Chargers’ Dielman wouldn’t cross line

SAN DIEGO -- In the category of tough West Coast departures, Tony Bennett has nothing on Kris Dielman. Bennett left only his heart in San Francisco. Dielman left $10 million in Seattle.

Dielman is No. 68 in the San Diego Chargers’ program, and fast approaching No. 1 in the fans’ hearts.

It’s not that LT doesn’t dominate the affection of San Diego’s pro football fans. Hard to top LaDainian Tomlinson’s NFL record 31 touchdowns last season.

But it’s also hard not to love a player who actually declined to take the money and run. As a matter of fact, Dielman left the money and flew.

It was March 2, and Dielman, a 310-pounder coming into his own as one of the better offensive guards in the NFL, had been, in his own words, a free agent “for about 24 hours.”

He had been an All-Big Ten tight end his junior year at Indiana, and an All-Big Ten defensive tackle his senior year. When he left IU, his statistics were unlike almost any other player in a Division I program: 62 tackles, and 26 pass receptions for 361 yards and five touchdowns.

That, and the non-legacy of football at Indiana, left him undrafted in 2003.

The Chargers signed him May 2, waived him Aug. 26 and signed him back on the practice squad seven days later. For a year, he was mostly a special teams player, but by 2005 he was the starting left guard. And by the end of 2006, he was an All-Pro choice of ESPN.com. That’s not exactly consensus, but it was a hint at better things to come.

Which is why the Seattle Seahawks sent their corporate jet to San Diego on March 1 to pick up Dielman and fly him north to sign a six-year, $49-million contract.

“I’d never been on a plane like that,” he says. “There were two of their O-line coaches on the plane and it was real nice. But, at the same time, it didn’t feel right.”

He met other Seahawks, including quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, who he would be signing on to protect.

“Nice people,” Dielman says.

The signing was to take place the next morning at 9. All Dielman had to do was walk downstairs to his hotel lobby, scribble his name, and his future would be assured.

Not bad for a guy who hadn’t even been drafted. And not bad for a guy who had grown up in the South Bend, Ind., suburb of Mishawaka and was such a huge Notre Dame fan that he was crushed when then-coach Bob Davie told him that, at 220 pounds, he was too small to play tight end for the Irish.

“Except if they play Indiana,” Dielman says, “I still root for Notre Dame against everybody else.”

Dielman’s trip to the lobby didn’t go exactly as planned, though. The night before, and that morning, Chargers teammates had jumped into the middle of things and the phone lines buzzed.

“Guys like Lorenzo [Neal] and Scott [Mruczkowski] had pulled some strings,” Dielman says.

Neal is a 15-year veteran fullback; Mruczkowski a three-year player and fellow offensive lineman.

At 8:55, five minutes before Dielman was to walk down to the lobby and meet happily awaiting Seahawks officials, Chargers General Manager A.J. Smith reached a deal with Dielman’s agent and Dielman went to the lobby with a different message. He was staying with the Chargers, not signing the Seahawks’ deal.

“It was a little tough,” Dielman says. “They weren’t happy. There were some words exchanged.”

And so, as quickly as possible, Dielman left. He had agreed to a Chargers offer that would bring $6.5 million a year for six years, or about $39 million.

Clearly, there would be no Seahawks corporate jet ferrying him back home.

“I wanted out of there as fast as I could, and the only thing I could get was a last-minute seat on Alaska Airlines,” Dielman says. “But when I got on the plane and sat down, I knew I had done the right thing.”

His seat number was 21A, and the omen was obvious. Tomlinson’s number is 21.

Dielman is 26, single, has a home with a spectacular view in Pacific Beach -- “It’s no big deal, just 1,500 square feet,” he says -- and loves that his team is recognized as a dominating run-left team, behind him and tackle Marcus McNeill.

“There’s nothing like when we get a good run-drive going,” he says. “You can feel it, the rhythm, the three-four-five-10-12 yards, one play after another.”

That is certainly music to the ears of Norv Turner. The new coach signed on Feb. 19, and just 12 days later was at a news conference, taking pats on the back for keeping Dielman.

“We barely had met,” Turner says, “and I was getting credit for this. I started telling people criticizing us for not doing enough on the free-agent market that we had landed the biggest free agent of all, Kris Dielman.”

Dielman has no regrets about the lost money.

“I came here as a walk-on,” he says, “and look at the chances they’ve given me.”

A couple of All-Pro seasons and he can get his own corporate jet.

But probably not from Boeing.

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Bill Dwyre can be reached at bill.dwyre@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Dwyre, go to latimes.com/dwyre.