First Pick but Fourth String : Glut of Charger Tight Ends Means Bernstine Waits, Watches

SAN DIEGO —  They stayed up all night, drinking and talking and wondering if being young would ever again feel this sweet.

It was April 27, the next morning was the NFL draft, and there would be cameras and an NFL jersey and thousands of dollars. Rod Bernstine’s future would be falling down on him like a Texas sky in the spring. He didn’t want to waste the feeling on sleep.

He and Texas A&M; teammate Todd Howard sat up in in the den of Bernstine’s Bryan, Tex., apartment, interrupted only by a late visit from Bernstine’s mother.

“She brought over barbecue,” Bernstine said. “I don’t know how she makes it, but nobody else makes it like that.”

Finally, at 8:26 a.m.--Bernstine will remember the time as long as he can remember how to tell time--the Chargers phoned. The tight end was their first pick, the 24th in the draft. An hour later, he was on a jet.

“I’m thinking, this is it,” he said. “I’m in the NFL now, a first-round pick, I will start playing pro ball soon, I’ll be a big name.”

In mid-afternoon, his plane arrived in San Diego. He disembarked with his best smile.

And he couldn’t find anybody.

He looked around, using that smile on everyone who remotely looked as if they might be associated with a pro football team. He walked up and down the crowded departure lounge, checking gift shops and restaurants.

And found nobody.

He returned to the gate where the plane had come in. He sat and waited. Fifteen minutes. Thirty minutes.

“I was alone. What was I supposed to do?” he said. “I figured somebody would show up sooner or later.”

Somebody did. Somebody finally recognized and congratulated Rod Bernstine.

A reporter.

“I thought, ‘At least somebody in this town knows who I am,’ ” he recalled.

Bernstine finished describing that April night and day softly, almost as if embarrassed by something so long ago. Then he shrugged.

“You know all that stuff about being a hot first-round pick and everything?” he said. “It’s a myth.”

It has been nearly nine months, and Rod Bernstine, 22, is still looking for a way to get recognized.

“I’ve finally faced the fact that I’m not playing. I’m watching,” Bernstine said. “It’s bad, real bad, and it’s getting harder every week. Beginning of games, big plays, little plays, I’m watching.

“When we’re winning, it wasn’t great, but I could handle it. But when we’re losing like we have lately, it’s terrible. And it’s not getting any better.”

After nine regular games, Bernstine, who missed two with a hamstring injury, has caught eight passes. That’s seventh on the team. He trails two wide receivers, two running backs and two tight ends, or just about every player who has been thrown a ball.

Bernstine, a 6-foot 3-inch, 235-pounder, has caught fewer passes than starting tight end Kellen Winslow (35). Fewer than second-stringer Pete Holohan (17). He hasn’t caught fewer than third-stringer Eric Sievers, but that’s only because Sievers hasn’t caught one all season.

Fourth-stringer. That’s what Rod Bernstine is, according to the club’s most recent weekly depth chart. That’s one depth mark for each year on his contract, which is worth $1.4 million over that time.

And he’s the team’s only fourth-stringer. Goodness, there are just nine third-stringers.

“With three tight ends, I was surprised they drafted me,” Bernstine said. “But then I thought they had plans for me. I know they still do, but . . .”

But Bernstine says thus far he has never played more than two consecutive downs. He says sometimes this makes him want to do crazy things.

“The other day in Houston, I actually started to run to one of those sideline phones,” he said. “I wanted to call upstairs and actually ask one of the coaches if I could come into the game.”

There have been moments.

Against Kansas City, in his first professional catch, he took a screen pass 15 yards and flattened two defenders.

Against Cleveland, he took the same kind of screen and went 10 yards over two players, finishing with a leap into the end zone for his first touchdown.

Then, against Houston last week, he was the answer to what is becoming a weekly trivia question--”Who was the only Charger to rush for a first down?”

He took a reverse handoff and ran nine yards and around one defender . . . and right out of the game.

“It was a great feeling,” he said. “I juked the one guy and got a few yards and two guys finally brought me down . . . “

He paused.

