Laister Leaves Chargers, Cites Heart Trouble

SAN DIEGO — The Chargers and Oregon Tech offensive tackle Jimmy Laister agree on one thing: It doesn’t appear the team’s sixth-round draft pick has the heart to play in the NFL.

The Chargers said Sunday that Laister appeared to be overwhelmed by the NFL experience and decided not to play football after his first minicamp practice.

“I believe Laister has gotten a little cold feet,” Coach Dan Henning said.

Laister, however, said he has been in and out of hospitals since age 16 with a heart ailment. He also said he withheld that information from the Chargers until Sunday morning. He knows the Chargers are upset about wasting a draft pick, but he said after becoming ill Saturday and then again Sunday morning, he feared for his life.

“We knew something about his heart, but it wasn’t anything that kept him from practicing or playing,” said General Manager Bobby Beathard. “It’s like an anxiety attack, I guess. Our doctor was aware of something, but it wasn’t any big deal. . . . I think he (Laister) may have just wanted to use that as an excuse.”

Dr. Alden Glidden, who has been Laister’s treating physician at Oregon Tech, said in a phone interview Sunday night this is no excuse.

“This is not anxiety, this is an arrhythmia problem,” he said. “It’s really there. The heart beats so fast it doesn’t put out blood. That’s not anxiety.

“Jimmy’s not a nervous kid. It’s not even something that would be brought on by nervousness.”

Dr. Glidden said Laister underwent a revolutionary medical procedure shortly after the football season to correct his problem. He said a tube was inserted into Laister’s heart, and he said he was under the impression the problem had been rectified.

“I’m sorry to hear he had a re-occurance,” Glidden said.

Laister, meanwhile, was devastated.

“I freaked; I thought I was cured the last time they put tubes in me,” he said. “I’m tired of going to doctors all the time, having them stick tubes up my groin and through my chest and talking about open heart surgery.

“I’ve had them put me under and give me electric shock treatment; you know, just like in the movies where your body jumps off the table. I had one doctor tell me that it was a wonder I didn’t have a stroke because at times my heart beats so fast.

“I thought I was done with all that, but then it started again. So I’m through with football. This way, I figure I’ll live a lot longer.”

Beathard met Sunday morning with the 6-foot-4, 300-pound Laister, but was unsuccessful in preventing Laister from returning to Oregon Tech.

“I talked to his coach at Oregon Tech,” Beathard said, “and he said when the kid first came there from East Mississippi Junior College all he wanted to do was go home. He was homesick, cried and everything. But he pulled through it.

“I just got the impression he just wanted out of here, didn’t want to compete. (Offensive line coach) Alex Gibbs thinks maybe it was too much for him to handle.”

Laister said he was stricken Saturday after lunch, and as a result, was late for a team meeting. He said he began to sweat profusely and became very weary. He said nothing to the Chargers.

He said he was prepared to stay at minicamp and then discuss his medical condition with his mother before making a final decision on football. But he suffered another attack Sunday morning and decided he was finished with football.

“It isn’t cold feet,” he said. “I know what I’m going through and they don’t. I don’t care what people say.”

Laister said he became aware of his condition in high school; he was hospitalized for several weeks.

“There were times when I was playing at Oregon Tech where they’d rush me to the hospital,” Laister said. “They’d have an ambulance there and they’d get me to the hospital, turn me upside down, shoot me up, give me drugs and convert (change the heart rate). I’d be OK and be back playing before halftime if I wasn’t too bad off.”

Upon hearing of Laister’s comments, Oregon Tech trainer Joy Johnson said, “You can believe him. There have been a couple of occasions where he had to get to the hospital and be converted. But I’ll have to refer you to his physician for further questions.”

Dr. Glidden confirmed Laister required help at a hospital several times after playing football.

“The arrhythmia problem was supposedly taken care of at the Oregon Health Sciences Center,” Dr. Glidden said. “This is a big deal. It was a new procedure and it was even written up in the (Portland) Oregonian. They didn’t use his name, but they referred to him as an NFL candidate.”

Laister did not attend the NFL scouting combine because he was being treated in Oregon. As a result, he was not examined by Charger physicians before the draft, but he received an examination Friday when he reported to San Diego.

“The doctor told me that he didn’t think it wasn’t anything he couldn’t control by some sort of medication,” Beathard said. “We told him (after he decided to quit) that he should go down to our doctor and have a series of tests, and he said, ‘I’m tired of being tested; I want to get out of here.’

“When a guy gets like that, it’s a waste of time to even try and talk him into changing his mind. What he has to do is go home, and it might finally hit him, ‘Geez, I just blew a great opportunity.’ ”

Oregon Tech football coach Craig Howard said Laister was under medication for a heart condition during his two years at the school. He was stunned to learn of Laister’s departure.

“When Bobby called, it knocked me off my chair,” he said. “This is a small college football player with a chance to play big-time football and he’s walking away from it. He’s going from a dream to food stamps.

“In my estimation he may have been overwhelmed; he’s always been a big fish in a small pond. I think it’s an anxiety type of thing that occurs. Once in awhile in certain situations it (heart problem) would come up, but he never missed a game.”

Laister met with Henning, Beathard, Trainer Keoki Kamau, Assistant General Manager Dick Daniels and Marty Hurney, the coordinator of football operations, before catching a morning flight to Klamath Falls, Ore.

Laister met with Beathard before the draft, but did not advise him of his heart problem.

“I wanted to be drafted and I wanted to be well, and at that time, I thought I was,” he said. “Bobby said today if they had known about it they would have done something else. And what he was saying was, they wouldn’t have drafted me.

“This was my dream--to play in the NFL,” he said. “I told Bobby I was sorry things worked out the way they did. But I know the doctors are going to want to go into my chest and see what’s wrong and I don’t want to be cut on. I’ve seen guys right before surgery and they’re OK, and then two or three weeks later, you hear they’re dead.”

Laister said he won’t know if he’s made the right decision until sometime “down the road. Who knows, I might change my mind some day. But as of right now, no, I won’t come back.”