A PILGRIM’S PROGRESS : Amid Chargers’ Woes, Friesz Stays the Course

A blind date with the Raiders in the Coliseum failed to raise his pulse in his initial NFL start last season.

And when it came time for John Friesz to acknowledge his startling overnight promotion to Charger starting quarterback this year, he did so with an “Oh, OK,” speech that could be used as a prescription for insomnia.

“As you know, Billy Ray (Smith) and I can dish it out pretty good; it takes about two or three minutes, and we can get under the skin of just about anybody,” linebacker Gary Plummer said. “But I don’t know what it is about this guy; you can’t shake him. He’s unflappable.”

A Kansas City helmet to the chin drew blood and stitches, but nary a whimper from John Friesz. A misguided overtime pass against Cleveland, which resulted in his team’s defeat, was discussed in the same unemotional tone that was used to detail his winning exploits against the Raiders.

Hit him, tease him, pinch him. It doesn’t appear as if John Friesz is about to shake, rattle and roll for anyone.

“He’s from Idaho,” punter John Kidd said. “Maybe he just doesn’t get any of it.”

Oh, he gets it, all right. Amid the rubble of a 1-8 football season, John Friesz has gotten the message: He is being looked upon as this organization’s foundation for future success.

“I know this town is very hungry for somebody to replace Dan Fouts,” Friesz said, “but I’m not going to let all that get to me.

“I probably hear it once a week. ‘Good job, John, it took Fouts a couple of years, too.’ It’s ‘Fouts this’ and ‘Fouts that.’ But I think fans have to realize there was only one Fouts here, and there have been only a few guys that have ever played the game like he did.

“You’re talking about a select group of guys when you mention his name, and most teams don’t have guys like that. Most organizations have never had a guy like that. So you have to almost forget him, although people in San Diego will never be able to forget him. But to expect every quarterback that comes after him to be as good as he was is unrealistic.”

Life after Fouts in quarterback-poor San Diego has produced a who’s who of also-rans. The fickle future that belonged to Mark Herrmann, Mark Vlasic and Billy Joe Tolliver has been passed to John Friesz.

“He’s here to stay,” Plummer said. “We’ve been saying for the last couple of years we’re just a couple of players away and the most important player that has been away has been the quarterback. But now that he’s here and in place, it’s something to count on for the next 10 years.”

How starved are the Chargers for a glimpse of success? The Chargers have taken inspiration in a sixth-round draft pick from the University of Idaho, who has compiled a 1-9 mark as a starter in the NFL.

“Billy Joe gave us that same encouragement and he was doing well,” cornerback Gill Byrd said. “But I think it’s positive what has happened so far with John. We’ve been rebuilding and it’s the same old story, but it’s time to stop tearing things down. My only concern as a nine-year veteran is how long can I hold on to see it all happen?”

Friesz’s friendly demeanor and cooperative spirit inspire support. He has already become a favorite of front-office employees, who have seen so many players come and go, and the stack of thank-you notes in his personnel file speak to his impact on the local community.

“He has a look on his face that doesn’t really change,” linebacker Billy Ray Smith said. “It can be the first play of the game or the final two minutes. I think he has an overdeveloped sense of that for his age. He’s pretty far ahead of the game.”

Outside of Idaho and San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, though, introductions remain in order.

“Never heard of him before he came here,” linebacker Leslie O’Neal said. “He looks all right to me, but he has to win some games for people to say this is the guy we’re going to hang our hat on.

“We’ve been living with this potential stuff for the last three, four and five years, and basically we have died from it.”

Two years ago, Tolliver was the fans’ choice to replace Jim McMahon and lead the Chargers to prosperity. The Chargers went 4-6 under Tolliver initially, and were 7-7 with him in command before disaster became Tolliver’s constant companion.

“We were hearing that Billy Joe was the guy for the future, and you see what happened there,” right tackle Broderick Thompson said. “At this point in time you don’t know what’s going to happen around here. We’re 1-8 and we don’t know if this group is going to be together. All we know is that he’s the guy for the rest of this year.”

Know this, too: Friesz is General Manager Bobby Beathard’s quarterback, and Beathard isn’t going anywhere.

“John’s passed every test that’s been given so far and I think that makes him special,” Beathard said. “Who knows what the future holds? But so far from what I’ve seen, I don’t look at our team as having a quarterback problem.

“You look at the quarterback position, and what was once a liability is now an asset. How valuable an asset it becomes, I don’t know. But I really like John Friesz.”

Beathard passed on nine other quarterbacks before opening the sixth round with the selection of Friesz. Weber State passed on Friesz four years earlier and came to regret it.

“I got a letter from Weber State when I was coming out of high school that said, no thanks, they weren’t interested in recruiting me,” Friesz said. “It became a big motivational thing for me each time I played them; I wanted to prove their coaches wrong.”

Friesz threw a total of 13 touchdown passes in guiding Idaho to three consecutive victories over Weber State. Now he takes aim on those who bypassed him in the NFL.

