Chargers’ Friesz Out for the Season : Football: Quarterback to undergo knee surgery. Chargers might try to get Giants’ Simms.
Charger quarterback John Friesz leaned forward on his crutches, his left knee encased in an ankle-to-thigh brace, and he confirmed the worst.
“They tell me I tore an anterior cruciate ligament and a medial collateral ligament and they will operate (today) at 9:30 a.m.,” he said. “I’m done for the rest of the year.”
Are the Chargers also finished in 1992?
“There’s no way this season is over,” Coach Bobby Ross insisted. “No way. I’m confident we can still put together a very competitive season . . . we’re going to buckle our chin straps and go back to work.”
The Chargers will go back to practice today with Bob Gagliano as their starting quarterback. A club spokesman said team policy does not allow for season ticket refunds.
“Certainly Bob is the starting quarterback right now,” Ross said. “I think we’ve got to find out some things about Bob in that role. You know sometimes people rise to an occasion when they get an opportunity.”
While Ross has a five-year contract and faith in Gagliano, he said the team should keep looking for additional help at the quarterback position.
“I think we need to discuss it and investigate it, yeah, I do,” Ross said. “ . . . My inclination would be to try and find someone who is fairly established.”
Hello, Phil Simms.
General Manager Bobby Beathard cited the league’s tampering regulations and declined to specifically discuss Simms’ situation with the Giants, but it is known the Chargers have placed Simms at the top of their wish list.
The Chargers talked to the Giants about Simms before this year’s NFL draft and reportedly had a March 13th meeting arranged with him before it was canceled. The asking price of a second-round pick for a 36-year-old quarterback was deemed too high at the time.
The Chargers also made a pitch for Washington quarterback Stan Humphries on draft day, but poor communication between the teams sabotaged the process. The Redskins still want to unload Humphries, but Washington’s front office is no longer exchanging Christmas cards with the Charger brass.
The Giants signed Simms to a new contract and indicated that they no longer had any interest in trading him. However, the Giants now have an overload of talent at quarterback, and may be inclined to reconsider.
In addition to starter Jeff Hostetler, Simms and Jeff Carlson, who was signed on Plan B from Tampa Bay, the Giants used a 1993 first-round pick in the NFL’s supplemental draft last month to select Duke quarterback Dave Brown.
“I have nothing to say about our quarterbacks,” said George Young, Giant general manager.
On July 17, Giant Coach Ray Handley, however, said, “If I were coaching another football team and I lost my quarterback early in the year, one of the first teams that I would think of coming to, to free up a quarterback, would be the New York Giants. Consequently, if that situation presents itself we have to be prepared for that.”
Beathard said the team has discussed the possibility of trying to obtain another quarterback, “but it’s tough to just go get a quarterback,” he said. “There aren’t even 28 quarterbacks to go around who are capable of taking their team to the playoffs.”
Simms, however, took the Giants to the playoffs and a Super Bowl victory and he’s sitting on the bench in New York.
“I don’t know if they will bring in another quarterback or not,” Friesz said, “but I have a lot of confidence in Gagliano. I think he can do a lot with some work. He got kind of an unfair shake when he had to go in for me last year. I was literally getting 30 of the 32 team plays in practice and he hadn’t gotten any work.”
Gagliano, 33, has played in 27 NFL games with a 7-5 mark as a starter since being selected in the 12th round of the 1981 draft by Kansas City. He completed 9 of 23 passes for 76 yards with an interception in two relief appearances for the Chargers last season.
“I know I can do it; I’ve done it before,” Gagliano said. “I’m just going to go out and do my thing. I know that I don’t have a million more years left, so I’m just trying to make the most of it.”
Beathard said the team will march on with Gagliano, but he also likes the work of Jeff Graham and Pat O’Hara. Both lack experience, although Graham is considered a step ahead of O’Hara.
This season was going to be dedicated to Friesz’s development before Saturday night’s disaster. In the first half of the Cardinals’ 35-14 exhibition victory, linebacker Ken Harvey rolled low into Friesz and put him out for the year.
“I’m trying to stay as positive as I can, but there isn’t a lot to be positive about,” Friesz said. “It’s very frustrating because I think I can honestly say I was the person on the team that was looking forward to the season the most. Beathard and I walked off the field together after pregame warmups, and I told him, ‘I’m excited. I’ve been waiting for this since the last day of the season.’ ”
Dr. Gary Losse, who has worked on the knees of Kellen Winslow, Rod Bernstine and Mark Vlasic, will perform arthroscopic surgery on Friesz at the Frost Street Surgical Center.
“If it’s exactly what they think it is,” Friesz said, “then Bernstine had the same thing and he hasn’t had any problems.”
Bernstine suffered a serious knee injury in December 1988 and returned to play in five games in 1989. He has become one of the premier running backs in the game the past two seasons and has reported no problems with his knee.
“I sat down and talked with John and as young as he is, this shouldn’t be a problem,” Bernstine said. “It’s a long road, but nothing that can’t be overcome.”