In the end, the Raiders will be running on empty

Sporting News, The, August 22, 1994 by Bob Glauber

After all these years, Al Davis should have known better.

After watching Clarence Davis, Mark van Eeghen and marcus Allen power his three Super Bowl championship teams, he should have known better.

After suffering through the consequences of giving up too soon on Allen, he should have known better.

After all this time, the Raiders' managing general partner should have known better than to do what he did to his team this year. Or, to be more precise, what he didn't do.

And what Davis didn't do was solidify the Raiders' chances of getting to the Super Bowl this season by significantly upgrading their running game, the backbone of any championship team and certainly a hallmark of the Raiders' Super Bowl winners after the 1976, '80 and '83 seasons. Too bad Davis didn't get the horses for the backfield, because the Raiders could have been the ones to end Buffalo's four-year stranglehold on the AFC.

But instead, they go into another season with an uncertain running game and will miss a terrific opportunity to win it all. Or, at the very least, to be a part of the NFC's umpteenth Super Bowl victory in a row.

Remember, the Raiders are the team that last season shrugged off predictions of another losing season, went 10-6 behind a brilliant performance by Jeff Hostetler and made it to Buffalo in the second round, losing, 29-23, on a frigid afternoon at Rich Stadium.

All they needed to get to the next level was a reliable running game to take some of the pressure off Hostetler, who played much of last season with knee and ankle injuries. Perhaps if the running game had been more prolific, Hostetler might not have been so banged up. After all, the Raiders ranked 26th in the league with a paltry average of 89.1 yards rushing per game.

But what did Davis do? He went into the draft and made no attempt to get a top runner. OK, so Marshall Faulk would have cost him too much in compensation, we'll allow that. But there were plenty left to choose from. Greg Hill of Texas A&M. Errict Rhett of Florida. Charlie Garner of Tennessee. Mario Bates of Arizona State. Chuck Levy of Arizona.

Evidently, none suited Davis, so he decided on Michigan State linebacker Rob Fredrickson in the first round and Northeast Louisiana linebacker James Folston in the second round. Finally, the Raiders got around to picking a runner in the third round, the undistinguished Calvin Jones of Nebraska.

But wait, it gets worse. Three days after the draft, the Raiders dipped into the freeagent market and signed running back Harvey Williams, the Chiefs' first-round pick in 1991. Harvey Williams? Here's a guy who was a colossal disappointment in Kansas City's run-oriented attack. His career high rushing total was 447 yards as a rookie.

Williams was handed the starting job with the Chiefs last season but wound up losing it to Allen, the player Davis never should have let go in the first place. The Chiefs thought so highly of Williams that they released him April 6 and filled his spot by drafting Hill in the first round.

But now Williams is the main man in Los Angeles, where Davis hopes to prove all the skeptics wrong by making Williams a star and turning the Raiders into Super Bowl contenders. Davis once had a reputation for turning other teams' discards into productive members of championship teams, but we don't see Williams fitting that mold -- even with the addition of free-agent fullback Tom Rathman, one of the best blockers in the business.

We see Williams continuing a disappointing career on a team that is only a solid running game away from being a Super Bowl contender. Look all you want, but you won't find a Clarence Davis, Mark van Eeghen or Marcus Allen on this roster.

No, all we see here is a weak running attack, just another symbol of the Raiders' missed opportunity in 1994.

After all these years, Davis should have known better.

Make'em full time

The league's on-field officials last week voted unanimously to become unionized, a move we commend as they attempt to gain leverage in contract negotiations with the NFL.

But we would like to see the process go even one step further. We would like to see the new union and the league come to an agreement that would make all the NFL's on-field officials full-time employees.

Amazingly, the NFL is the only major professional sport with officials who work on a per diem basis. That may save the league hundreds of thousands of dollars. But, in our view, that's a pennywise, pound-foolish arrangement when you take into consideration the complexity of NFL officiating.

Football is the most difficult sport to officiate, given the enormous set of guidelines and the year-to-year changes in the rules. So why not view the idea of full-time officials as an investment rather than a financial burden?

Though most league officials do a sound job on a game-to-game basis, just think how much better they could be if they concentrated solely on football all year.

Barton's long year

This has easily been Harris Barton's most difficult year, but the 49ers' tackle has come through it with a new appreciation for life.