Chief Survivor Settling In, but for How Long? : Pro football: Vagabond quarterback Gagliano earns start for Chargers against Kansas City, the team that drafted him 11 years ago.

What about Bob? There simply is no getting rid of this guy.

The Kansas City Chiefs took Bob Gagliano in the 12th round of the NFL draft in 1981, and 11 years later he returns with the potential to haunt them as the San Diego Chargers’ starting quarterback in Sunday’s regular-season opener in San Diego.

“I’ll bet the Chiefs have thought about that a little bit,” said Les Miller, former Kansas City director of player personnel. “This is amazing; all the other guys we took in that draft are out of the game except for the 12th-rounder.”

The former Hoover High and Glendale College player won’t take a hint.

The San Francisco 49ers cut him three times. The USFL signed him and later folded. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Houston Oilers and Indianapolis Colts took a turn at telling him he was finished. The Detroit Lions left him unprotected. The Chargers signed him to park him on the bench behind Billy Joe Tolliver and John Friesz.

“We were looking for a positive influence on Billy Joe, the perennial wily veteran that could be an ideal backup,” said Billy Devaney, the Chargers’ director of player personnel. “After Billy Joe had been tainted by Jim McMahon, we were looking for somebody at the opposite end of the spectrum.”

The Chargers traded Tolliver, promoted Friesz and ignored Gagliano in 1991. He went through entire practices without taking a snap.

When Friesz went to the sideline with a season-ending knee injury in this year’s first exhibition, the message remained clear: The Chargers did not want Gagliano to leave the bench. They tried trading for the New York Giants’ Phil Simms but settled for the Washington Redskins’ Stan Humphries.

Humphries had not played since the middle of 1990, had received almost no practice time while with the Redskins and had less than three weeks to absorb the Chargers’ offense.

Gagliano completed 65% of his passes in exhibition play, did not throw an interception and led his team to scores on seven of 10 offensive series he directed.

The Chargers appeared to have no choice but to start Gagliano, but Coach Bobby Ross said after the team’s final exhibition game that he was in no position to name a starting quarterback. He remained undecided a day later, waiting two more days before officially making Gagliano the starter.

“I’m going to be real surprised if this works out for Bob,” said Buddy Steele, Gagliano’s best friend. “You’ve seen what has happened to him over the years; he’s just never gotten a break.”

When Gagliano left Hoover High, there were no college scholarship offers. He earned All-American distinction at Glendale College, but after moving on to an unpleasant experience at Southwestern Louisiana, he quit to return to California and dig ditches.

“I thought maybe this was it, the real world,” Gagliano said. “I was getting into that blue-collar deal, digging ditches, going to the bar, having a few beers and going home to sleep. I was playing ‘The Pretender’ by Jackson Browne a lot, so I was losing it.”

He returned to school, looking upon football as a diversion. On the day he enrolled in psychology classes at UCLA, he received a full scholarship to play football at U.S. International University. The following year USIU’s program was disbanded. But he received a scholarship to Utah State and attained great success until becoming a professional football nomad:

Selected by Kansas City (319th pick) in 1981 draft . . . Released by Chiefs (Aug. 25, 1981) . . . Re-signed by Chiefs (Aug. 27, 1981) . . . Signed with New Jersey Generals of USFL and traded to Chicago Blitz (Nov. 23, 1983) . . . Traded to San Antonio Gunslingers (Jan. 3, 1984) . . . Traded to Denver Gold (Feb. 13, 1984) . . . Signed as free agent by 49ers after USFL folded (Oct. 29, 1986) . . . Released by 49ers (Nov. 7, 1986) . . . Re-signed by 49ers (Nov. 13, 1986) . . . Released by 49ers (Sept. 7, 1987) . . . Re-signed by 49ers as replacement player during NFL strike (Sept. 24, 1987) . . . Released by 49ers (Aug. 9, 1988) . . . Signed by Tampa Bay (Aug. 15, 1988) . . . Released by Tampa Bay (Aug. 29, 1988) . . . Signed by Houston (Sept. 13, 1988) . . . Released by Houston (Sept. 19, 1988) . . . Signed by Indianapolis (Oct. 11, 1988) . . . Released by Indianapolis (Oct. 26, 1988) . . . Signed by Detroit (March 16, 1989) . . . Signed by San Diego via Plan B free agency (March 30, 1991).

“It’s the ugly business end of things,” Gagliano said. “I don’t know if I want to try and figure it all out. I go to Tampa, I’m there 10 days and I don’t run one of their plays. They put me in one of their preseason games, and I’m kind of pleased how I have played considering I haven’t practiced--and then they release me.

“I go to Houston and they hide me. They don’t want me talking to reporters. They are paying me under the table, if you will. I’m hidden in an apartment, throwing to Haywood Jeffires, who was trying to come back from an injury, before practice and then leaving the stadium before everyone else got there. They tell me the next day they are going to activate me, and the next day they cut me.

