THE WEAPON’S STILL A SECRET : Harmon Awaits a Chance : Chargers Neglect Him, But He Won’t Complain

The Chargers’ “Take It Easy On The Opposition” campaign is inexplicably under way.

In the first game of the season, running back Ronnie Harmon touched the ball five times.

Harmon, who is arguably the Chargers’ most exciting player on offense, did not get the ball in the first or the third quarters of play against Pittsburgh.

Those who know Ronnie Harmon only by his troubled reputation in Buffalo might be looking for an eruption from a disgruntled employee. You will find, however, Ronnie Harmon is spending his only day off running up and down the escalators at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

“If the whole team was like Ronnie Harmon, you wouldn’t need position coaches or conditioning coaches,” said John Dunn, the Charger strength and conditioning coach. “You can call Buffalo, and tell them I said it.”

Call almost anywhere in the country, and opinion still is that Ronnie Harmon drops passes, doesn’t talk to the media and is right up there with Jim McMahon and Jack Clark.

“It’s hard to imagine, really hard to believe,” General Manager Bobby Beathard said. “No knock on (Buffalo Coach) Marv Levy, but if you’ve been around the kid, I can’t imagine someone not getting along with Ronnie Harmon. He’s dependable, his work ethic is as good as we have here, and just his presence alone lights people up.”

In San Diego, Harmon has approached practice on a daily basis like a man hungry for hard work. He’s one of the team’s best blockers, best receivers and most explosive runners.

In Buffalo, Harmon got the Billy Joe Tolliver treatment. He was Buffalo’s first-round pick in 1986 after a disastrous Rose Bowl appearance that included four fumbles, and the fans were not pleased when Harmon became primarily a third-down performer.

Harmon stopped talking with the media, but the criticism continued. He was left unprotected in Plan B free agency after the 1989 season when Harmon dropped a potential playoff game-winning touchdown pass.

The Chargers took a look at Harmon’s name on the Plan B list and swooned.

“Can you imagine making a player of this caliber available and getting nothing in return?” Coach Dan Henning said. “I’ve heard the stories about him, and I know how Marv Levy felt, but this guy has been nothing but a steady performer for us.”

What could Buffalo have been thinking? When the Chargers were in trouble last season, they went to Harmon. He averaged 5.5 yards a carry and finished second on the team in receiving to Anthony Miller with 46 catches for 511 yards.

During off-season strategy sessions, the Chargers’ coaching staff came to agreement on one thing: Get the ball to Harmon more. They worked on a plan that would unite Harmon and Rod Bernstine in the same backfield. They considered moving him outside and working him as a wide receiver. They talked about getting him the ball on first down, as well as third down.

“I’d rather run the ball,” he said. “I’m not a receiver. I am not a receiver. Everybody thinks I am. I catch the ball; that’s part of my job. I’ve been told I’m a finesse guy, but if you’re a finesse guy, how do you block?”

Ronnie Harmon can run, catch and block, but just where does he fit into the Chargers’ plan of attack?

In the exhibition opener against Houston, Harmon received single coverage and caught a 64-yard pass from Tolliver for a touchdown. He caught another pass for 35 yards from Tolliver and scored a touchdown. He ran once--for 51 yards.

In four exhibition games, he carried the ball a total of four times with an average gain of 21.3 yards. He led the team in receiving with 10 catches. He scored two of the team’s six touchdowns.

And then the Chargers opened the regular season and ignored him.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” Harmon said. “That’s not for me to say.

“I just know that when I get in there I have to make things happen quickly. That’s why I’m working on my day off. You have to work extra hard and be prepared to get it done now, and not later.

“Everybody wants the ball, and I’m not going to sit here and tell you I don’t. But I don’t go into a game anticipating anything. If you don’t get the ball as many times as you think you should, then you have a letdown. I don’t think it matters what I think about where I fit in. I think what matters is what I do when I get the ball.”

When Ronnie Harmon gets the ball, it’s “film at 11.” Last week, he froze defensive back Rod Woodson with a move, and Woodson was forced to literally sit back on his heels and watch as Harmon went by untouched.

“I love to see him make opponents look bad, because he makes us look silly every day in practice,” linebacker Gary Plummer said. “All I can say is Buffalo wasn’t very smart.”

Charger opponents, meanwhile, have begun to wise up. They have doubled their coverage.

“It began at the end of last season,” he said. “They will put a linebacker or safety in the middle of the field and they will put a defensive back on the outside. What they’re doing is boxing me in. They’re saying, ‘Hey, we’re not going to give you any options. You can run straight ahead, turn around and then it will be easy to converge on you.’

“Against Pittsburgh they had No. 53 (linebacker Bryan Hinkle) and No. 27 (safety Thomas Everett) on me. They would even talk about it: ‘I got the outside; you take the inside.’ I’m not going to beat them; someone else is going to have to beat them. That’s the whole deal.”

The Chargers made it easy for Pittsburgh. They confined Harmon’s playing time to third down, and can this offense afford to keep that much talent in storage on first and second down?

Last year, Henning put together the offensive game plans, and Harmon had the ball an average of seven times a game. Henning wanted to get the ball to Harmon more this year, and now with the firing of offensive coordinator Ted Tollner, he has his chance.

“I cannot mess up on one play because I never know if I’m going to get another one,” Harmon said. “I’m a mismatch and it creates problems. I’m too big for defensive backs, and too fast for linebackers. People don’t know who to put on me, and (the Chargers) don’t know what to do with me.”

He doesn’t run the ball in practice, and he is treated like a wide receiver in the team’s game plan. However, when the Chargers were forced to start him at running back last season for an injured Marion Butts, he ran 10 times for 71 yards.

“I grew up thinking it would be an asset to catch the ball, as well as run with it,” he said. “But I was wrong.”

It’s that ability to catch the ball that makes him so valuable on third down.

“When you come in on third down you have to have that mentality to get it done right now,” he said. “There’s no second chance. Either you get into the flow of the game the moment you walk onto the field, or you don’t go into the game. Make one mistake, and that’s a chance that has been wasted. It’s now or never on third down.”

The Chargers’ anemic offense finished an astonishing fifth in the league in third-down efficiency last season behind four playoff teams (Redskins, 49ers, Raiders and Oilers). Take a bow, Ronnie Harmon.

“Shouldn’t they have a slot for third-down specialists in the Pro Bowl?” he said.

Harmon, however, would not have voted for himself last year. He said he remains upset with his inconsistent play. He recalled “five passes” he dropped, and he said there was so much more he could have done.

But then Ronnie Harmon will never vote for Ronnie Harmon. He dodges compliments as well as he does tacklers. He hides his eyes now behind a dark shield attached to his face mask, and if granted permission, he would forever hide from the spotlight.

It’s nothing personal, he said, but the world beyond football is his own. When the Chargers approached him with an innocuous questionnaire in training camp asking for such things as his favorite TV show and favorite movie, Harmon declined to respond.