“I think he’s an ultimate ‘can’t-miss’ as a major franchise quarterback,” said Friesz’s agent Leigh Steinberg, who represents 18 NFL quarterbacks. “He will succeed as long as people are willing to prioritize, and understand the important thing is to have 8-10 years of top quarterback play out of him as opposed to having a tremendous victory this Sunday.

“It takes time. Remember, it’s been a long time since San Diego experienced the maturation of a quarterback. Compare him to the early days of Dan Fouts.”

Fouts, a third-round pick from the University of Oregon, opened his NFL career with a 1-8-1 mark as a starter.

“I watched him play when I was growing up and it was just amazing,” Friesz said. “He’d throw for a ton of yards all the time and it looked like he shouldn’t. He didn’t look like a traditional athlete and he kind of looked a little out of place. That’s how I’ve always been, too.”

Friesz is 6-feet-4, and skinny and slow. He was a gangly but impressive baseball player in his hometown of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and he might have passed on a football scholarship had it not been for a back injury that sabotaged his junior season.

“I think he would have been a real good pitcher,” said his father, Mel Friesz. “He won both games for his team in the Little League Western Regionals in San Bernardino as the starting pitcher when he was 12, and the team finished sixth, which is Idaho’s best-ever finish.”

Friesz laughed at his father’s recollection of his Little League days. “Second batter I faced in those Western Regionals was a girl and she drilled a single right back at me up the middle,” he said. “She was a girl, but she was good.”

Friesz was fifth-string quarterback for the junior varsity football team, and started only his senior season in football for Coeur d’Alene High School. Friesz led his high school team through an undefeated season, and then went on to dominate the record books at Idaho.

“What are we, 1-8?” Friesz said. “I never lost eight games in three years of college and a year of starting in high school combined. Throw in eight of my worst games into a single year and it’s something that’s extremely difficult to accept. I’m sick of it.”

The losses, however, have not been pinned on Friesz. He has been allowed to learn, and so far he has received an exemption from frustrated fans and media.

“He’s probably in a honeymoon period, but I think because he’s so solid as a person that this is somebody you can build a team around,” said Jack Reilly, the team’s quarterbacks coach. “When Tolliver replaced McMahon he had immediate success so there were high expectations right after that.

“Those kind of expectations can cause impatience with a young quarterback. People expected Bill to be more like a fifth- or sixth-year quarterback rather than a guy who played in only 18 games.”

Friesz was waiting in the wings to replace Tolliver, which also complicated Tolliver’s life. There is no young upstart waiting to replace Friesz. Friesz is the future.

“I remember Ted Tollner talking after a preseason game earlier this year,” Friesz said. “He was very intense and disappointed in how the offense was playing and disappointed in Billy Joe. He said, ‘All of us coaches are on the line, and Billy Joe, you’re on the line.’ Then he looked at me and said, ‘It’s something you haven’t experienced yet; there’s a buffer zone there for you. But it’s coming.’

“I don’t feel any pressure at this point; everybody’s been pretty realistic. But there are similarities with Billy Joe. He had a couple of 300-yard games at the end of his rookie year and he was the future and he didn’t live up to it the next year. If I continue to improve, people are going to expect a lot more next year.”

Tolliver went 2-3 his rookie season, threw for more than 300 yards twice, and had Coach Dan Henning singing his praises.

“The guy who was here before John had all the expectations and they hindered him,” nose tackle Joe Phillips said. “The quarterback starts to play well and people start banging his drum and fans get excited and to an extent we get excited. People become short-sighted and don’t recognize there’s a period of adjustment.”

Friesz had no time to adjust. He started his first game against the Raiders after running the scout team the first 16 weeks of the season. He started the first game this season without the benefit of having played against a first-string defense in exhibition season play.

Despite such handicaps, he has made rapid improvement. He has completed 54% of his passes, thrown for eight touchdowns and has had eight passes intercepted. His teammates are beginning to take notice. Statistics show the Chargers’ offense has climbed to No. 8 in the league.

“He’s taking control of the huddle,” Thompson said with a wink. “Sometimes he yells, but he doesn’t have the most manly voice that would command immediate attention. However, I think he has gained everyone’s respect.”

Tolliver rallied the troops with earthy good humor and a fiery temperament, but Friesz comes on like an altar boy who has taken a vow of silence. No speeches. No rallying cries. No pronouncements.

“Billy Joe was certainly a dynamic leader, so John almost has the ideal personality to step into the situation that he faced,” said John Dunn, the team’s strength and conditioning coach. “There are very few people who can be as charismatic as Billy Joe, and for anybody to try and be like Billy Joe, they were going to have problems. John’s just a quiet guy who goes out and does it, and that makes him a leader in his own way.”

His teammates have watched him take a licking in the pocket and return to the huddle to do battle. They have watched him make big plays, and they have seen him stand poised with the game on the line and time running out.

“When I first looked at him he reminded me of Bambi,” veteran guard Mark May said. “He was real fragile and young and didn’t have that aura of confidence. But the way he has stayed in there has shown me a lot.

“I don’t want to jump on his bandwagon too early; it’s his first year. But I think he’s done a terrific job and made great leaps and bounds.”

The only thing that has kept his teammates from an uncompromising embrace, has been the team’s record. Friesz has yet to carry the Chargers on his arm.

