The first two selections in the draft were a safety and a defensive tackle.

“We were good enough to win last year if we got a higher level of play out of our quarterback,” Tolliver said. “It’s a fact--you’re not going to the playoffs unless your quarterback is performing well.

“I’ve been through the wringer so I know what it’s about. I’m one of 28 people in the league and I plan on keeping it that way.”

In contrast to last year, the Chargers refuse to anoint Billy Joe Tolliver their starting quarterback for the season opener in Pittsburgh. But do they have any other choice?

“If they come out tomorrow, and I haven’t seen any indication that they will, and do what they did last year, and say, ‘Hey, he’s going to be the guy,’ I’d definitely handle it a lot better than last year,” Tolliver said. “If they don’t, fine, nothing changes. Opening day I plan on being the guy. And closing day I plan on being the guy.”

The team appears pleased with the progress he’s made in recent workouts in putting some touch on the ball and they are impressed with his work ethic. But Plan B signee Bob Gagliano has experience, and Friesz has promise.

“I’m trying to figure out a nice way to say it, but I’ve put up with all the crud, so maybe it’s time I reap some of the benefits,” Tolliver said. “In my mind, I’m going to have to be the guy to beat out.

“The coaches may see it differently, and I’m sure the owner sees it differently,” he said with a laugh. “And you can’t fault the people’s expectations when your own expectations are the same. Hell, I’ve been booed since junior high--just not by my own people. That’s the hard part.”

The hard part comes early for Tolliver, Henning and the Chargers this season. If they’re to prosper/survive, they will have to do so with a death-march schedule that includes five of the first seven games on the road.

“I’ve got to make it on the road,” Tolliver said. “Good. I won’t get booed.”