Men on a mission

Sporting News, The, Oct 17, 1994 by Bob Nightengale

Humphries was the Redskins' fourth-string quarterback in 1992 when Chargers General Manager Bobby Beathard came calling. The Chargers were left with only Graham, Gagliano and O'Hara to choose from, and it didn't take a genius to figure out they needed help.

"I mean, I was so buried with the Redskins that I wasn't even holding for field goals," Humphries says. "It got to a point where you felt like you weren't even a part of the team. They had Mark Rypien; they didn't need me."

So Beathard, who drafted Humphries in the sixth round when he was general manager of the Redskins, traded a third-round pick for Humphries. It wasn't exactly the deal that had folks rushing for season tickets.

This is a guy who went to Louisiana State and promptly became academically ineligible. The football team even assigned an assistant coach to take Humphries to class, but he eluded the coach, ditched classes and dropped out of school. He returned to Shreveport, La., to work in a car lot, and he might still be there today if he was not rescued by Northeast Louisiana coach Pat Collins.

"The fans didn't realize what they got when that trade was made," says Don Coryell, a former Chargers' coach and a fair judge of quarter-back talent. "I remember seeing him in Washington's training camp, and I thought he was their best quarterback. I was very surprised that they were planning on trading him.

"Bobby Beathard stole him.

"He just stole him."

How good of a trade was in?

"Take a look at our record," Beathard says.

Humphries, the AFC's top-rated quarterback, played his prototype game last Sunday. Nothing fancy. Certainly not flashy. Just consistent: 16 for 25,171 yards, one touch-down, no interceptions.

"I think I kind of represent what this team is about," Humphries says. "I'm not a glamour type. I'm not a flashy-type guy. I just go out and do my job.

"I'm not really surprised what this team has done, but I think everybody else is. Let's face it, we brought in a lot of guys nobody's ever heard of before. We've got things going our way, but I think we made them go our way.""

It's Beathard and Bobby Ross, perhaps the league's most underrated coach, who have made this all possible. They decided not to match Denver's offer sheet to receiver Anthony Miller, and they traded running back Marion Butts to New England. They made 22 changes to their roster, including 10 starting players. And incredibly, wondrously, they are undefeated, resurrecting that old adage: "Bobby Beathard, Smartest Man in the NFL."

"That's an embarrassment," Beathard says of the label that was tagged on him five years ago. "All somebody needs to do is be around me for a couple hours and they'll find I've got other problems, and not one of them is being too smart. It's a source of jokes that haven't quit. There's nothing good about losing, except that joke goes away."

Envious Giants General Manager George Young says, "Bobby always has been one of the top general managers in the game. He never left. He loves what he's doing. He loves to make something out of nothing."