Treu a choice but not Chosen One

NAPA -- He comes to camp every summer knowing his fate is decided, that it will not matter how good he looks or how well he plays.

Adam Treu has long realized he is not the Chosen One, won't be the Chosen One and never will be the Chosen One.

Treu is, by contrast, a choice. The Raiders can choose to play him at center. Or at guard, if need be. Or at tackle, in a pinch. His special-teams snapping ranks among the best.

Treu, who turned 30 last month, is a professional lineman. He occasionally starts, but usually surfaces only when needed.

For he is not the Chosen One. And the Raiders always have a Chosen One.

See, the Raiders treat the center position with a respect and dignity beyond that seen anywhere else in the NFL. They carefully identify their next star, then they draft him and groom him and polish him before presenting him with his cape and crown.

The right to play center for Oakland is not so much earned as it is granted. One is summoned into football royalty.

This goes back to the 1960s, when Jim Otto established himself as king of all NFL centers, and continues through Dave Dalby, Don Mosebar and Barret Robbins. This is a virtually complete list of Raiders centers over 40-plus years, and all were selected for Pro Bowls.It is a position of status and mystique, something of which the Raiders are very proud. UCLA has its basketball coaches, Notre Dame has its football coaches, the Yankees have their first basemen, and the Raiders have their centers.

The latest Chosen One is rookie Jake Grove, drafted from Virginia Tech in the second round and attending his first NFL training camp.

Here he will learn under the tutelage of offensive line coach Aaron Kromer, accept a few tips from the legendary Otto and a receive a bit more than a handshake from Treu.

"I'll visit with him and look out for him," Treu said after Saturday morning practice. "I'll get his wife's phone number and give it to my wife, and we'll have 'em over to welcome him here."

This is exceedingly magnanimous of Treu, offering such warmth and hospitality to a kid who could be seen as a threat to his security. A youngster who is here to take his job.

But Treu knows his place, seems to accept that the job is not his to lose. He knows the best he is likely to get is the opportunity to keep the seat warm until Grove is deemed ready.

Which is why Treu winces at the reasonable notion that he is Oakland's starting center. He seems to have a hard time believing anyone of consequence is ready to express such faith in him.

"Coach Kromer told me, 'I'm going to play who's better at the end of camp,'" Treu said.

Which should make Treu the heavy favorite. Center is a complex position, with an enormous amount of responsibility. The center reads, calls out assignments, snaps and blocks. He is as essential to the function of the offensive line as the remote is to the TV.

Treu has filled the role before. Since being drafted in the third round in 1997, Treu has played in all 112 games, starting 18 -- all when Robbins was unable to play.

Treu has proved to be effective -- he often was singled out for praise in 2001, when he started 14 games. But that never has been quite enough.

Robbins, in the wake of his meltdown leading up to Super Bowl 37, fell out of favor last off-season. He was hurt, wounded and troubled. The Raiders, needing a new starter, considered Treu.

They turned to Matt Stinchcomb.

Let's get this straight. Former head coach Bill Callahan chose Stinchcomb, a failed first-rounder who was drafted as a tackle, over Treu, primarily a center and practically indispensable to the team?

"Coach Callahan told me he's going to go with Matt," Treu recalled. "And I think the reason he gave me was that he was ... worried about my 'lowers,' whatever that means.

"Legs? Strength? Injury? I don't know."

Treu is relatively angular for a 6-foot-5, 300-pound man. He does not have especially thick legs. Nor, for that matter, did Stinchcomb, who since has moved on to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

What it seems to boil down to is this: Treu is not the Chosen One.

He is one of the choices available to Kromer and head coach Norv Turner. Treu is at best likely to be the short-term solution, much as Dan Turk was in 1995.

Turk, another career lineman, held the spot only until Robbins was ready.

Treu seems destined to do the same for Grove.

"You don't draft a guy that early to sit him down for long or with the idea that he's going to be around for a short while," said Otto, who recommended Grove. "He has a tremendous opportunity here. He's got a lot to learn. It's not going to come to him overnight. He's got some good techniques.

"But he still hasn't played an NFL game. He hasn't seen what those linebackers and defensive tackles are going to be like."

Treu has seen it. He has survived it and more. He has made a pretty good career of showing up when his name is called.

But never because he is the guy.