Navy Clears Up McCallum Questions, and It Seems He’ll Make Raider Roster

Tom Flores isn’t saying much, but all indications continue to suggest that the Raiders are planning to keep Napoleon McCallum, the full-time Navy ensign, on the roster.

Flores is hoping McCallum can attend the last practice here today and Wednesday’s first one at El Segundo.

If he can, Flores plans to play him Thursday against the Cleveland Browns, and perhaps even to run him from scrimmage, something McCallum has done twice in the exhibition season, both times in the opener at San Francisco.

The Raiders are cutting to 50 today and McCallum is expected to make it.

Other Raider concerns were addressed Monday by Capt. Kenneth R. Barry, the captain of McCallum’s ship, the USS Peleliu. Barry speaking through a Navy public affairs officer, said that the ship won’t be sailing before January.

If it did sail in January and the Raiders were still in the playoffs, a Navy official added that McCallum could take some of his 30 days of annual leave and stay with the team.

McCallum will next be sent to supply school in Georgia “at a date yet to be determined,” said Capt. Barry. The course takes 26 weeks, so that if McCallum were to start at season’s end, he could be back for the start of the 1987 season.

Capt. Barry said that McCallum will then probably be re-assigned to another ship in the Long Beach harbor.

Raider Notes

The Raiders have already decided on one move. Safety Mike Davis, who underwent two arthroscopic surgeries on his left knee last season, will undergo a third and is to be placed on injured reserve. Only one player placed on injured reserve before the season can be reactivated later without going through waivers . . . No. 1 draft choice Bob Buczkowski, who has missed the entire camp with a bad back, also may go on. Other possibilities for injured reserve include No. 4 draft pick Mike Wise and ninth-rounder Zeph Lee.