Chargers’ Linden King Is Acquired by Raiders
Linebacker Linden King, the longtime San Diego Charger mainstay, became a Raider Friday. The Raiders are up to their hip pads in linebackers--Jerry Robinson, an All-Pro, was a reserve last season--but they liked the way King played against them and wanted to see him up close and personal.
King, 31, was recently waived by the Chargers, who are not nearly as deep in linebackers. Coach Don Coryell, a staunch defender of players, said that he’d been satisfied with only one linebacker last season, Billy Ray Smith.
King, however, had started the last 73 games in San Diego. He thinks his salary--$350,000--and political considerations got him.
“They had a man in the organization who was very critical of some of the people he’d brought in,” King said. “He was doing it openly in the papers. I made some statements about that. He was the one who had brought him there. Then when they didn’t play to Super Bowl level, he criticized them.”
King didn’t want to identify the man, but it was scouting director Ron Nay, an adviser to the new Charger owner, Alex Spanos.
This spring, King had a bursa sac surgically removed from his right knee. He also was shifted to inside linebacker, with Smith taking his job.
“Then after they cut me, they moved Billy Ray back inside,” King said. “It’s musical chairs down there.
“I was there 10 years, through the good times. Now they’re nit-picking about everything. Everything is crucial. You can’t just think about football.”
Raider Notes For the record: The Raiders will hold their annual Family Day today at Oxnard High School, not Oxnard College as reported in Friday’s editions. Gates will open at 10:45 a.m. The Raiderettes and the Raider band will perform at 12:30 p.m. The team will arrive for a clinic run by Coach Tom Flores at 2 p.m. There is no admission charge, and players will be available for photos and autographs afterward. . . . Eight more free agents were cut. No. 11 draft choice Randell Webster, the linebacker from Southwest Oklahoma who deserted camp, returned. . . . Guard Charley Hannah is still holding out. “No progress,” said Raider assistant Steve Ortmayer, who is handling negotiations. Curt Marsh, who had just been bumped up to starting right guard, has moved to Hannah’s left guard spot and Mickey Marvin is back at right guard. . . . During one drill Friday, quarterback coach Karry Kennan snarled at the defensive backfield coaches to get their players out of the way, precipitating great laughter. Yelled Cliff Branch to one of the backfield coaches, Willie Brown, who was standing on the field next to Al Davis: “Willie get that owner off the field!”