Outside Looking In : Longtime Raider-Watcher Robinson Grew Tired of It Last Season

The hardest thing about the Raiders, learned young Jerry Robinson, a lifelong fan who grew up in Santa Rosa trying to peek over the fences at their old training site, is playing for them.

Where did he go, Mr. Robinson? From the Philadelphia Eagles last season to the Raiders, who had an inside linebacker spot dusted off for him.

Except that in the two or three weeks it took him learn the system, rookie Reggie McKenzie’s play took off, prompting another of those windshield-wiper switches Robinson knows so well, “Inside, outside, inside, outside.”

Since the defense was playing well, he had to content himself with spot duty in passing situations. That was a little light for what one Raider official called “a man you can build a defense around.”

“It was difficult in the sense, for six years, I was used to hardly ever coming off the field,” Robinson said Wednesday. “The only time I’d go off the field was when the offense came on the field.

“I learned a great deal about patience last year. If your patience has never really been tested and you’re thrown in a situation where you know for sure you have to be patient, where you’ve been told you have to be patient, you’ve got to work at it. Especially when the defense is just kicking butts and taking names. You definitely want to be part of it.”

If it’s an even-numbered year, Robinson must be an outside backer, right? He has been going back and forth ever since Dick Vermeil, then UCLA’s coach, took a freshman wide receiver and dropped him into an inside linebacker spot, to the amazement of everyone.

To everyone’s further amazement, Robinson, up to 218 pounds as a senior, played it with distinction and was drafted No. 1 by the Eagles and their new coach, Vermeil.

In Philadelphia, he made the Pro Bowl as an outside backer. He played outside, too, when the Raiders beat the Eagles in the 1981 Super Bowl, 27-10. That was the one in New Orleans in which John Matuszak worked out of the Old Absinthe House and Vermeil was criticized for drilling his team too hard.

“We got to the Super Bowl working hard, extremely hard,” Robinson said. “So we continued to work hard when we got there, period.

“There was picture day, when the Raiders were going off the field and we were coming on in full pads. We were going to practice afterward. They were trying to figure out what was going on.

“I don’t know if we were overworked or what, but I’ll tell you what: If it wasn’t for those three interceptions (of Ron Jaworski’s passes), it’d have been a hell of a lot closer game. But we all had a part in the defeat.”

Robinson’s new teammate, Kenny King, walked by. In that game, King caught a short pass from Jim Plunkett and turned it into an 80-yard scoring play, a Super Bowl record. What was Robinson’s part in that one?

“Gene Upshaw held me,” Robinson said, laughing. “He’ll tell you to this day he didn’t and everybody else will tell you he did.

“I was in Plunkett’s face, and the next thing I knew, I was face down in the AstroTurf. I said, ‘Gene, what’s the deal, my man? You’re holding me.’ He said, ‘I got away with it.’

“I looked up and I saw Herman (Edwards) try to go for the ball, and miss. Kenny caught it, and that was it.”

In subsequent seasons, Vermeil switched Robinson back to inside linebacker. Then Vermeil switched himself into a TV commentator. Then the Eagles switched from being a power to an also-ran.

“The one big difference, the atmosphere here is very laid back, relaxed,” Robinson said. “When it comes time to work, we work. Come Sunday, we’re fresh. We have our legs.

“In Philly, it was always an intense pressure, pressure, pressure. We worked extremely hard and then we were having trouble winning games. When you’re working as hard as you possibly can and giving all you have and coming up on the short end of things, mentally that’s not healthy for you.”

Robinson held out last season to improve himself mentally, not to forget geographically and financially. What resulted was his trade to the Raiders, a former All-Pro for a second-round draft choice.

“Words cannot say how excited I am to be here,” he says, often.

It may have cost him most of a season, but who’s counting?

“There was the game Rod (Martin) and JB (Jeff Barnes) got thrown out for fighting, so I got an opportunity to play,” he said. “It’s interesting being on the most-penalized team in the NFL. Every time you turn around, somebody’s pushing somebody.

“Was this my hardest experience? No, it wasn’t. Winning makes it easier to pace up and down the sidelines. It was a little disappointing in that I thought we should have gone a lot farther than we did. It was difficult, yes, but I was still learning the system. That’s behind me now. Now I’m trying to improve my stature among the outside linebackers.”

In traditional understated Raiderese, Brad Van Pelt’s spot on the left side has been listed as “competitive,” with Robinson the competitor. The job is expected to be Van Pelt’s right up until opening day, when Robinson can get on with his dreams.