THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 27, 1995 TAG: 9501270892
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MIAMI LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
To Gary Plummer, a linebacker trying to take advantage of free agency to move from the San Diego Chargers to another team, the phone calls from San Francisco coach George Seifert last spring were steady, encouraging, and a little scary.
They reminded him of 1980. Seifert was an assistant coach at Stanford and was in pursuit of Plummer, a junior-college prospect.
Plummer couldn't wait to leave Ohlone Junior College for an all-expenses-paid trip to the big time. And that's what Seifert was promising.
Plummer was nervous as he waited for Seifert to arrive with the scholarship papers. They'd never met. What Seifert knew of Ohlone's all-time leading tackler was what he had read or heard.
``So I'm standing in this room and George walks in and asks, `You're Gary Plummer?' I look around and laugh, because there's no one else in the room but my coach. And George shook his head and says, `You can't play in the PAC-10, that's it.' And he walks out the door. I was dazed.''
No one else offered Plummer a scholarship, underwhelmed by his 6-foot, 210-pound frame. But Plummer says Seifert's rebuff tore into him like an arrow. He was devastated and craved revenge.
But how?
``I walked on and tried out for the football team at Cal, the biggest rival Stanford has,'' Plummer said. ``And I made it.''
He didn't just make it. He started both seasons for California, a bulldog defensive lineman fueled by hatred.
``I hated his guts,'' Plummer says. ``Every time I lifted weights, every time I ran sprints, it was George Seifert's face I saw, laughing at me.''
Seifert claims not to recall the incident, but Plummer says he reminded him about it when the 49ers called last spring to arrange his free-agent tryout, shortly before he signed with San Francisco.
``I wanted to make peace,'' Plummer says.
They did, and Plummer says Seifert greeted him upon his arrival by teasing him by saying, ``You might not be good enough to play at Stanford, but you're certainly good enough to play in the NFL.' ''
It apparently is an uneasy truce. Plummer vented some more anger when the 49ers were forced to practice at Stanford Stadium because heavy rains recently ruined their fields.
``When I ran onto the field one day, George said something like, `This is sacred ground,' '' Plummer says. ``I said, `Oh, yeah, I'll show you what I think of your sacred ground.' '' And he spat.
For Plummer, who led the Chargers in tackling three consecutive seasons and amassed nearly 800 tackles in eight years in San Diego, little in football is sacred, especially prima donna players.
From the first day of training camp, Plummer and fellow free-agent linebacker Ricky Jackson verbally harrassed running back Ricky Watters.
The 49ers don't allow tackling in practice, but Plummer and Jackson would give Watters ``enthusiastic tag-offs'' play after play.
``We'd always ask him if he wanted some cheese with his whine, and he finally went to George to complain,'' Plummer says. ``And George told the team one day, `You've always complained that we had no tough guys. Well, we went out and got a couple of them.' And I think we've toughened up Ricky, made him a better player.''
Plummer also helped make San Francisco's defense much stronger. The 49ers were second in the league against the run. Although he finished fifth in tackles with 66 during the regular season, Plummer tied team records with 13 total and 11 solo tackles in the divisional playoff victory against Chicago.
Plummer isn't bitter toward the Chargers. He calls his decision to leave San Diego ``business.''
``They were trying to get me for as little money as possible. I was trying to get as much money as possible,'' he says.
He acknowledges that his mind has wandered this week to the Chargers and all the seasons he toiled for them.
``I feel great for those guys,'' he said. ``They deserve it. They worked hard. I worked hard with them.
``I'm almost as frustrated with the national media as they are over the respect issue. It's not a fluke that they're here. Whatever it takes to make it, that's what they've done.''
If anyone knows what that's like, it's Plummer. by CNB