They Didn’t Pick a Fight, Just a Raider

Anybody wondering whether the Raiders have gone soft, gone wimpy, gone away from their old despicable, despiteful, desperado tendencies had better hear more about defensive end Scott Davis, who was engaged into the organization of Al Davis--no relation, except perhaps spiritually--in the first round of Sunday’s National Football League college draft.

This kid hits people.

Trouble is, he does not confine this hitting to the football field.

A University of Illinois student who stands 6 feet 7 inches and weighs 270 pounds, Davis “has a bad habit of letting his hands do the talking,” a detective lieutenant from the Champaign (Ill.) police department said Tuesday. “And, most of his incidents seem to involve girls or small people.”

Although Illinois defensive teammate Mike Piel, the El Toro native drafted Sunday by the Rams, and former Illini defensive coordinator Howard Tippett, now on the staff of the Green Bay Packers, took pains to defend Davis in separate interviews Tuesday, each acknowledged that trouble did seem to follow the football player from place to place.

On Jan. 28, 1987, in Champaign County court, battery charges were filed by an Eric Semeroth, who accused Davis of striking him in the face with his fist. Davis pleaded guilty, was put under court supervision for 12 months and paid a $150 fine and court costs.

On Feb. 7 of this year, Illinois student Catherine C. Noonan charged the football player with slapping her in the face. His battery case will be heard by an Urbana jury in June.

Last Saturday, at a campus bar around 1 a.m., another student, Colleen C. Power, 19, claimed that Davis grabbed her by the neck and hurled her to the floor. She said she got up and slapped him, only to be thrown back down.

Davis told police she slapped him, and all he did was hold her at bay. He calls it all a misunderstanding. He is being charged with misdemeanor battery.

The police lieutenant, told that the Raiders had taken Davis, said: “Will they guarantee that they’ll keep him?” The guys at the station house had just been sitting around “wondering how Davis will do when he’s got big, mean people across the line from him,” he added.

Friends, though, think Davis’ bad rep is a bad rap.

“Football players always have to put up with a lot of stuff,” said Piel, who, even though he did not go to the Rams until the last pick of the third round, was actually the Illinois team’s most valuable player on defense. “A guy in a bar thinks he’s tough, he’s had a few beers and he spots somebody who’s got a lot of muscle. So, he tries to take him on.”

And the women?

“I don’t know about that,” Piel said. “But I know Scott, and I know that people are always hassling the football players and then accusing them of doing something. Scott’s so big, he stands out. Most of the things he’s accused of, I don’t believe a word of it.”

Tippett, now special-teams coach at Green Bay, said he recommended Davis to the Packers wholeheartedly, and mentioned that they were trying to do exactly what the Raiders did--make a last-minute trade for a higher draft choice, so that they could have taken Davis.

“Scott Davis has the ability to be an all-pro football player,” Tippett said. “He’s big, he’s strong, he can run, and he’s exceptional in the pass rushing area.”

And, as a human being?

“I’m glad to get a chance to answer that question,” Tippett said, “because Scott Davis is not a bad guy. He’s a good kid.”

It cost the Raiders a lot to get him. They gave the San Francisco 49ers a seasoned pro, Dokie Williams, and draft picks in the second and fourth rounds, just to be able to claim the Illinois lineman as the 25th player of the draft. Fact was, the Raiders feared he would not be available much longer.

Yet, others warned teams against taking him at all.

In the days before the draft, Davis’ reputation foundered. Paul Zimmerman of Sports Illustrated branded him the most overrated player of the draft. Howard Balzer, pro football editor of the Sporting News, listed him as someone who “might be, but shouldn’t be, picked in the first round.”

ESPN analyst Mel Kiper called him “vastly overrated.” Gary Childs of the Peoria Journal-Star said that Davis “wasn’t the best defensive player on the team, wasn’t the best defensive lineman on the team, wasn’t even the best defensive end on the team.”

And, this was a team with a record of 3-7-1.

“All that means I’m just going to have to prove ‘em wrong,” Davis said.

Arguments on his behalf: Illinois was one of two losing teams ranked among the nation’s top 20 defenses. The Illini lost to Ohio State by four points, lost to Michigan by three, and tied Michigan State, which won the Rose Bowl.

Piel said: “With our defense, if we’d had a quarterback, the major bowls would have been after us.”

Davis also was a late bloomer who came to Illinois as a tight end, took a year away from college for personal reasons, lined up sometimes as a linebacker because of the team’s shortcomings at that position, and practiced and played with a sore leg. Whereas Piel already is a sound player technically and emotionally, Davis remains part prospect, part suspect.

“Most of the reasons you’ve seen a question mark next to his name before the draft is because there’s so much untapped potential,” Piel said.

Tippett agreed. “Scott could be an all-pro, or he could be a complete bust,” he said.

First, of course, he has to be free to play. You can’t rush passers from jail, or keep missing practice because you are busy doing community service.

The guy does get riled. One day, as Tippett told it, Davis evidently drove his car too close to the curb. A pedestrian, ticked off, kicked the wheel. Davis got out, all 270 pounds of him, and reportedly slammed the smaller man against a wall. Because he was a football player, Davis was easily identifiable later.

Now, obviously, the Raiders have never been California’s angels. Their reputation precedes them. They have never been afraid of possible troublemakers--whereas, the New York Giants, for instance, took pains to telephone Mike Piel before the draft and ask him if, since he was an Illinois football player like Scott Davis, he was in any trouble himself?

When the Raiders went for Davis, hardly an eyebrow was raised. First reaction by Mike Ditka of the Chicago Bears was: “Scott Davis is a guy who fits their mold. He fits right in. He’s a Raider-type player.”

Tippett, similarly, said: “It’s a good move, because the Raiders are a tough bunch. They relish tough football players. Al Davis is the type of guy who tells players to just play tough football, and let everything else take care of itself.”

Whenever the Illinois defensive unit broke the huddle before a big play last season, the guys did not say: “Let’s go!” They did not say: “Pray for us!” They did not say: “Get tough!”

They said: “Raiders of the Big Ten!”

Now, Scott Davis is a real Raider. He will be joining them soon, with time off for bad behavior.