Chargers' Merriman not looking back
SAN DIEGO -- Those NFL-high 17 sacks and another Pro Bowl appearance? Done.
The playoff collapse and coaching change? Gone.
That four-game suspension for testing positive for steroids? A nonissue.
After a tumultuous 2006, perhaps no one is more eager for the freshness of a new season than Shawne Merriman, the San Diego Chargers' star outside linebacker. The Bears open the season Sunday in San Diego.
One of the NFL's top young players, Merriman says he wants to tone down the peripheral stuff, be a better teammate and focus on punishing opponents.
"After everything came up, I just figured that I'm going to go out there and just play," Merriman said. "That's it. I don't have to do nothing else, but just go out and play. Don't worry about who's thinking or saying what.
"You go play and show people what kind of person, what kind of player you are, and leave it at that."
That's how Merriman plans to rehab his image, if it indeed needs rehabbing.
Merriman was suspended for four games last fall for flunking a drug test. He blamed it on a tainted supplement and said he'd appeal. Declaring he wasn't a cheater, he changed his mind and served the punishment.
Despite missing a quarter of the season, he still led the NFL in sacks, earned a second trip to the Pro Bowl and a spot on the elite all-pro team.
Merriman was considered a front-runner for NFL Defensive Player of the Year. Several players, including Miami end Jason Taylor, who was voted the top defensive player, criticized Merriman receiving such honors.
That led to the so-called "Merriman Rule," a stipulation in the NFL's 2007 Policy On Anabolic Steroids And Related Substances that says any player suspended for violating the policy will be ineligible for the Pro Bowl or any other awards from the league or the NFL Players Association.
Merriman doesn't want to talk about the suspension or its effects anymore.
"After one question it becomes a second question, after the second question there will be a third question, and after you answer 1,000 questions, there will be 1,001 questions," he said.
"You just kind of go out there and show yourself. That's what I did, off the field and on the field, I showed myself and I left it alone. After things happen, you don't revisit it, you move on and become a better person and player. And become a better teammate."
Shaun Phillips, the Chargers' other hard-charging outside linebacker, doesn't think Merriman's image is in need of repair.
"I think it's passed," said Phillips, who had 11½ sacks last year. "For the most part it stinks, because I know what type of guy Shawne is, and everyone can just take my word that he's not that type of guy. He just got caught in a bad situation by mistake. It happened, it happened to other players. We've just got to learn to forgive and forget."