Chargers Set to Deal With Joe Phillips : Pro football: Tackle says he’s ready to return to the team.

General Manager Bobby Beathard said he has serious concerns about Joe Phillips’ commitment to play football for the Chargers, but he indicated the team will probably make a contract offer to the unsigned nose tackle today.

At the same time, Phillips said Tuesday that he is willing to accept the team’s offer of $550,000, which was withdrawn last week, and possibly even less money, although he contended it would be a cut in pay from his 1991 earnings.

“I’d probably take less; I just want to play,” Phillips said. “At this point with the options that are available to me, I do want to play for the Chargers.”

Phillips estimated his pay in 1991 at $565,000 and he said he received an additional $75,000 from the team for past considerations related to his time off after suffering a severe beating outside a restaurant in 1990.

He declined to detail his reasons for demanding a trade earlier this summer, but said the Chargers’ contract offer, which would have resulted in a pay cut, was the “culmination of a lot of things, and to discuss them would just sound like belly-aching.”

Phillips asked for a one-year, $1.12-million contract before the opening of training camp, but he said he never expected the team to accept it. “That original offer was used (by the team) to portray me as a greedy (troublemaker),” he said. “The reason for that offer will become abundantly clear later on.”

The Chargers responded to the $1.12-million offer with a $550,000 proposal the day after training camp opened. It was their first and only offer to Phillips. Phillips rejected it, and through his agent, he said he would never play for the Chargers again.

“You have to understand, for the past eight weeks I’ve been operating under the assumption that I was going to be traded,” he said. “This has never been about money. This has been about playing football and Joe Phillips’ emotions and considerations.

“I let my feelings be known to Coach Bobby Ross and Bobby Beathard . . . Whether it was fault of my own, fault of the organization or the fault of previous people in the organization I had bad feelings and felt that the best thing for me was to move on and play elsewhere. But that option is gone now.”

Beathard said he has discussed Phillips’ future with Ross and his coaching staff on several occasions, and while they are “unanimously agreed in some areas,” there are still things that need to be addressed.

“I’ve never been told to this day that he wants to come back here,” Beathard said. “But if he does, why all of a sudden? Is it because he has ran out of options? That’s what bothers us.”

The Chargers have expressed concern about Phillips’ desire to play football. They said they made him available for a trade, but were told by several teams that his play in 1991 had dropped off from previous years. They now question his motivation in returning.

Phillips started 15 games last year, played in all 16, and received the team’s Ed Block Courage Award for his comeback from injuries suffered in the 1990 beating. He’s considered the strongest man on the team, and despite the team’s suggestion that he didn’t play well last year, they would have to admit he’s their best defensive tackle.

Phillips, however, has never played for Ross, and Ross comes to the Chargers from the college ranks, where they place a higher emphasis on team chemistry. In the NFL, wide receiver Michael Irvin can miss the entire training camp experience and on the second play from scrimmage he’s sent into the game and he hears applause. It happens almost everywhere in the league, but will Phillips’ presence disrupt Ross’ idea of teamwork?

“My opinion would be that there were some things Joe said to me in confidence, OK, that were a concern to me,” Ross said. “I would want to see Joe make a reasonably long-term commitment to our program. I’m talking about in excess of a year. That would be my reaction . . . I’m interested in that all the time because I like people in camp. I think that helps you as a team. I conveyed that to Bobby (Beathard) but it’s Bobby’s call.”

Beathard refused comment when asked if the Chargers would insist on a multi-year agreement with Phillips.

Phillips said, “a multi-year deal just doesn’t do it. It does not address the things that I talked to Coach Ross and Beathard about in confidence. But maybe there is some logic going on or some different approach that I don’t see. I’m willing to listen.

“I’m just ready to play. I’m strong, nasty strong. And anyone who has seen Joe Phillips knows that when he goes on the field he gives it everything he has.”

Phillips said inaccurate information has painted him the villain in this situation. He said there were reports that he rejected the team’s offer of $650,000, but he said there was never any such offer.

“There was no such offer,” Beathard agreed. “We offered him a base salary of $530,000 with a $20,000 bonus and added incentives. I saw a figure in the paper of $535,000 recently; that was wrong, too.”

Beathard withdrew the team’s offer of $550,000 last week after meeting with Phillips’ agent, John Adler. Beathard has made it clear in these dealings that he is not happy with Adler.

Adler and associate David Morway also represent defensive lineman Burt Grossman, linebacker Junior Seau and safety Floyd Fields. Adler’s success or failure in dealing with Beathard in regards to Phillips also will undoubtedly have an impact on the contract expectations of Grossman, Seau and Fields.

“There is definitely some animosity that has developed there,” Phillips said, “and I’m deeply concerned about it.”

Morway is expected to assume Adler’s role in future talks with the Chargers. Morway made three attempts to contact Beathard Tuesday, but received no response.