Chargers Mounting a Fight--Internally : Football: Locker room scuffle is the latest sign of decay for 1-7 team.
Those crazy, crazy Chargers. They’re not only getting beat each week, but now that they have reached the midway mark of another forgettable season, they have taken to beating on each other.
The Chargers aren’t saying much about linebacker Leslie O’Neal’s halftime locker room attack Sunday on linebacker coach Mike Haluchak, but Coach Dan Henning’s increasing disenchantment with O’Neal has become very obvious.
This would not appear to be a good time, however, for Henning to suggest: “One of us has got to go.”
In the past week, though:
* Henning singled out O’Neal in front of the team and asked him to leave if his heart was no longer in it.
* Henning called a team meeting after reading O’Neal’s and Burt Grossman’s critical comments in The Times, and announced he would fine each player 20% of their salary if they made any further disparaging comments about the team or its coaching staff.
* Henning slapped a fine--reportedly $15,000--on O’Neal for his halftime scuffle with Haluchak.
“It’s disappointing it got out in the paper,” Henning said. “I’m not going to discuss what takes place in our locker room. That’s our business. That’s our private business.”
Henning acted like an aspiring Trappist Monk when quizzed about O’Neal’s scuffle with Haluchak. He went silent when asked if O’Neal has been fined, remained mum when asked if there was even an incident and offered no response when asked how the information leaked to the media.
Danny Sheridan, an oddsmaker for USA Today and CNN, broke the story on nationwide radio Wednesday night, and USA Today made mention Thursday morning.
“My guy told me that bodies and Gatorade were flying everywhere; it was a mini-riot,” Sheridan said Thursday. “I’m told that O’Neal was fined $15,000.
“You can imagine the disruption; the way I hear it 10 of the 12 or so minutes they have to make halftime adjustments were used on this.”
The Cleveland Browns broke loose after scoring three points in the first half and went on to post a 30-24 victory in overtime.
Witnesses said that Haluchak came charging into the locker room at halftime looking for linebacker Henry Rolling, who had been tagged with a last-minute face mask penalty. The penalty helped set up a tying field goal on the final play of the second quarter.
A similar penalty against Rolling in the closing moment of first-half action against the 49ers earlier this season, led to a San Francisco touchdown.
“He was a wild man and he was screaming, ‘Where’s Henry Rolling? Where is he?’ ” said one witness to the event. “Out of nowhere Leslie grabbed Hack (Haluchak) by the neck and began choking him with both hands. He pushed him and then shoved him against a locker.
“Leslie cussed him out and shouted at Hack that if he ever bad mouthed a player who was busting his butt on the field again he’d kill him.”
Witnesses said it took three players to pull O’Neal off Haluchak.
“No comment,” Haluchak said. “Those are team things and we just don’t have comments on things that involve the team. I can’t help you any more than that.”
O’Neal, a two-time choice to play in the Pro Bowl, was uncharacteristically evasive when approached by the media Thursday.
“No comment,” said O’Neal before being asked a question. “I know what you’re going to ask, and I’m not going to comment on it.
“I won’t comment on anything that happens during halftime, during the first part of a game, the last part of a game, in practice or anything like that. If there are guys in this organization that want to do that, then I think that’s something Dan Henning and Bobby Beathard and those guys have to go out and stop. If that kind of stuff leaks out, where’s the security of this team.”
It was suggested to O’Neal that this wasn’t exactly Pentagon-like business, but he declined to say if he was fined, involved in an incident with Haluchak or chastised by Henning.
Grossman, however, confirmed the incident took place. “Yeah, I was sitting right here and it happened right there,” Grossman said. “I witnessed it. Everybody in this locker room saw it.”
Other players, however, were not so observant:
Linebacker Galand Thaxton: “Damn, I guess when you lose, they just write any old thing in the paper.”
Linebacker Gary Plummer: “We have parties every week in here at halftime. But I don’t remember anything like that (scuffle). I go to the training room at halftime to heal; if something happened, my memory has faded.”
Linebacker Junior Seau: “I don’t know what happened. I know there was a little argument here, but I was in the training room. I really was.”
Linebacker Henry Rolling: “Whatever you guys heard could be true, but I was in the training room.”
It had to be standing room only in the training room.
“We’re under strict instructions not to say a word about it,” said nose ackle Joe Phillips.
Information about the tussle, however, leaked out. And how do you stop such a leak?
“How do you stop Niagara Falls?” Henning replied.
“I think Dan handled it the best way,” Beathard said. “It was between Dan and the team. I don’t think it’s something that lingered. I think it’s behind them. It’s a media thing right now.”
Eight more games to go, and although the Chargers have tried unsuccessfully to bury Sunday’s scuffle, it appears the Chargers are cracking under the frustration.
They don’t want O’Neal and Grossman to talk, the head coach has never overcome his losing record, they can’t get Anthony Miller to catch, or Anthony Shelton to cover, and this coaching staff now realizes it will be out of work by Christmas.
The players have played hard and they have used it as their badge of honor, but they are paid a lot of money to work hard 16 Sundays a year. And win.
The Chargers (1-7) however, continue to lose. They are pegged to lose again Sunday in the Kingdome in Seattle.
They have gone 13-27 under Henning, and they have dropped those 27 games by an average of 7.7 points. They are 4-19 in games decided by seven or fewer points during Henning’s tenure, and they have lost those contests by an average of 4.2 points.
“I’ll tell you,” Beathard said, “Dan’s a great guy. I would still like to see what Dan could do if everything were just right. He’s a helluva coach; I really feel bad. I really do.”
Charger fans must feel badly, too. They haven’t watched the Chargers advance to the playoffs since 1982. Since getting fired up during the 1987 NFL strike, when the Chargers jumped out to an 8-1 start, the team has compiled a 19-43 record. Indianapolis has a 28-34 record in that same span of time; New England has gone 22-39.
It isn’t November yet, and the Chargers don’t have to concern themselves with the playoffs once again. More losses are expected, a new head coach is on the horizon, more changes and no guarantees.
“Any time a team is 1-7, the frustration comes out in different ways,” Beathard said. “I think people are waiting for this team to fall apart, but they haven’t let it happen. That’s one of the things that still gives you hope. The team is still together, and they still want to win.”
Said O’Neal: “I think there are a lot of frustrations going on with this ballclub. I look at Gill Byrd and Billy Ray Smith and they’ve been here longer than me and they’ve never gone to a playoff game.
“Now I’m starting to think, do I want to be in my eighth year and not be going to a playoff game? I want to be a a guy who came in this league and made plays and was on a winning team. I’m just trying to change things; I’m trying to make this a winning team.”
Times Staff Writer Dave McKibben contributed to this report.