There was a time when the future looked bright for Jesse Freitas.
After a stellar college football career, the Petaluma resident was drafted by the San Diego Chargers, where he played backup quarterback to Hall of Famer Dan Fouts.
Now, 36 years later, the former NFL passer has fallen on hard times.
He has been in and out of Sonoma County Jail and is facing criminal charges that authorities say stem from a long battle with mental illness.
He'll be dressed in jailhouse blues Tuesday when he appears before Judge Dana Simonds, who earlier this year committed him to Atascadero State Hospital for treatment.
The graying man, who played in 13 games for the Chargers in 1974 and 1975, is asking Simonds to name an ex-wife as his conservator. In a similar hearing earlier this month, he explained that he turned 60 in jail and was finally ready to listen to people trying to help him.
"I'll never stop taking my lithium," said Freitas. "I promise you that."
By all accounts, Freitas has struggled since his glory days, which started under the tutelage of his father, Jesse Freitas Jr., a San Francisco 49ers quarterback in the 1940s.
The two are listed on one fan website, Lostlettermen.com, as being among the top 10 father-son quarterback duos of all time.
The elder Freitas coached his son as a youngster growing up in San Mateo, where he was a standout athlete at Junipero Serra High alongside future NFL wide receiver Lynn Swann. It was there that he began a rivalry with Fouts, who was quarterback at St. Ignatius Prep in San Francisco.
"The two had a history," said his younger brother, James Freitas, also a former college quarterback, who lives in the Southern California city of Poway.
Freitas went on to Stanford University, played in the Rose Bowl and then transferred to San Diego State after he was passed over as starting quarterback in Palo Alto.
It was the first of several career disappointments that were worsened by mental health issues, said his brother.
"He was a very driven man," said his brother. "He didn't have the personality to play second string."
The 6-foot, 1-inch, 203-pound quarterback thrived at San Diego State, throwing 21 touchdowns and racking up 2,993 passing yards during the 1973 season.
He was drafted by the Chargers the next year. He played in Fouts' shadow but filled in for him with some success near the end of the 1975 season, his brother said.
In fact, Freitas thought for a while he had a shot at replacing Fouts. The newspapers at the time favored him as a sort of "hometown boy," his brother said.
But the coach saw it differently. He picked Fouts, who led the team for 15 years and established himself as one of the league's best quarterbacks during a career that landed him in the NFL Hall of Fame.
Freitas became discouraged and left the NFL in 1976, his brother said.
"He had a breakdown in his third year," the brother said. "He ended up having to quit."
Freitas emerged from an eight-month depression with a plan to play Canadian football. It didn't materialize and he left sports altogether, eventually returning to the Bay Area.
He got married and divorced, had four children and worked as a salesman and landlord. He and his third wife bought homes in Petaluma in the 1990s.
He was trouble-free until a few years ago, after his mother died and he split with his third wife. It triggered a return to manic-depressive behavior, and he started running afoul of the law, his brother said.
His eight pending cases in Sonoma County include petty theft, hit-and-run driving, trespassing and violating restraining orders.
James Freitas said the family has been frustrated in efforts to help. He said he last saw his brother about a year ago when the man came to a San Diego State reunion and borrowed money for gas.
He said he thought his brother was homeless at the time.
"It's sad," he said. "He's not a bad person. He's a good person. But the mind is a powerful thing. It can grab a hold of you. That's the way it has been for him his whole life."
Instead of living the life of a retired athlete, Freitas is looking forward to moving to Woodland in Yolo County to live with one of his three ex-wives.
He is known to lawyers and bailiffs around Sonoma County Superior Court as a "good guy" and a "character." He's still a football fan and was looking forward to watching the NFL playoffs on a jailhouse TV.
Simonds said last week in court that she has become "well acquainted" with Freitas over the past two years. They exchanged banter before discussing who would be a good caretaker, making sure he takes his medication and tends to financial issues.
She urged some type of arrangement after county officials turned down his request for a county conservatorship, finding his condition was not grave enough.
However, she questioned whether an ex-wife would be a suitable candidate to have legal authority to make decisions for him. Freitas, shackled to a wheelchair for security reasons, appeared to be listening closely.
Simonds asked if he felt better since his release from Atascadero and whether he had money left in his NFL pension.
Freitas answered no to both. He has no pension and was living off disability, he said.
"I've lost everything I own," he said. "I have nothing. No car, no condo, no savings account."
It wasn't always that way.
Freitas was once the toast of San Diego. Nick Canepa, a sportswriter for the Union-Tribune newspaper, recalled him as being a "terrific" college passer.
"I remember him like yesterday," Canepa said. "He had a great year."
A 1975 NFL trading card being sold on eBay last week showed him in the No. 17 Chargers jersey, winding up for a pass with a determined look in his eye. In two seasons behind Fouts, he threw eight touchdowns.
"I thought my brother was the best quarterback there ever was," said James Freitas. "He was my idol. I guess only a certain percentage of people rise to the top."
News researcher Janet Balicki contributed to this report.
You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com.
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