Chargers drop QB
after 3 ill seasons
SAN DIEGO — The San Diego
Chargers got rid of Ryan Leaf after
three turbulent seasons, waiving
the bad-boy quarterback on
Wednesday as new general manag
er John Butler began reshaping the
NFL’s worst team.
Leaf was hailed as a savior when
the Chargers took him with the sec
ond pick overall in the 1998 draft,
right after Indianapolis took Peyton
Manning. Instead, he quickly
turned into a distraction with his
poor play on the field and his boor
ish behavior off it.
He leaves the Chargers with a 4
14 record as a starter, having thrown
33 interceptions and just 13 touch
down passes.
Leaf missed all of the 1999 season
with a shoulder injury and seemed
to have gotten his career back on
track when he won back the start
ing job last summer. But he was
benched after throwing five inter
ceptions and just one TD in the first
two games. Although he started the
final six games, he never did regain
the respect of his teammates.
The Chargers released four other
players: cornerbacks DeRon Jenkins
and Darryll Lewis, running back
Robert Chancey and Kevin Gogan.
“We are preparing for free agency
and the draft and this allows these
players to catch on with another
team,” Butler said in a statement.
“We wish them well.”
Also Wednesday, the Chargers
signed quarterback Dave Dickenson
of the Calgary Stampeders to a two
year contract.
Dickenson, who had talked with
several other NFL teams, had until
Wednesday to agree to terms or
have his rights revert to the Stam
peders for another season.
Ironically, Dickenson preceded
Leaf at Charles M. Russell High in
Great Falls, Mont., in the early
1990s.
Dickenson, who has been
plagued with injuries during his
five-year CFL career, is expected to
compete for the Chargers’ backup
job. That competition could also in
clude Michael Vick if the Chargers
take the exciting Virginia Tech quar
terback with the first pick in the
April draft.
The Chargers also are expected to
sign a veteran NFL free agent.
Dickenson was named the CFL’s
Most Outstanding Player after
throwing for 4,636 yards, 36 touch
downs and just six interceptions
last year while leading the Stam
peders to the playoffs. He complet
ed 64 percent of his passes.
The Associated Press
Buffalo waives Flutie
By John Wawrow
The Associated Press
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The
Buffalo Bills have decided to'cut
Doug Flutie and go with Rob John
son as their starting quarterback.
The team was set to officially an
nounce the decision at a 7 p.m.
news conference.
The decision settles a long-brew
ing controversy that divided the
team and its fans over which of the
two quarterbacks wrho were brought
in three seasons ago should be the
starter.
The Bills were forced to make a
decision mostly for salary cap rea
sons as they had to cut almost $8
million off their payroll in time for
Thursday’s 4 p.m. deadline.
By cutting Flutie instead of John
son, the Bills save about $3 million
in cap dollars, about $1.4 million
more than they would have saved
by cutting Johnson.
The decision comes after a month
of speculation, ever since new Bills
general manager Tom Donahoe an
nounced on Feb. 2 that one would
have to go.
Flutie, who went 21-9 as a starter
with the Bills, was one of the team’s
most popular players. But he turns
38 in October and that put him at a
disadvantage.
Johnson, who will be 28 next
month, is both younger and consid
ered to have the much stronger arm.
And, at 6-foot-4 and 212 pounds, he
is considered to have the prototypi
cal build of a potential star quarter
back.
The Bills, under new coach Gregg
Williams, are planning to introduce
the aggressive and timing-sensitive
West Coast offense this season.
Johnson’s drawbacks over the last
three seasons have been injuries
and an inability to get rid of the ball
quickly.
Johnson, 8-10 in his 18 starts with
the Bills, was sacked 49 times last
season — once for every seven
times he dropped back to pass. He
also missed three games because of
a separated shoulder, and was
knocked out of four of 11 starts be
cause of injuries.
Nomar out for 2 weeks
By Howard Ulman
The Associated Press
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Nomar
Garciaparra will miss at least two
weeks of spring training because of
an injured right wrist, the first set
back in a season of great hope for the
Boston Red Sox.
The two-time defending AL bat
ting champion hopes to be ready for
opening day. But if rest doesn’t fix the
problem, he didn’t rule out surgery.
“If (the doctors) were thinking
about it, they didn’t tell me and I
didn’t want to hear it right now,” he
said Wednesday. “Hopefully, this
works, even if there has to be reha
bilitation.”
The frustrating thing for the All
Star shortstop is the puzzling nature
of the injury.
He and team physician Dr. Bill
Morgan traced it back to Sept. 25,
1999, when Baltimore’s Al Reyes hit
Garciaparra on the wrist with a pitch.
But Garciaparra played all of
2000 with only mild discomfort in
the wrist and led the AL with a .372
average.
And last Sunday he had his nor
mal spring training workout. Then
he went to bed and, by morning,
everything had changed. The wrist
was swollen and he couldn’t throw
a ball or swing a bat.
“They tell me that’s kind of im
portant in the line of work that Ido,”
he said with a laugh.
He wasn’t in as good a mood last
Monday morning.
“I was shocked when I woke up,”
he said. “The reason I’m concerned
is because it was something that hap
pened awhile ago and has come back.
“Since I’ve been here and work
ing out and training and swinging
the bat a whole lot more, it’s really
flared up.”
He had an MRI and the injury was
diagnosed as a split tendon, which
isn’t as severe as a tear, with inflam
mation.
JEWISH
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