A brilliant decision

Butler gambled on Vick deal, got LT

UNION-TRIBUNE

December 13, 2006

John Butler did not trust the telephone. New to his job and separated
from his wife by the width of the continent, the late Chargers general
manager behaved as if his line were bugged in the days preceding the
2001 NFL draft.

“I was still in New York,” Alice Butler said. “I had not moved to
California. My daughter was finishing that year of softball. Every game
we went to, the dads came running up to me asking, 'Who's John drafting?'

“The name I was hearing and reading was Michael Vick, Michael Vick,
Michael Vick. I'd ask John these questions, but he wouldn't talk on the
phone.”

Butler was prepared to select Virginia Tech's many-splendored
quarterback with the No. 1 overall selection, but his preference was
quantity. The Chargers were picking first, after all, because they had
finished 1-15 the preceding season, and their needs were numerous.

Butler wanted to build a foundation, and Vick was more like a fresco for
the ceiling. He was beautiful and breathtaking, and yet something of a
luxury item for a lousy team.

Andrea Butler remembers riding in an elevator with her father and asking
whether he was going to draft Vick. “Honey,” John Butler replied, “I've
got another player in mind I think you'll like.”

He was thinking of a running back from Texas Christian University:
LaDainian Tomlinson.

“We were looking at lots of players, but there was one particular player
we had targeted and it was LT,” said A.J. Smith, Butler's sidekick and
successor. “He was going to be the first brick. And the reason we felt
that he was special, based on the background that we had – which was
character and ability – was Thurman Thomas. We were going to model this
football team after success.”

The blueprint was Buffalo's, and it had worked well enough to produce
four consecutive Super Bowl appearances between 1991 and 1994. Butler
and Smith had worked in the Bills' scouting and personnel departments
before joining the Chargers, and they saw in Tomlinson a Thomas-like
two-dimensional terror.

He could run. He could catch. And he could carry a large load right
away. Butler did not know then about the cancer that would eventually
kill him, but his core philosophy was that time was short. He wanted to
start winning at once, and he had all of the patience of a 6-year-old on
Christmas Eve.

“The thing that John kept saying is, 'I care about winning and I want to
win right now,' ” Chargers President Dean Spanos said. “John always
talked about retooling our team instead of rebuilding it.

“I think the idea was to get more than one player in here and that would
help the team more immediately.”

Six seasons later, Butler's biggest decision looks brilliant. Though the
Chargers did not get much mileage out of receiver/return specialist Tim
Dwight or the two draft choices they obtained from Atlanta, landing
Tomlinson would transform the franchise. LT has exceeded 1,200 yards
rushing in each of his six seasons. He has scored 109 touchdowns in 92
games. He has changed the Chargers from a joke to a juggernaut.

“He's Mr. Everything,” Alice Butler said. “You just wonder if there's
anything he can't do.”

With three games to go in the regular season, Tomlinson has already set
a single-season NFL record with his 29th touchdown and led the Chargers
to a division title and an 11-2 record. Recent polling indicates LT can
expect to be named the league's Most Valuable Player, almost by acclimation.

Vick, meanwhile, is in need of reputation repair. He has led the Atlanta
Falcons to one NFC Championship Game and has compiled a 38-25-1 record
as their starter, yet his progress and his passing have been maddeningly
inconsistent. Vick's talent is extraordinary, but he has yet to resolve
the core question of whether he can be as efficient as he is electrifying.

With the Falcons floundering on offense last month – blame some of it on
unreliable receivers – Jim Mora the elder agreed with a radio host who
called Vick a “coach-killer.” This snippet became a big story because
Mora's son of the same name is the Falcons' head coach. Later, Vick
vented his frustration with heckling fans in the form of obscene
gestures at the Georgia Dome.

Both Tomlinson and Vick have more games to play, and maybe another
decade to sort out their relative stature. But if both retired tomorrow,
Tomlinson would be the one whose bust would belong in Canton.

“If John Butler was here today, he would absolutely say, 'This guy is
greater than I ever imagined,' ” Smith said. “I know that because . . .
I just know that. We knew he was going to be championship-level. We knew
he was someone you could build a team to compete to go to the Super
Bowl. All of those things were obvious to us.

“But sometimes, there are guys who are just Hall of Fame-bound or
whatever. This guy's phenomenal, as we all know.”

The Chargers were not alone in noticing Tomlinson's potential in 2001 –
far from it – but running backs tend to be regarded as short-term
propositions in pro football. Twelve quarterbacks have been selected No.
1 overall in the past 25 drafts, but Ki-Jana Carter (Cincinnati, 1995)
is the only running back to earn that distinction during that same period.

Running backs tend to peak earlier and stop more suddenly than
quarterbacks, and their aptitude is more easily identified and more
readily replaced. Still, when Atlanta traded up to take Vick with the
No. 1 pick, three other teams would have been wise to take Tomlinson
before the Chargers claimed him at No. 5.

The waiting, of course, was worrisome. The Chargers had a Plan B in
place in case Tomlinson were gone – there are always promising players
available in the first round of the draft – but Smith recalls that he
was sweating.

“I was extremely nervous, but that's my nature,” Smith said. “I wanted
it to happen for us and I wanted it to happen for John. This was what
John wanted, badly. This was (our) Thurman Thomas.

“I said, 'We're not the only ones who think this guy is a great player.
We're not the Lone Ranger on this. There are a lot of smart football
people out there.' John acted like he wasn't nervous, but every now and
then he looked at me. . . . We were optimistic and excited. But you can
have all the plans in the world, and you don't know what the hell is
going to happen until it happens.”

Tomlinson, meanwhile, was concerned that he could wind up dashing
through the snow in Cleveland. When news of the Chargers-Falcons trade
broke on the eve of the draft, Vick told Tomlinson he was destined for
San Diego, but the TCU running back wasn't buying it.

“I didn't believe him,” Tomlinson said. “I thought the Chargers (were)
not interested. I hadn't talked to them. I didn't know that they were
interested.”

But after Arizona, picking second, chose Texas tackle Leonard Davis,
Cleveland passed on Tomlinson to take Florida defensive tackle Gerard
Warren. Cincinnati, then equipped with Pro Bowl running back Corey
Dillon, chose Missouri defensive end Justin Smith.

This put the Chargers on the clock and off the ledge.

“We had it all the way,” Butler crowed.

“John,” Smith replied, much relieved, “I knew you knew the whole time.”

Alice Butler remembers worrying whether her husband had done the right
thing. She feared Vick would become a superstar, “and everybody is going
to say, 'We could have had him in San Diego?' ”

Dean Spanos remembers John Butler as unflinching. He remembers the GM
describing Tomlinson as “impeccably great.”

“It was a huge decision for John and in retrospect, it was the right
decision,” Spanos said. “He is truly the turning point for our team.”

Spanos thinks of John Butler as the Chargers' turning point, and
LaDainian Tomlinson as his legacy.

“I think about John a lot,” Spanos said. “After the game (in Buffalo), I
saw (Bills General Manager) Marv Levy outside the locker room. He came
over and said hello and congratulated me. I said, 'Don't forget about
the one guy who started all this. He's probably looking down and smiling
right now.'”

Tim Sullivan: (619) 293-1033; tim.sullivan@uniontrib.com

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