Ortmayer

Steve Ortmayer is up to his elbows in alligators. The Chargers' director of football operations was reportedly on his way to Indianapolis Thursday to scout college seniors at the national combine workouts. This was one day after he had left 25 players off a list of 37 he had to submit to the league office. The lists of protected players were an attempt by the NFL to appease a federal judge in a lawsuit filed by the players' association over free agency, among other things.

The names of two Chargers turned up on a list of 43 athletes that was released Wednesday by the U.S. Attorney's office in Chicago, prompting Steve Ortmayer to characterize the two players as "victims." Ortmayer, the Chargers' director of football operations, said it was his understanding that offensive lineman John Clay and inside linebacker Chuck Faucette "didn't know what they were getting into" when they accepted illegal payments while still in college.

Charger Owner Alex Spanos will meet today with Steve Ortmayer, his director of football operations, and one of the subjects scheduled for discussion is what the team plans to do about linebacker Chip Banks. Banks has been troubled with drug problems and drug-related arrests over the past 18 months, but the NFL cleared him to play last week. Banks' attorney has said Banks would like to return. But Spanos has said on more than one occasion that Banks will never play for the Chargers again.

All 58 of the non-union Chargers, whom Coach Al Saunders calls the "Re-Chargers," posed for pictures Monday, serving further notice that this is a real football team. Asked to evaluate the team's strong point, Saunders said: "Its anonymity." Steve Ortmayer, Charger director of football operations, sees it a bit differently. "Look at our team compared to the other 27 in the league," Ortmayer said of his non-union squad. "You're gonna like this roster."

The Rams have no defense, as evidenced by their scores and record, but something should be said on behalf of Steve Ortmayer, the embattled general manager, who has been accused of making the two worst trades in NFL history. He's guilty.

In some respects, the University of La Verne's football program hasn't changed in its first season since the retirement of longtime Coach Roland Ortmayer. The Leopards still do not have long practices and Coach Rex Huigens' philosophy is similar to Ortmayer's, Huigens having been an assistant under Ortmayer for 21 years. But that is about where the similarity ends.

In probably their last move as the Los Angeles Rams, the team hired Steve Ortmayer as vice president of football operations Monday. The Rams are expected to announce today that they're moving to St. Louis. "I feel this time in the Ram franchise history is a wonderful time to hit the ground running with some new aspects," said Ortmayer, 50, who has been the Raiders' special teams coach and director of football operations since 1990, his second tour of duty with the team.

Charger owner Alex Spanos ventured into the lair of the archrival Raiders and came away with one of Al Davis' top aides, hiring Steve Ortmayer as director of football operations Tuesday. Ortmayer apparently will rank with Coach Al Saunders as Spanos' most trusted and powerful aides. "He runs the entire operation," Spanos said. "He will manage for me and take some pressure off me. He reports to me, of course, but he's the boss man.

In the face of mounting criticism Monday, Steve Ortmayer, the Chargers' director of football operations, stood by the trade announced Saturday that sent Pro Bowl tackle Jim Lachey to the Raiders in exchange for tackle John Clay and two "high" draft picks. "The story of a deal is told in the future," Ortmayer said. "It isn't told in the present." But even Denver Coach Dan Reeves got into the act, saying he didn't think it was "very good deal" for the Chargers.

Charger wide receiver Wes Chandler was mad Friday when his probably-soon-to-be-ex-teammates took the field for the first day of the team's veteran weekend minicamp. Steve Ortmayer, the team's director of football operations, was madder. The target of their considerable wrath was a headline writer for another local paper. Both objected to the "Chandler banned from camp" headline that ran across the top of the paper's front sports page Friday.