“The Colts claim me. Ron Meyer tells me he really likes me, says he’s going to get me an extra $100,000 and I haven’t asked for a thing. I don’t run a play. Two weeks pass and Meyer comes to me and says the owner doesn’t want to pay this kind of money, and I’m free again.”

Statisticians are still calculating his frequent-flier miles.

“This makes my resume look horrible,” Gagliano said. “It looks like I’ve gone to Houston, Tampa and Indianapolis and I’ve (failed).

“I go to Detroit--the fourth insane organization--and I’m brought there as the model on how to run the run-and-shoot so everyone else can step in and play. They have this film they show people and it mentions every quarterback but me.”

Although he will be one of the NFL’s 28 starters this weekend, he contends that his frustrating odyssey would have come to a satisfactory stop in San Francisco had former 49er Coach Bill Walsh taken a liking to him.

“People within the organization liked me, but Bill didn’t,” Gagliano said. “(My relationship with Bill) didn’t get good until after he left and did some color commentating on my Detroit games. It was, ‘Oh, I didn’t know Bob could throw that pass.’

“It’s so frustrating. I really believe I would still be there to this day if our rapport was better. The 49ers’ offense was perfect for me. I should never have left San Francisco, if all was fair.”

The 49ers re-signed Gagliano after his nightmarish journey through Tampa Bay, Houston and Indianapolis, but a little-used NFL rule required San Francisco to tear up Gagliano’s contract.

“When I was released by San Francisco I went to my mother-in-law’s house and didn’t realize I had been claimed by Tampa,” he said. “I apparently got back to Tampa an hour or two late, which made me a free agent and ineligible to return to San Francisco for two years.

“Bill had promised me I’d be there for the year, and Bill was the type who kept his promises. It cost me my salary and that year the 49ers went to the playoffs and the Super Bowl. I had guys telling me, ‘I wish you could have had a ring; you should have been there.’ I didn’t act like it was tough to watch the Super Bowl, but who was I kidding?”

Survival of the fittest. Gagliano is here, still here.

“I didn’t think he’d do this well,” Charger defensive end Burt Grossman said. “I don’t know if anybody thought he’d do this well. I told John Friesz I think he’d be the third-team quarterback if he wasn’t hurt right now.”

The Lions finished the 1989 season with Gagliano as their quarterback--and with five consecutive victories. He provided a Thanksgiving Day thrill with three touchdown passes in the Lions’ 40-27 victory over the Denver Broncos. He has had his moments .

Gagliano said things have not always been fair but isn’t going to complain.

“You hate people who bitch and whine about how things just haven’t gone well for them,” he said.

“Listen, you can curb your behavior. You can choose to look at the brighter side of things. When people ask me about what has happened, I say the right things. You have to be able to adapt to survive and make a living doing this.”

Bench him, criticize him, cut him, and he will not bite back. Ask about the controversy that swirls around the starting quarterback post, and he will deliver the appropriate cliche.

“That’s by design,” Steele said. “He’s right up front with me, but he’s told me that when anyone else wants to know about what’s going on with his football career, he’s going to say the safest thing.

“When we first met, we played Ultimate Frisbee together. It wasn’t until two or three years after I met him that I even knew he was a football player. This is someone who doesn’t take himself very seriously, and maybe you and I would be upset if someone told us we were mediocre at what we do, but not Bob. He knows what he can do, and he’s still doing it.”

When the Chargers traded for Humphries, quarterback Jeff Graham went into a slump. Like Gagliano, he thought he had a chance to become the team’s starter, but knowing NFL politics he suspected that the job would be handed to Humphries. The Chargers released Graham.

“Gagliano is cool; just (take) his reaction when we traded for Humphries,” Devaney said. “He reacted the way we have come to expect him to react--with class. He’s the consummate pro. He accepted it, but didn’t back down an inch. He doesn’t get flustered by anything.

“If there is anyone who has the chance to say, ‘I told you so,’ it’s this Bob. But you’ll never hear that from him.”

Gagliano defied popular opinion and left Humphries behind. Gagliano will celebrate his 34th birthday today--the day before he makes his 13th start in the NFL.

He said he has the ability to drive the Chargers to success, but let’s be honest, he said, “Is a 34-year-old quarterback the future for the Chargers? I’m the oldest guy on the team, and I’ve been around enough to know that these sort of things figure in.”

The competitive fires, though, continue to smolder.

“I’m not out to prove to the world I could have been a contender, but I want success,” he said. “I dream about it. . . . I’d like to do more than just survive. There’s no better feeling than getting the start and the glory. It’s a great thing.”

It could be short-lived, however, what with the Chargers’ fascination in Humphries’ potential. An interception, a loss, and they will be telling Gagliano again to take a hike. Go ahead and make his day: Others have tried, but no one has been able to deliver the knockout punch. “I thought about quitting after I left Kansas City and went to the USFL,” he said. “And there have been times in the off-season where I say I’m going to play one more year and retire. But then . . . I could be back digging ditches.”