Chargers Have Seen Their Final No. 14 : Spanos Says Fouts’ Jersey to Become Only One Retired by Team

SAN DIEGO —  Charger owner Alex Spanos, responding to a peace offering that quarterback Dan Fouts made at his retirement news conference last week, said the team will retire Fouts’ jersey No. 14.

Fouts and Spanos have feuded ever since last summer, when the two became engaged in a public dispute over Fouts’ contract. But last Thursday, Fouts refused to publicly criticize Spanos, saying he respected the Charger owner as a “fighter.”

“The era of Dan Fouts will always be remembered,” Spanos said Wednesday. “You can’t take 15 years and just put it aside. As far as retiring his jersey, I think it’s a great idea. I have absolutely no problem with that.”

Asked point-blank if he would retire Fouts’ jersey, Spanos said, “Sure. Absolutely.”

The jersey retirement ceremony is expected to take place when the team celebrates “Dan Fouts Day.” The Chargers have said all along that they will have such an event, at a date yet to be determined. But it wasn’t until Wednesday that Spanos confirmed that they will retire his jersey.

Fouts will become the first player in the team’s 28-year history to have his jersey retired. Sort of.

The Chargers retired No. 74, worn by offensive lineman Ron Mix, in the 1960s. But Mix subsequently unretired. And the Chargers subsequently unretired the No. 74, now worn by offensive lineman Jim Lachey.

Fouts almost certainly will join former Charger players Mix and Lance Alworth and former coach Sid Gillman in the Professional Football Hall of Fame. And Mix thinks the team should follow up the Fouts decision with a similar announcement about Alworth’s No. 19.

“I think it’s very appropriate that they’re retiring Dan’s jersey because of what he’s meant to the team,” Mix said. “It’s the ultimate compliment that can paid.

“But now that they’ve cracked the mold, they ought to go back in time and take care of Lance. He had no equal.”

Mix also suggested that the team retire a bow tie in honor of Gillman.

As recently as 1985, the Chargers assigned Alworth’s number to a wide receiver named Jeff Price in the preseason. Price failed to make the team.

If he had, the Chargers would have had to change his number before the regular season started because of league rules.

In 1972, the league decided that only kickers and quarterbacks could wear jerseys numbered 1-19 unless the player had been in the league before the ruling.

Spanos repeated that the team’s immediate priority is finding a replacement for Fouts.

“The whole league knows that,” he said. “And we’ll make a deal with someone for a quarterback who can come in and start. I just don’t know yet who that quarterback will be. We’re on the phone with other teams every day.”

Spanos bristled at the suggestion that Fouts’ retirement and other problems mean the Chargers will have a poor record in 1988.

“We had a winning season last year (8-7), and everybody seems to forget that,” he said.