Bobby Beathard is happy in self-exile from pro football management at the moment. From his home in San Diego, the Redskins’ former general manager said yesterday he will honor his one-year contract with NBC Sports regardless of interest in him among NFL clubs and “wait to the end of the season” to determine whether networks or nose guards are in his future.
Beathard, who resigned in February after 11 years with the Redskins, will do a weekly segment called “The Insiders” on NBC’s “NFL Live” Sunday pregame show this season. But until at least 1990, he will remain an outsider to NFL management circles.
“There have been a couple of teams that have contacted me recently,” he said. “I told them each the same thing—’I’m going to do this now, I’ll talk to you at the end of the season if you’re interested, and I’ll talk then too with [NBC Sports Executive Producer] Terry [O’Neil].’”
Persistent preseason rumors that had Beathard, 52, going to the San Diego Chargers apparently were misguided. “I think it was just because I was moving here, because I have a home here,” Beathard said. “People just assumed. But there really was nothing to it.”
Beathard, who hosted a daily radio show and cohosted a weekly TV show while in Washington, said he was surprised when he was contacted by O’Neil for possible NBC work.
“I had to do something. I wanted to do something,” he said of accepting the network’s offer. “… I thought a long time about it [after meeting with O’Neil]. I thought, ‘Maybe I won’t be any good.’ But I decided it would be fun. I still don’t know what to expect.
“I’ve been on the phone a lot since training camp started. I don’t think it’s that much different from [working the phones as general manager]. You always have your contacts, and the same kind of stories, rumors and things I got then I’ll get now. I don’t know if people think differently of my phone calls, though.”
When Beathard resigned, there was speculation he might have had a growing rift with Coach Joe Gibbs or was upset at John Kent Cooke’s increasing role. But he reiterated yesterday what he said when he left the Redskins: He’s not quite sure why he exited.
“It’s still difficult to say. I don’t sit here and ask myself why I’m not with the Redskins anymore,” Beathard said. “It was just the right thing to do. It was time for a change. Sitting here today, I think it was the right decision. Washington’s a wonderful football town, a great place to run a football team. Everything was right about it, but something wasn’t right about it for me. It’s hard to say.
“It was a place that I thought at one time I’d probably spend the rest of my football career if they wanted me. But just like when I was in Miami, I felt the urge for a change. If I were a money guy, I would’ve stayed. Mr. Cooke [owner Jack Kent Cooke] was always generous in that area. I can’t explain it to anybody easily, it’s just something you feel. People wanted to make something out of it [with Gibbs or John Kent Cooke], but it wasn’t something.”
Still, Beathard said, he thinks of his tenure in Washington constantly.
“Sure, all the time,” he said. “It’s hard not to. I miss it. I miss training camp and everything. I don’t miss contract negotiations. League-wide, contract negotiations are getting very tough. It’s easy to ask for a million dollars right now…. It’s a battle of agent egos maybe more than anything. It’s hurt the game.”
Beathard said his Redskins’ successor, Charley Casserly, has commiserated with him several times about salary problems. The two talk by phone every couple of days.
“He’s called to see if I have any advice from time to time,” Beathard said. “Charley’s a very smart guy. He and I are different in many ways…. I act more on impulse; Charley’s maybe a little more cautious than me, and maybe that’s better. You can believe that when Charley’s done something, he’s thought it out. I have a lot of confidence in him. I think he’ll be there a long, long time.”
The Cookes will be here a long, long time too, Beathard said. “I’ve been called by Mr. Cooke and John and was told they’re absolutely not selling the team. I’ve never believed it was for sale because I’ve never heard that from the Cookes.”
For now, Beathard will get into a rhythm of traveling to New York every weekend and stopping in more often on his still-unsold home in Vienna, where his wife Christine is.
“One of the things I said when I left was that I’d like to go through a football season on the outside looking in,” he said. “It’s kind of neat…. I’ll have to wait during the season to see if I get the urge to get back into it.”