Williams Declares: ‘I’m Through With Chargers’ : Football: Defensive lineman, tired of perceived ill treatment by the team, does not report to camp. Beathard says he won’t comment until he sees letter from Williams.

Defensive end Lee Williams says he will not play football again for the Chargers.

“I don’t want a dime from the Chargers; this has nothing to do with money,” he said Wednesday from his home in Florida. “I just want out.”

Running back Marion Butts, who has demanded a reworked contract, also was a training camp no-show at Wednesday evening’s required check-in for all veteran players.

General Manager Bobby Beathard said both players would be fined the maximum amount of $1,500 a day for missing camp.

While Butts wants a raise, Williams says he has grown tired of playing out of position and being criticized and berated by club officials.

“I’m about as fed up with them as they are with me,” said Williams, who is due to earn about $900,000 in base salary this season. “I want out. I want to play for another team.

“I don’t know what they’re going to do, but I know I’m not coming back. I’m through with the Chargers.”

The Chargers not only have the option of fining Williams, but they could suspend him, thereby making him ineligible to play this season. Or they have the option of trading him.

“We understand how the NFL works,” said Steve Feldman, Williams’ agent. “If Bobby Beathard wants to bury Lee Williams, he can bury him. We know that. We don’t think we can force him to do anything.”

However, it has been learned that Williams might try to force a trade. He is expected to advise the Chargers in a letter they are to receive today that he is considering legal action against the team. He will allege there are several irregularities in his renegotiated contract, including documents that have a facsimile of his signature rather than his own.

“There are some discrepancies in the contract that I play under now,” Williams said. “I won’t elaborate.”

Beathard says he will reserve comment until he receives the letter.

Williams’ unhappiness with the team also has to do with the pressure he felt in firing Feldman last year.

“I felt like I was squeezed into that, like I had no alternative,” said Williams, who recently rehired Feldman.

Williams walked out of training camp last season, but returned a few days later. He fired Feldman, because Feldman and Beathard were at odds, and hired Mike Merkow.

Beathard and Merkow reworked Williams’ contract during the season, and Williams signed the pact, which now extends to 1995.

“Last year’s walkout was about money, but this has absolutely nothing to do with my contract,” Williams said. “It’s a culmination of two years of frustration. It’s just a total flagrant lack of respect for me as a football player. It runs from the top to the bottom of the organization with very few exceptions.”

Williams leads the team with 92 consecutive starts in non-strike games and during the first six years of his career here he did not miss a practice.

In the past two years, however, the team has begun to question his conditioning habits, his decision to remain in Florida during the off-season and his reluctant cooperation on the move from defensive end to defensive tackle.

Williams came under repeated fire from defensive line coach Gunther Cunningham, and after his walkout, he said he felt Beathard’s cold shoulder.

Coach Dan Henning didn’t like the way Cunningham treated Williams during the 1989 season and suggested that Cunningham alter his approach. Cunningham’s contract was not renewed after the 1990 season.

“I didn’t have a problem in the world with this club until two years ago,” Williams said. “I did what everyone asked me to do. I played in every game, and consistently over the last six years, you tell me who has done more.

“But all I have heard in the last two years is this negative stuff from people in the organization. It’s Lee this, and Lee that. When people have the opinion of an individual, like I think the Chargers have of me, I don’t see how they would want me to be an employee of theirs.”

Williams was selected to play in the Pro Bowl in 1988 and his teammates voted him lineman of the year. He played in the Pro Bowl again in 1989, and despite a decrease in number of sacks, he earned the respect of his peers again in 1990 when they voted him lineman of the year.

Williams’ troubles, however, began in 1989. The Chargers selected Burt Grossman in the first round because they feared defensive end Leslie O’Neal would be unable to return from a serious knee injury.

O’Neal recovered, however, and so to make room for both Grossman and O’Neal on the field, Williams was told to move to defensive tackle. He put on 20 pounds per the club’s instruction and lost his reputation as one of the game’s most feared pass rushers.

“It was, ‘Move, you (jerk),’ ” Williams said. “Like it or not.

“I’ve made pleas to return to my natural position the past two years and apparently they have fallen on deaf ears. The average person goes through the same thing. They may have a job description they don’t like or a run-in with people they don’t like, and they can seek employment elsewhere. That’s where I’m at.”

The Chargers allege Williams still is assigned defensive end duties the bulk of the time he is on the field. Williams said: “If the team averaged 60 plays a game last year on defense, I averaged five at defensive end.”

Henning said earlier this year that Williams and Grossman would compete to start at left defensive end.

“Leslie got the bye; he always gets the bye,” Grossman said. “I think that bothered Lee. . . . But I guess that makes me a starter now that Lee is gone.”

The Chargers have challenged Williams privately. They don’t believe he has the fire to fight for a position. He said, however, the battle already had been fought.

“I’ve heard things like I’ll be given a chance to compete for a position at defensive end,” he said. “How do you think someone like a Minnesota’s Chris Doleman, Chicago’s Richard Dent or Minnesota’s Keith Millard would react to something like that?

“I think that it is very disrespectful. That’s not a position that I lost. That’s bull. That should be my spot.”

Although the Chargers said Williams would draw more time at defensive end, he said nothing changed in minicamp or summer school. He said he remained at defensive tackle, and he said he was criticized for his performance on a fitness test.

“Leslie O’Neal and Anthony Miller passed the test like Lee, and they had the same poor conditioning results as Lee. And they were given the same speech,” said John Dunn, strength and conditioning coach. “Lee’s the type of guy who could run for three weeks and be in shape. But we’re looking for leaders who make more than just a three-week commitment to conditioning.”

Williams said he had two months to prepare for training camp when he took the fitness test. He said, “I may not be the best player in the world, but my performance in the past has been nothing to be ashamed about.

“It’s just always something. Always something with Lee Williams. If everybody hates me that much, then what’s the use.”

Williams said he will have no further comment on his situation.

“Lee understands what his options are and he doesn’t care about all the terrible things that can happen to him,” Feldman said. “He just wants out. I don’t think he’ll play for this team again.”