What do we know from football centers? If they did one of those old “Do you know me?” American Express Card commercials, they'd have to bend over and look through their legs to be recognized. You just have to wait until they walk by a ways and then turn and stare before you can say, “Oh, yeah, that's who it is.”
A center snaps the ball to the quarterback and then tries to block a defensive tackle who hasn't missed a meal since he was a Chinese gymnast in another life. Tough guy, OK, but what's so complicated?
It's much more than that.
“I like to think so, too,” quips Chargers center Nick Hardwick, a Pro Bowler whose postoperative foot will keep him off the field tomorrow when San Diego plays host to Carolina in the season opener.
For one, the center-quarterback relationship is a special one.
“You really can't put a value on it,” quarterback Philip Rivers says. “There has to be communication. If you don't have it, a quarterback can't play well. I don't know how you can play at all.”
So, imagine how Rivers felt when Hardwick underwent offseason surgery and then Rivers was informed his triggerman wasn't going to be ready by September.
But General Manager A.J. Smith always looks ahead, and sensing – probably knowing – Hardwick wouldn't be ready for a while, did something about it.
He long had admired veteran Jeremy Newberry, who spent nine years with San Francisco (where he was a two-time Pro Bowler) and 2007 with Oakland. While at the NFL owners meetings, Smith saw a crawl across his TV screen saying the Raiders had signed another veteran center, John Wade, from Tampa Bay.
“I figured Oakland wouldn't tender Jeremy,” the GM says, and when the Raiders didn't re-sign Newberry, Smith jumped at the chance.
He didn't make a more important offseason acquisition, and it was magnified when backup Cory Withrow, who started four games last year when Hardwick sat out at midseason, tore a hamstring in the final exhibition game at San Francisco. Withrow is out for the year.
“I don't know if it's the most important thing I did; maybe I'll tell you when I retire,” Smith says. “I don't think in those terms. Jeremy was a center we had tracked and liked. He will do more than just fill in and hold the fort. He's a nasty, tough, physical player who's going to help us. Injuries are my greatest torment. Jeremy helps me sleep better at night.”
Newberry's knees are without cartilage. In other words, bone-on-bone. He ices them three to four times a day and before he goes to bed.
“Somewhere down the line,” says Newberry, 32, “I'll probably have to have them replaced.”
Not yet. He'll be starting in front of Rivers tomorrow and possibly through the remainder of the month until Hardwick's return. And he knows the drill.
Newberry, signed to a one-year, $1 million deal on June 2, has not had a difficult transition, but it still took awhile to get everything down. There was the moment when the Chargers were driving in their third exhibition game against Seattle when Rivers dropped back into the shotgun and Newberry snapped the ball as if the quarterback were just behind him.
“There are things you take for granted when you've worked with a guy like Nick for so long,” Rivers says. “I didn't say 'gun' in the huddle. Jeremy wasn't used to my voice.
“But now, I have a great comfort level. He lessens the anxiety factor. Jeremy allows me to think about what I have to think about. If he had come here in Week Four, it might have been tough, but going into Week One, I don't have a single concern.”
Neither does Newberry. In 2001, when he had a high-ankle sprain, he practiced two or three days the entire season and started 15 games and made the Pro Bowl. Since moving to San Diego, he hasn't had a problem.
“I feel better now than I have in a long time,” he says.
Before the Oakland experience, Newberry considered retirement.
“I didn't want to push myself to where I couldn't walk anymore,” he says. “I definitely questioned it. Losing wasn't fun. And I was getting my knees drained every week. I haven't had my knees drained once this year – and no anti-inflammatories. I can't remember the last time I wasn't taking anti-inflammatories.”
A center's job is an important one. Only a quarterback touches the ball as much, and an experienced center is the QB of the offensive line, checking the defense and making sure his brethren know what lies ahead.
“People who understand football don't underestimate the center,” Newberry says. “It's a big responsibility, communicating with the line, making sure everyone's on the same page. The coaches have been great in the transition. But I've seen variations of almost everything. There isn't much I haven't seen.”
As Hardwick puts it: “Football is football. Don't overcomplicate it. Jeremy's an old pro. It's a matter of translating football knowledge from one language to the next.”
Newberry no longer has to hear “gun” to know the language is Chargerese.
Nick Canepa: (619) 293-1397; nick.canepa@uniontrib.com
