Henning Says He Saw His Firing Coming : Chargers: Team’s poor start, incident with Spanos make move inevitable. Beathard vows to hire a new coach by early January.

Dan Henning got the message after last season: It was going to take a miracle performance in 1991 for him to keep his job.

Henning, who was fired as head coach of the Chargers along with his entire staff Monday after compiling a 16-32 record, said he was put on notice when General Manager Bobby Beathard failed to win for him a one-year contract extension from team owner Alex Spanos.

On Henning’s insistence, each of his assistant coaches was offered a one-year contract extension beyond 1991 as a hedge against the uncertainty surrounding their jobs.

Henning expected similar consideration from Spanos, but he was advised later there would be no financial guarantees beyond this season.

“My coaches had more security than I had,” said Henning, who will receive a lump-sum severance payoff. “I knew it then . . .”

An 0-5 start in 1991 and a run-in with tempestuous owner Alex Spanos in late September sealed his fate.

Shortly after the Chargers’ 14-13 loss Sept. 29 to Kansas City, Spanos walked in on a Henning staff meeting and demanded answers for the team’s poor start. When Spanos refused to accept the explanations, Henning advised Spanos that he and his staff had work to do.

Spanos declined comment through a club spokesman Monday, but Henning said that Spanos took offense to his treatment in the meeting, and with the exception of a brief accidental meeting outside the team’s executive offices two weeks ago, that was the last time Spanos talked with him.

“I knew what was going on,” Henning said, “but I was very, very determined to keep everything together and not crack.”

The Chargers did not always win under Henning’s direction, but they did not buckle. They followed the example of their focused leader, and despite being knocked out of the playoffs with half the season to play, they did not pack their bags early.

“I hurt because I’ve lost my job, but I hurt more for Dan,” said tight end coach Ed White. “He’s a great guy, and I really feel like he could have been a great coach.”

In Beathard’s final analysis, however, there were simply not enough victories to reward good effort and maintain the status quo.

“The bottom line, as is always, if you don’t win then they make a change,” Henning said. “I think the bottom line is what has come down here, and I have no argument with that--we haven’t won.”

Henning replaced Al Saunders in 1989, inherited a 6-10 football team and then went 6-10, 6-10 and 4-12. His downfall: A 6-22 record in games decided by seven or fewer points, including a 17-14 loss Sunday to Denver.

Beathard talked to Henning on the telephone Sunday night, and upon Henning’s prodding, he informed him that he would not be retained.

“He said, “Was it your decision or Spanos?’ ” Beathard said. “I said, ‘Mine.’ ”

Beathard met Monday morning with Henning and then announced the firing at an afternoon press conference at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

“It was a very tough emotional decision,” said Beathard. “My relationship with Dan goes back a long ways. I’ve never been around an offensive coach that is as good as Dan. I think the working relationship we had was very good.

“Dan took it like a man. Dan’s sometimes difficult to read, but I know it hurt because I know how badly he wants to be a successful head coach. He had two tries, and if you’re looked upon as somebody who hasn’t succeeded, I guess you take it pretty tough. And I think he did.

“Maybe some of this is my responsibility for not giving him what a guy needs to be successful. I don’t know, but sooner or later you have to make a decision. . . . This is the hardest decision by far that I’ve had to make in football.”

After Henning was fired as head coach in Atlanta with a 22-41-1 record, he declined to talk with the media. Henning, however, has been both accommodating and straight-forward in his dealings with the media in San Diego. Monday was no different.

He thanked the team’s public relations staff, video department, secretaries, equipment and training room staffs and the fans, who bought tickets to watch his team play.

“I will say this about the time I’ve been here, I’ve basically coached three different football teams,” Henning said. “We’ve had a great many players on the active roster, three different quarterbacks, and only three or four offensive players that were here when I got here. We have a limited number of defensive players that were here when I got here.

“The players have worked and practiced and prepared, and I think it can be said, that in every game they played until the end. They gave 100% and I think that has a great deal to do with coaching. I think that has a great deal to do with the head coach and the assistant coaches.

“I also think it has a great deal to do with those players. Whether they are good enough, or whether we were all good enough, may never be known because the team will turn over again.”

