Beuerlein Still Waits for Bidder

So this is free agency, Steve Beuerlein said to himself as he stood in an otherwise empty baggage claim area in an otherwise empty Logan Airport, staring at a clock that had just struck half past midnight.

An hour earlier, Beuerlein’s late-night flight from Phoenix had landed in Boston, where officials from the New England Patriots were expected to commence with the obligatory wining, dining and sucking up. They were expected to be intense about it, too. Beuerlein is a quarterback by profession, and last season, New England’s quarterbacks went by the names of Hugh Millen, Scott Zolak, Tommy Hodson and Jeff Carlson.

“I come out of the gate,” Beuerlein says, “and nobody’s there. I go down to baggage claim, get my bags, and nobody’s there.

“So I wait. It’s 12:15, I’m the last guy in the baggage claim and, still, nobody. No signs. No car waiting. Nothing.

“It’s 12:30 and I’m saying, ‘Geez, there’s no other person in this airport. They couldn’t have missed me.’ Finally, I go out, hail a cab and tell the driver to take me to the nicest hotel in town, and we’re putting it on the Patriots.”

Suffice it to say, Beuerlein did not sign with the Patriots.

In fact, Beuerlein has not signed with anyone, nearly two months since the NFL’s Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, and that’s a sight no less curious than Reggie White wearing Packer green.

According to the catalogue description, Beuerlein was the best free-agent quarterback on the lot. Strong engine under the hood. Low odometer reading, thanks to Al Davis and Troy Aikman. Has handled well on test drives. For the right buyer, a high-mileage bargain.

But so far, Beuerlein has found free-agency strikingly similar to backup quarterbacking. Sitting and waiting, the same old deal.

Lately, Beuerlein has been sitting and waiting for Joe Montana. Kansas City or Phoenix. Phoenix or Kansas City. Wherever Montana doesn’t go, Beuerlein becomes the consolation prize.

“I hate being in the position of being the guy who goes to whatever team doesn’t get Joe Montana,” Beuerlein submits, “but if I’ve got to play second fiddle to anybody, after all Joe has accomplished, I think I can deal with that.”

Beuerlein prefers Kansas City, but so does Montana. Saturday, Montana agreed to a three-year contract proposal with the Chiefs, which made for big, black headlines in Kansas City, but the deal continues to hinge on compensation. Originally, the Chiefs offered a third-round draft choice. Phoenix upped the ante with a first-round pick, and now Kansas City is countering with a third-round pick and as many as three players.

As the haggling escalates, Beuerlein twiddles his thumbs and tries to convince himself that “Phoenix, as anybody in the Cowboy organization knows, is a lot better team than 4-12.”

Beuerlein wouldn’t be here if Chicago and Minnesota, his preferred places of employment, hadn’t audibilized on him. Beuerlein thought he had an in with the Bears, where former Dallas defensive coordinator Dave Wannstedt is now head coach, and he knew the Vikings wanted more behind center than Rich Gannon and Sean Salisbury.

“Dave Wannstedt was interested in working something out,” Beuerlein says. “He was looking at it from the standpoint of the Bears dilly-dallying with (free agent) Jim Harbaugh.

“Turns out that Mike McCaskey and the other owners are big Jim Harbaugh fans. They offered him big money, and he ended up coming back.”

Minnesota went outside for help but, for reasons still not rationally explained, went for it in the person of Jim McMahon. McMahon’s birth certificate is five years older than Beuerlein’s; his knees and elbows have Beuerlein’s by a good two decades.

“They went with him, for whatever reason,” says Beuerlein, still sounding amazed. “Who knows? He probably signed for a little less money up front. He’s won a Super Bowl. But the question is if he can stay healthy. Who knows?”

A week before the college draft, Beuerlein’s options have dwindled to a not-so-precious few:

--The Kansas City-Phoenix loser.

--Tampa Bay. “They have Steve DeBerg and two young guys, Craig Erickson from Miami and Mike Pawlawski from Cal,” Beuerlein says. “They don’t have anybody you look at and say ‘He’s the guy.’ ”

--Seattle. “I know Tom Flores and Larry Kennan, the offensive coordinator, from the Raiders. They need a quarterback, but they might draft one.”

--Back to Dallas. “The Cowboys have talked about keeping me one more year, but I feel like I have to take a different course in my career. I want to go out and I want to start. That’s been my goal for a long time.”

Too bad the Rams blew their spring allowance on linebackers, defensive ends and offensive tackles. Early on, Beuerlein said he “heard rumors about the Rams, but they never made any contact.”

He says “Chuck Knox was very complimentary, gave me a very positive assessment, but I think Jim Everett is a hell of a quarterback. That’s coming from a football player’s perspective. Things haven’t gone that well for him lately, but I know a lot of teams around the league would like to have him.”

Instead, the old Servite High grad makes it home only in the off-season. This weekend, he’s in San Clemente to stage a charity golf tournament, in his name, to raise money for ill and underprivileged children. Beuerlein brought 17 other quarterbacks with him, including Aikman and John Elway, to play 18 holes Monday and appear at a fund-raising auction tonight at the Pacific Country Club.

Then it’s back to his Dallas apartment and more phone tag with NFL personnel departments.

The Patriots, by the way, eventually caught up with Beuerlein, apologized and showed him around the town. Took him to a Celtics game, where Beuerlein participated in a halftime celebrity free-throw shoot--and made 20 of 21 attempts.

“Now my career free throw percentage in the Garden is higher than Larry Bird’s,” Beuerlein deadpans.

So far, after stops in six NFL cities, that has been the highlight of the trip.