“And I came right out of the game. Didn’t even look. I knew I was coming out. My job was one play, and that was it. It was hard.”

It was particularly hard because Houston is near his hometown, and many of his friends and family were there.

“I get in the night before and see two old friends, and the first thing they say is, ‘Why are you rotting on the bench?’ ” he recalled. “I go to sleep that night thinking, ‘I’m in my hometown, and I don’t even know if I’ll get to touch the ball.’

“You can’t know how bad I want to play. I’m always looking at the coach, hoping he’ll see me. I think, some of those third downs are my kind of downs. “

Charger Coach Al Saunders heard this and smiled.

“I’m glad he feels that way,” he said. “We’re only concerned about guys who don’t feel like they should be playing.”

Saunders said that he has expected this since, oh, about April 28.

“We knew going in that there would be a potential problem with our tight ends, but we needed Rod because of physical uncertainties with the other ones,” he said. “The problem is, we have four good tight ends, and only one ball. Do you take out a four-time Pro Bowler (Winslow) or two other guys who have caught at least 40 balls a season (Sievers, Holohan)?”

Saunders said Bernstine’s woes are common. “Everyone drafted in the high rounds thinks that they will instantly make an impact,” he said. “They started every game in college, had a great deal of success, and it’s difficult not to be the focal point.

“It’s not that way. They may have been a hero before, but they are just another guy here. It happens every time you move up a level in life.

“Rod can be an All-Pro one day. He just has to wait and learn.”

That theorem doesn’t hold true for everyone. Bernstine, the 24th pick in the draft, can be miffed just by looking around. The 21st pick (Roger Vick) is the starting fullback for the New York Jets. The 22nd pick (Harris Barton) is the starting tackle for San Francisco. The 23rd pick (Bruce Armstrong) is the starting tackle for New England.

You just want receivers? The 27th pick, Ricky Nattiel, has caught 24 passes for 493 yards for Denver, including a 46-yard touchdown catch against the Chargers.

“I see a lot of those guys, and sometimes I wonder, how did they get in those situations, and I didn’t?” Bernstine said.

Until he does, he is being the model camper. You can say that much about Bernstine’s first year.

He is playing on special teams, something few first-rounders will do willingly: “I don’t care, I’ll do anything to get on the field.”

And he hasn’t once complained to Saunders. “I’m not going to come off to him like your typical, frustrated first-rounder. I’m keeping quiet and doing my job.”

And he’s listening to guys such as Sievers, who, surprisingly, is one of Bernstine’s father figures even though Bernstine probably will replace him one day.

“Maybe I’m nuts to do it, but I want what’s good for the team,” said Sievers, 28. “It’s hard for a young guy to understand just being one of 45 guys after having all the accolades.

“Sure, he’s down. You can just look at him and tell he’s down. But he’s this team’s tight end of the future. He has to know that.”

Charger Notes

Steve Ortmayer, Charger director of football operations, defended the team’s 1987 draft (12 picks). He says any evaluation should include the draft-day deal that, in a swap of the Chargers’ first two picks with Cleveland’s, brought linebacker Chip Banks, who is third on the team with 57 tackles. “We like our draft,” Ortmayer said. “We have seven guys still on the team, and we have Banks.” But of those seven, three have been on the injured reserve list since the beginning of the season (cornerbacks Lou Brock and Nelson Jones, and offensive linemen Joe MacEsker). Defensive end Karl Wilson has missed four games with injuries and otherwise has played sparingly (eight tackles). Quarterback Mark Vlasic has been on the inactive list since the strike. Only Bernstine and wide receiver Jamie Holland (1 catch for 20 yards, 13 kickoff returns for 273 yards) have made any sort of impact. “The one thing we haven’t gotten out of the draft is immediate help, but then we haven’t had a lot of plays out of them, either,” Ortmayer said. “Injuries have killed us.” . . . Coach Al Saunders has been getting plenty of letters and advice on how to stop his team’s three-game skid. He says none of it bothers him. “I just make sure somebody starts my car before I go home at night,” he said. . . . About 6,300 tickets remain for Sunday’s game against Pittsburgh at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.