The Chargers have been ravaged by change since Spanos assumed controlling interest in 1984, and they have not advanced to the playoffs since 1982. They have sought stability in the hiring of Beathard, but the foundation has yet to be set.

“It’s been a struggle from stem to stern,” Henning said. “It’s been very difficult to stay focused under the conditions that we’ve been dealt.

“But business is business, and if Bobby doesn’t think I can get it done, then he’s got to make that decision. I don’t have to agree with it, but there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Henning said he’s not sure he will remain in coaching, but it’s known he will have the chance to join Bill Parcells, if Parcells accepts the top job in Green Bay or Tampa Bay.

“I will have opportunities to coach,” he said. “But I had one goal when I came here and that was to win as a head football coach. It’s very disappointing to me not to continue to have that opportunity.”

Henning’s supporters believe he has been victimized by circumstances beyond his control. He went to battle in Atlanta without a proven player at quarterback, and it undermined his performance as a head coach.

He came to San Diego and started Jim McMahon at quarterback in 1989, Mark Vlasic in 1990 and John Friesz in 1991. And he worked hard to develop Billy Joe Tolliver, who was traded to Atlanta at the start of this season.

“Since I came here we have not had an incoming trade of any significance,” Henning said. “That’s in three years. We’ve had a number of outgoing trades of significance (Pro Bowl running back Gary Anderson and Pro Bowl defensive end Lee Williams). We’ve gotten rid of a great many players who have gone on and played in the league and have replaced them with players that are younger and newer.

“The turnover factor is critical to a football team when you have 45 active players. The longer we’ve had a player, the better he has played.”

In the past six years, the Chargers have gone through four general managers and three head coaches. They soon will hire another head coach. Given such a track record, Henning was asked, can any one win here?

“I don’t believe any organization can win consistently with the changes we’ve made over the last three years,” he said.

Henning’s record, the owner’s impatience and the decision to raise season ticket prices next year, however, have mandated this change.

“Dan’s a great guy to work with,” Beathard said, “but when the season ended up like this, I think there was no other way to go.”

After Beathard dismissed Henning he began meeting with each of his players to explain the move. He told the players he hopes to have a new head coach hired by the end of the first week in January, and he advised them that NFL rules allow a new head coach to conduct two mini-camps before to the opening of training camp.

“Immediately following Christmas, I will go full speed to come up with a final person as Dan’s replacement,” Beathard said. “We’re not going to go through a long interview process. The list is limited, and it will be done in much the same way it was done in Washington.”

When Beathard hired Joe Gibbs to replace a fired Jack Pardee in Washington in 1981, he talked with four candidates, although he had decided early on to offer the job to Gibbs.

Beathard’s top choice to replace Henning remains Georgia Tech coach Bobby Ross, but the Chargers have also taken a long look at Miami head coach Dennis Erickson and San Francisco 49ers’ offensive coordinator Mike Holmgren.

Spanos is known to have suggested Florida head coach Steve Spurrier, but Spurrier is locked into an attractive contract.

“Mr. Spanos has left the decision to me,” Beathard said, “as he did the decision to relieve Dan of his position and responsibilities here.

“The question has come up, when you make a change, you’re starting over. If you look at change that way, then you never make a change. I think that’s a negative way to look at it. I look at it just the opposite. I think that making the change gives you the hope of coming back at a higher level.”

Beathard said there are no NFL head coaches on his shopping list, and it does not matter if his final choice has a strong bent toward offense or defense. “It doesn’t matter,” he said, “as long as he’s a leader.”

He said the new coach will not be asked to run the same big-back offensive system that has been in place under Henning or the sack-happy defense run by defensive coordinator Ron Lynn. “That’s overrated,” Beathard said. “The guy is going to bring his system in; look at some of the successful coaches now, they’re pretty adaptable. He’s not going to be told what system to run.”

Beathard said he prefers a coach with previous NFL experience, “but it doesn’t have to be (that way). If there’s someone special without it--Jimmy Johnson (Dallas) has been a good example of that. But it won’t be Jimmy Johnson.”

REACTION TO THE DISMISSAL: Dan Henning’s staff and players agree that his firing reflects the harsh reality of wins and losses. C4