01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, April 27, 2004

Don't play poker with A.J. Smith.

Not unless you want to lose your chips, your shirt, your car and your house. And probably an array of draft picks, to boot.

The Manning family -- Eli; his father, Archie; and agent Tom Condon -- thought they could force Smith's hand in Saturday's NFL draft.

Eli's not coming, they said. He won't play for San Diego. He'll go to law school instead. So don't waste your time, or the pick.

They tried to bluff Smith and the long-struggling Chargers into bypassing the talented young quarterback from Ole Miss.

But it was Smith who was doing the dealing, and it was the Chargers who wound up with a winning hand.

"They thought we'd crumble and back down, and not select him," Smith said yesterday.

The Mannings also thought several other things -- none of them favorable --

about Smith, coach Marty Schottenheimer and the Chargers' organization.

"They humiliated the Spanos family," said Smith, referring to the club owners, "and all of us in the organization.

"When they were asked if there were any other teams Eli wouldn't want to go to, their answer was: 'No, just one.' I think it was their opinion that we're not going anywhere -- that Marty is a lame-duck coach and I'm a one-year GM who's in over his head."

As things turned out, it appears to be Smith and the Chargers who came out ahead on draft day.

Although Manning wound up where he wanted to be -- in New York, with the Giants -- the Chargers ended up with a quarterback they wanted in Phil Rivers of N.C. State, along with the Giants' first and fifth-round picks next year.

San Diego also got the Giants' third-round choice this year as part of the deal that sent Manning, who was taken by the Chargers with the first pick, to New York after the Giants selected Rivers with the fourth choice overall.

"When they said: 'Don't draft Eli,' that was an insult to everybody here," said Smith, who grew up in Cranston and went from being a middle-school physical education teacher in Providence to general manager of the Chargers.

"It was embarrassing and humilating," he said, "to make a (telephone) call because we were thinking of selecting Eli and the first thing they said was: 'We're not interested in playing for you.' "

It seemed as if the Mannings felt Smith should be grateful for the heads up, as if they expected him to meekly bypass Manning for another player, or try to make a pre-draft deal from a position of weakness.

It's not as if there wasn't already pressure aplenty on Smith.

When Bobby Beathard was GM in San Diego, the Chargers had made a disastrous deal to trade up in the draft and select Ryan Leaf. Then, when Smith was right-hand man to the late John Butler in 2001, San Diego passed on the chance to draft Michael Vick, instead trading the top overall pick to the Falcons.

But Smith didn't see it as pressure.

"This," he said, "was my opportunity to try make something happen here."

Knowing how much the Giants coveted Manning, Smith was confident his best move was to draft him first.

"We felt New York would do anything to get him," he said.

While the Giants clearly felt Manning was worth the high price the Chargers were asking, Smith is delighted to have Rivers, plus a pair of first-round picks in 2005.

"I'm ecstatic to have him," Smith said. "He's tremendously talented. He's confident, he's mature and he's durable. He started 51 straight games over four years at N.C. State."

Rivers completed 72 percent of his passes for the Wolfpack last season while throwing for 34 touchdowns.

"What I really love about him," said Smith, "is his decision-making. He has a very quick release. The way he pulls the trigger on short and intermediate passes reminds me of Dan Marino -- bang, it's out of there and in the receiver's hands."

To those who question Rivers' unorthodox, sidearm throwing motion, Smith says: "He's got a little bit of a hitch in his delivery. But people make too much out of it. I don't think it's a concern."

Rivers is likely to step right in and start, ahead of Drew Brees and the ageless Doug Flutie.

San Diego drafted Brees in 2001 with the first pick of the second round, completing what seemed at the time a highly-successful double, since the Chargers had selected running back LaDainian Tomlinson with the first-round pick obtained from Atlanta for Vick.

But while Tomlinson has emerged as one of the league's top backs, Brees was benched last year in favor of Flutie and could be traded if the Chargers see a chance to further upgrade their roster.

"Over the last 20 years here," Smith said, "they've had 16 losing seasons. People have always said they were going to do this or that, and nobody would get anything done. So the attitude now is: 'Hey, show me.' "

Smith, playing for high stakes, certainly showed 'em a thing or two on Draft Day.