Can Branch Beat Time? : At 37, Raider May Be on His Last Legs, but They’re Fast Ones

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday Dear Cliffie.

How many is this?

Thirty-seven?

Ha-ha, better give you a little help blowing out all those candles, old guy. What position do they have you playing these days?

Wide receiver?

That’s right, wide receiver, where Cliff Branch still lines up with the Raider first unit, with the rest of the flyboys right behind. There are Dokie Williams, 24, Malcolm Barnwell, 27, and the two kids, Jessie Hester, 22, and Tim Moffett, 23.

That makes five, one more than a relay team. Also one more than Coach Tom Flores may keep this season. Williams is golden, as are the just-drafted Hester and Moffett, so whom does that leave?

Barnwell had an OK 1984 season. Flores blames some of what was missing on the decline of the Raider deep attack. The offensive line got hurt, the quarterbacks fell under siege, and for a while, there was neither the time to throw deep nor a quarterback healthy enough to.

And then there was Branch. He went from 39 catches for five touchdowns in 1983 to 27 for none in ’84. Before camp opened, Flores said it was going to be a tough one for Branch.

“But he’s been written off before,” Flores said.

The whispers were more pointed. Cliff is on his way out, they said. Of course, Al Davis will keep him in the organization, but football-wise, he’s on the bubble. This may be the year.

This may not.

You wonder if the old guy has anything left? Ask the rest of his relay team.

“I don’t want to race him,” said Williams, the former UCLA triple jumper. “I don’t know if he could beat me. I’m just saying, I wouldn’t want to race him.

“Cliff--there’s just something in him. He has that pop. He’s like those video games where the man you’re playing is in trouble, and you hit the warp button and all of a sudden, he’s over there.

“He’s taught me so many things. I just watch him all the time. I don’t know if everybody else does, but. . . .

“Malcolm Barnwell and I were talking about it yesterday. Cliff must have a different set of ankles, to do some of the things he does. We try to do them in slow motion, and it’s not easy.

“He ran a corner pattern yesterday that was a Picasso, that’s what it was. He’ll come right up in a guy’s face. Then he’ll be two yards to the left of the guy. Then he’ll be two yards to the right of the guy. The guy will turn around and lose track of him. And he’ll be five yards away, catching the ball. That’s Cliff Branch.

“Before I was a Raider, when I saw Cliff Branch, I thought bomb-bomb-speedbomb. Now that I’m playing with him, he can go deep, sure, but it’s the other things he does. A lot of guys can do some of the things he does, but the cat quickness, that ability to accelerate, you just don’t find that.

“I would like to have seen Cliff when he first came into the league. I’d like to have seen his pop then. I’ve heard people say, ‘Aw, this ain’t nothing compared to what he used to be.’

“If he was more than he is now, he had to be pretty incredible.”

He was faster than he is now.

He was a world-class sprinter. His hand-timed 9.3 for an indoor 100-yard dash in 1972 is still tied for the American record.

Among all the great Raiders, Branch was a superstar in his own right. But when he arrived, he was only a fourth-round draft pick. The star of that Raider draft was supposed to be Mike Siani, the No. 1 choice, who was scheduled to step in opposite Fred Biletnikoff.

Siani was polished and famous. Branch was almost a beginner.

“When Cliff was in college, they used him to run kickoffs back, punts,” Flores said. “He ran reverses. He really wasn’t trained in their system as a wide receiver. When we got him, I got him. I was his coach.” Before he became head coach, Flores coached Raider receivers for seven years.

“By opening day, Cliff had beaten Siani out,” Flores said. “We opened in Pittsburgh. Cliff didn’t have a real great day. He dropped a couple, including one for a TD, and we took him out. Mike came in and caught six balls. But their third year, Siani was hurt. Branch came in and made all-pro.

“I used to tell Cliff when he was young: ‘Just go. Don’t make a move, just take off.’

“Then I’d tell Ken Stabler: ‘Make sure you throw it early.’ ”

Branch is the NFL’s leading pass receiver in postseason play. He is 42 catches from the all-time top 10. He caught five passes for two touchdowns in the 1981 Super Bowl, and six for one in the ’84 Super Bowl. He scored on an 88-yard pass play in 1977, an 86-yarder in 1980, and in 1983, at 35, a 99-yarder against the Redskins.

Most of that, of course, was done while the Raiders were still in Oakland. In Los Angeles, he’s a little like Willie Mays, the darling of New York who had to play in San Francisco before fans who preferred heroes all their own, such as Orlando Cepeda and Willie McCovey.

Last season, the decline of the offense got to Branch, too. So did a groin injury, plus. . . .

Flores said: “Last season we started using Dokie Williams a little for Cliff. We were used to leaving Cliff in the whole game, where he might run five ups (deep patterns) in a row. You have to be realistic and realize he can’t do that anymore. . . .

“Cliff still looks fast. To be honest with you, he doesn’t look as fast as he was. He was a blur then. But he’s put on a couple of shows for the young receivers in camp.”

A lot of sprinters have massive thighs. Branch doesn’t. He’s 5 feet 11 inches and 170 pounds, with an ordinary-looking physique.

But running? He is poetry.

Eight other receivers have played in more seasons, but even the fastest of them, like Charlie Joiner, had turned into pattern receivers by their upper 30s. Branch is quite underrated at running routes, but 37 or no, he can still go deep.

“Like a feather,” said Tom Walsh, Raider receiver coach. “He just kind of flies over the ground.

“That’s a unique aspect that’s blessed him, that capacity to still run like that. And until the last two seasons, he never was injured. No cuts, no surgeries. And he had a million opportunities to get hurt. He’s been out there for a lot of snaps.

“Cliff works at it. He sits up front in every film session with his notebook and his pen and pencil out. He’ll stay out after practice as long as you want to stay. He’s never been shy in that area.

“He’s like having another coach on the field. The young receivers are all in awe of him.”

Branch’s groin got sore again last week, but he’s been having a good camp, according to Walsh, even if it has included all those questions about his age.

“I can’t play five years from now or four years from now,” he said a couple of days ago. “But I have two years left on my contract. I want to fulfill that.

“They won’t have to pull the uniform off me. I’ll know. They’ve got good receivers here, much younger than I am. They’re the future of the Raiders, the guys we drafted one and three (Hester and Moffett). My days are pretty much numbered anyway.

“The coaches told us at the first meeting there were probably only going to be four or five receivers this year, and nobody has a secure job. Just because right now I’m running with the first unit doesn’t mean I’m necessarily going to start.

“I’m going to be there. I’m definitely going to be there. I’ve worked real hard. In my mind, I’m going to make this ballclub.

“Play this long? I had no idea. When I first came here, I had a bad rap, that I couldn’t catch the ball. I knew I was going to have my work cut out for me, just trying to make the ballclub.

“Here I am, still here.”

With good reason, Dokie Williams said. “There’s no doubt about it. In my mind, Cliff is still a great receiver. If he wants to play, there’s nothing that can hold him back.”

Check the exhibition season for late-breaking developments. Meanwhile, Branch still trails sparks off the line, and the defensive backs wheel and tear for the goal line for all they’re worth. The Nolan Ryan of the wideouts is blazing into his dotage.