The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
BEATHARD HELPED BUILD TEAMS IN 7 SUPER BOWLS
GM and scout found success with players from small colleges.
SAN DIEGO — Bobby Beathard loathed first-round draft picks and reveled in taking chances on players from out-of-theway colleges. It was a formula that paid off with two victories in four trips to the Super Bowl as general manager of the Washington Redskins and San Diego Chargers.
He also loathes dressing up, meaning the gold blazer he’ll wear when he’s inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame won’t get much use after Saturday night’s ceremony. “I don’t think I’ll be going out to dinner with that coat,” Beathard said.
That’s Beathard, 81, who always was more comfortable dressed as a Southern California beach bum. In jobs ranging from scout to general manager, he helped build seven Super Bowl teams for four franchises, including four winners, during a career lasting nearly four decades.
Beathard was so low-key that when Kevin Gilbride was hired as Chargers coach in 1997 and insisted that everyone wear a coat and tie on road trips, even the GM, Beathard reached into his pocket on one trip and found an NFL schedule from 1989. That had been the last time he wore a blazer, when he worked on NBC’s pregame show.
Beathard’s presenter Saturday
will be Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs, hired by Beathard with Washington before the 1981 season. Gibbs, inducted in 1996, coached the Redskins to victory in two of the three Super Bowls the Redskins reached in the 1980s. Those are the teams Beathard is best remembered for building. He also built the Chargers’ only Super Bowl team, which was routed by San Francisco in the 1995 game.
He began his career as a part-time scout for the Kansas City Chiefs in 1963 before leaving to scout in the AFL. He returned to the Chiefs in 1966, when they played in the first Super Bowl. In 1972, Beathard was hired as director of player personnel for the Miami Dolphins, who won consecutive Super Bowls.
The Redskins hired him as GM in 1978 and he began doing things his way. He viewed first-round draft picks a commodity to be traded away to stockpile lower picks. He also worked the free agent market. In 1982, the Redskins team that won the Super Bowl included 27 free agents signed by Beathard since he was hired. In his 11 years in Washington, the Redskins used their first-round pick only three times.
In 1988, Sports Illustrated called him “The Smartest Man in the NFL.”
Of all his draft picks and free agent signings, Beathard said his favorite was Darrell Green, the 5-foot-8 defensive back from Texas A&I who was taken with the 28th pick overall — the last pick in the first round — of the 1983 draft. Green went on to a Hall of Fame career.
Beathard left the Redskins in May 1989 and was out of the NFL only one season before being hired by the Chargers. His first draft pick was Junior Seau, and the Chargers reached the Super Bowl five seasons later.
When he scouted colleges, Beathard, who retired in April 2000, said he’d look beyond the players recommended by coaches.
“I traveled the whole country to every school that played football to look for players. I got to see the players personally, besides the scouting staff. I just had a lot of confidence in my evaluation. I wasn’t afraid to take players from small schools, or small players.
“I think of Darrell Green, we had a little receiver, Alvin Garrett, guys that some teams thought we were crazy to take them because they were so small, but they were great players. I guess I was lucky to have a feel for some of these guys and had coaches who were willing to coach them.”