SUPER BOWL XXIX DAILY REPORT : An Incident Involving Al Davis Landed Hendrickson in San Diego

Having endured the agony of changing uniforms four times in six seasons, the San Diego Chargers’ Steve Hendrickson can look forward with satisfaction to Sunday, when he’ll be rewarded for his perseverance with his first Super Bowl.

But on Tuesday, Hendrickson couldn’t resist the temptation to look back with a touch of smugness.

Hendrickson, who plays everywhere from H-back to linebacker to special teams, started the season with the Raiders. But he never made it out of training camp in Oxnard, cut when the team opted instead to go with seventh-round draft pick Rob Holmberg, a linebacker from Penn State.

Hendrickson, however, blames an incident with owner Al Davis for his release.

“I went up to him and asked, ‘Why aren’t you playing me at inside ‘backer like you promised?’ ” Hendrickson recalled. “Al told me, ‘I’ll talk to you later.’ ”

At that point, Hendrickson admits he may have used some profanity in his reply.

“From then on, when I was around the other coaches, it was like I was Moses at the parting of the Red Sea,” Hendrickson said. “They all turned away from me.”

Hendrickson was soon gone, to his delight.

“They took something that was fun and made it more like a business,” he said. “Everybody there is walking around like they’re on ice. Al’s word is gold. I don’t think the other coaches have authority to say where they think people should be playing.”

“Look at (rookie linebacker Rob) Fredrickson. Al wanted him to play inside. He’s better outside. When they put him outside, he became a starter. But they wasted 12 to 13 weeks.”

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Sunday’s hero for the 49ers might not be named Young or Rice or Sanders. Sunday’s hero might not even be named Watters or Norton or Plummer.

Sunday’s hero might be a guy who spent the fall playing ice hockey, who has been with the team all of 12 days, whose salary this season is zero.

Meet Darin Jordan, who considers himself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.

“This has been a blessing, a complete blessing,” he said.

Jordan is a linebacker, that No. 90 you’ll see racing downfield on all special teams Sunday. He ought to be able to run for a long time, considering he has not played since the 49ers’ final game of the 1993 regular season against the Philadelphia Eagles.

He seriously injured his knee in that game, poor timing considering he was about to become a free agent.

He spent this season rehabilitating while waiting for somebody to offer him a job. On the day after the 49ers’ NFC championship game victory over the Dallas Cowboys, the 49ers became that team.

Needing a fresh body and taking advantage of the absence of NFL rules about postseason signings, the 49ers gave Jordan a two-year contract.

“Of course, this year’s contract didn’t have any salary in it, because the year was already over,” Jordan said. “Some people asked me whether I really wanted to add a second year to the deal but I said, ‘For a chance to play in the Super Bowl, I would sign for the next year and the next year.”

Jordan strengthened his injured left knee by playing pickup hockey two or three times a week in the Bay Area. Several times he even worked out with the striking San Jose Sharks.

“The hockey was hard only in that a lot of guys wanted to say they took down a 49er,” he said.

But Jordan is a hard guy to get down. This is the second time he has sat out a regular season yet appeared in postseason games. The Raiders attempted to use him as a quick fix in the 1990 playoffs, but he didn’t help much in an AFC championship game loss to Buffalo.

This year, a Super Bowl ring and half of a winning share ($18,000) await.

Not bad for two weeks’ work.

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Let us pause for a moment during this week of championship hoopla to remember the “losers” of the world.

Let us pause to remember Gale Gilbert.

If you believe the oddsmakers, the Chargers’ backup quarterback is about to become the first player in Super Bowl history to appear on five losing teams.

He was a backup for the Buffalo Bills during their four consecutive losses before signing with the Chargers last spring.

“We told him he could stick around during the week, but if we start to get nervous with him, we’re sending him home,” said Rueben Davis, Charger defensive lineman.

Gilbert said friends around the league actually think he is lucky.

“Do you know how many players have never appeared in even one of these?” he said. “I get a call from Dave Krieg, who has played 15 years and never gotten close, and he asks me how I do it.”

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Ray Rhodes, the 49ers’ defensive coordinator, is on a list of candidates for the Rams’ coaching job. Is he interested?

“At this point I would listen to what they have to say,” he said.

Rhodes, who left Green Bay without a job before this season because his family didn’t enjoy living there, was asked why he hadn’t already landed a head coaching position.

“I think there are several reasons,” he said. “The No. 1 thing is people don’t consider me a talker. People wonder if I’m able to handle a football team. And I just think there has to be that owner that’s ready to push the button, and say this is the guy I want.”

Steve Ortmayer, the team’s new vice president of football operations, will begin interviewing candidates this week, although he will be unable to talk with Rhodes until after Super Bowl XXIX.

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“If they’re winning big, they won’t pull their starters,” Joe Theismann, broadcaster and winning quarterback of Super Bowl XVII, said of the heavily favored 49ers.

“My personal feeling is, this San Francisco team wants to do something unforgettable. They could try breaking every record in the Super Bowl book. Jerry Rice might put up records that nobody will ever touch.

“Believe me, this could get ugly.”

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Rickey Jackson is a fine linebacker. Rickey Jackson is a former teammate of Charger offensive lineman Stan Brock from their days in New Orleans. Rickey Jackson is Brock’s opponent Sunday.

Rickey Jackson is . . .

“The greatest linebacker to ever play this game,” Brock said.

Rickey Jackson? “Yes. I know people say Lawrence Taylor was, but in my mind, I think Rickey is the best at that position--ever.”

Rickey Jackson is playing for his first championship game--ever.

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Nine writers from Pro Football Weekly made their predictions. Eight took San Francisco.

Michael Lev did not. Chargers 29, 49ers 28, he says.

“Like Namath’s Jets and the Miracle Mets,” Lev writes, “the Chargers are blessed with something even the mighty 49ers can’t defeat--pure luck.”

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The NFL has not yet approved the Rams’ move to St. Louis, but that hasn’t stopped one player from making an appearance in what is expected to be the team’s new hometown next fall.

Ram backup quarterback Chris Chandler will be the featured guest during a Super Bowl party Sunday at KSHE-FM’s Real Rock Cafe in St. Louis, where he will sign autographs and co-host a radio show.

Times staff writers Mike DiGiovanna, Mike Downey, Bob Oates, Bill Plaschke, T.J. Simers and Steve Springer contributed to this story.