“I’ve never felt like this kid that fell off the potato truck,” Friesz said, “but I haven’t really been in a lot of big-time situations yet. Everybody was concerned how I would stand up to the hitting, and so was I, because I’ve never been hit by a bunch of 300-pound people.”

Like Fouts, Friesz gets up after being whacked by the opposition’s biggest players.

“He’s shown he’s tough enough to stand in there and not have his play affected by physical contact,” Henning said. “He’s shown the ability to be accurate. He’s handled himself with the players, the coaches and the press on a very steady basis. Those are traits you don’t know about until you get into the heat of the battle.

“He’s an extremely even-keeled person. Sometimes in practice you’d think he was sleepwalking. But now I see a rise, and you wouldn’t see it unless you’re around him every day, in his approach during the game. His thought process has become visibly speeded up during a game.

“He’s not going to make any yards for you running the ball. . . . But he has a fine memory, a good grasp of the game plan. . . . I’ll tell you, I think he’s a player.”

The Chargers prepared a film of Joe Montana, John Unitas and Joe Namath at work for Friesz’s benefit, “and he wanted to know, what does that have to do with me?” said Reilly with a laugh. “He thought it was good memorabilia.”

Friesz turned down the opportunity to wear No. 12, No. 14 and No. 7 in high school. They were too popular, he said, he wanted his own number, and so he became No. 17.

“It excites me to watch those guys (top quarterbacks) because I know I’m not there,” Friesz said, “but I think I can get there. I’m looking forward to getting the repetitions and eventually being like one of those guys.”

Friesz credits Tollner, the team’s former offensive coordinator, with dedicating so many hours of extra work to his development. He has also received support from veteran Bob Gagliano, and he said Henning’s keen mind for offense has allowed him to progress at such a rapid but consistent pace.

“I understand that obviously the bottom line is production for a head coach,” Friesz said. “For a head coach the No. 1 thing is wins, and it’s basically the same thing for me.

“Dan knows if we don’t start winning he’s going to get fired. But I don’t want him to get fired. He’s done everything that he can do; he’s put us in situations to be successful.”

Friesz has been the good pupil. He had trouble taking a five-step drop and releasing the ball on time when he joined the Chargers, but he’s getting better. He’s struggled with play-fakes, because they have forced him to turn his back on the defense and lose sight of what is transpiring down the field, but extra work in practice has helped.

“He’s also learning there’s a certain pasture--two or three yards wide--that he will have to roam in for many years behind the line of scrimmage,” Reilly said. “He’s not a scrambler, but he can sidestep the rush. He’ll have to learn to succeed in that little patch of grass, just as Fouts did.”

Fouts and Friesz share a bond--a lack of mobility. Line them up in the end zone and have them race to the other end of the field, and babies will grow and become teen-agers before they finish. Fouts compensated for his lack of mobility with a lightning release and Hall of Fame sense of timing. Friesz is learning.

“You can’t compare him to Fouts because Fouts was great,” Beathard said. “But this guy has a feel in the pocket that many of the great ones have had. He has great natural awareness.”

You can’t compare him to Fouts, but Friesz probably will become the featured player in the Chargers’ marketing plans for 1992. But don’t look for the team to splash his mug across the front of their pocket schedules.

They did that with linebacker Chip Banks and he didn’t return the following year. They did it with running back Gary Anderson and he never played for the Chargers again. They did it with running back Marion Butts and he held out of training camp. If they do it with Friesz, they should know that his contract expires at the end of this season.

“You can tell the fans they have my absolute guarantee that he’ll be there next year,” Steinberg said. “John is negotiating his own contract week by week as he improves on the field. And we will never confuse what he is to be compensated with the importance of remaining the starting quarterback.”

The future gets brighter by the day. The Chargers have their quarterback, and he said money, “will never be an issue. I’ll definitely be here in July.”

Print up those schedules, and wait until next year.

“I hate the word ‘potential,’ ” Gagliano said. “But I ask, ‘What’s Friesz doing?’ He’s showing everyone he’s going to do it and get the job done. And I’ll tell you, watch him, he’ll be a force in this league for years to come.”

First 10 Quarterbacks Picked in 1990 Draft

Pick Name (College) NFL Team Att Comp Yds Pct TD 1 Jeff George (Illinois) Colts 627 368 3918 58.8% 19 7 Andre Ware (Houston) Lions 30 13 164 43.3% 1 59 Tommy Hodson (LSU) Patriots 224 121 1313 54% 5 63 Peter Tom Willis (Fla. State) Bears 20 14 172 70% 1 70 Neil O’Donnell (Maryland) Steelers 116 64 855 55.2% 5 84 Troy Taylor (California) Jets 17 10 104 58.8% 2 86 Cary Conklin (Washington) Redskins * 93 Scott Mitchell (Utah) Dolphins * 135 Craig Kupp (Pacific Lutheran) Giants ** 138 John Friesz (Idaho) Chargers 322 173 1863 53.7% 9

Pick Int 1 20 7 2 59 9 63 1 70 4 84 1 86 93 135 138 9

* Has not played ** Released