Raider Camp : Rookie Drill to Be Closed

The Raiders and their old friends, the Dallas Cowboys, will play a rookie scrimmage here at 2 this afternoon, but it will be closed to the public.

The format will be like that of a practice, with the two squads dividing up and going through drills against each other on different fields.

The Cowboys and Raiders are, of course, great rivals, a National Conference power that once billed itself as America’s Team and is considered in some quarters as being the darling of the league office, against an old American Football League team and the bane of the league office. They’re now neighbors in training, with the Cowboys a few miles down the road in Thousand Oaks.

The teams will scrimmage again Tuesday. The Raider veterans will report the next day.

Raider Notes The Raiders are close to signing No. 1 draft pick Jessie Hester. “The numbers are there,” said one of Hester’s agents, Frank Bauer. “It’s just a matter of present value.” In other words, the two sides are in substantial agreement on the size of the total package, but Hester wants more of it in the early years. . . . Today would have been an important one for the No. 6 pick, Rusty Hilger of Oklahoma State, but he isn’t signed and won’t be here. The Raiders liked him in their mini-camps, and Coach Tom Flores says he was looking forward to seeing what he’d do in game-like situations. Rich Campbell and Russ Jensen will split the quarterbacking. . . . The Raiders are trying second-year wide receiver Sammy Seale, a running back in college, at cornerback. “He’s 21 years old, he can run like a deer and he’s tough,” Flores said.” And the Raiders have a lot of fast, young wide receivers, including Hester and one of their new No. 3 picks, Tim Moffett, who has impressed the staff here.