Indoor Football League Drafts 2 Ex-CSUN Players

Brian Clark and Tony Palamara, former Cal State Northridge football players, have been selected as territorial free-agent picks by the Los Angeles Cobras of the Arena Football League.

Clark, a two-time All-Western Football Conference center at CSUN during the 1986 and ’87 seasons, and Palamara, an offensive lineman, have been invited to a league-wide training camp in Orlando, Fla., beginning Thursday. Clark and Palamara, both age 22, were selected by Los Angeles with 10 other players, including former Raider receiver Cliff Branch and former UCLA quarterback Matt Stevens, after participating in a tryout at El Camino College last week.

“I must have done something right at the tryout, because there were about 400 guys there,” Clark said. “I ran the 40 in 4.8 seconds and that really helped me. They’re looking for quickness in this league.”

The Arena Football League, now in its second year, features a condensed version of traditional football and holds its games indoors on 50-yard fields. The Cobras, an expansion team coached by Ray Willsey, will play at the L. A. Sports Arena.

Beginning Thursday, the league’s six teams--Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, New York, Providence, R.I., and Los Angeles--will hold a training camp to further evaluate the talent pool. The free-agent selections will be joined by roster players from last year’s franchises. At the conclusion of drills, the league will conduct its draft. Nine of the 12 territorial free-agent picks--such as Palamara and Clark--from each team will be protected from the draft.

After the draft, each team should have 35 to 37 players on its roster. During the following week, rosters will be pared to 27, then 21. Teams will have 18 active players during the season, which is scheduled to run from April 30 to June 14. An additional three players will be kept on taxi squads.