Veterans Dominate NFL Free-Agent List : Dorsett, Randy White Among 619 Able to Sign With Other Teams

The list of 619 National Football League free agents made public Thursday consists largely of players over 30 with big salaries, players who have a history of being injured, former stars who don’t want to start anew and fringe players.

At least two players who are almost certain to be in the Hall of Fame--Tony Dorsett of Denver and Randy White of Dallas--were left free to make their own deals.

Until April 1, unconditional free agents can sign with another team without that team being required to provide compensation. A player who is not picked up by another team by April 1 automatically returns to the team.

The Raiders listed 25 players as unconditional free agents, including tight end Todd Christensen, cornerback Mike Haynes and wide receiver James Lofton.

The others are kicker Chris Bahr; quarterback Vince Evans; defensive back Ron Fellows; centers Mike Freeman and Dwight Wheeler; guard Charley Hannah; offensive tackles Newt Harrell, Steve Wright and Chris Riehm; defensive back Zeph Lee; linebackers Jamie Kimmel, Linden King, Rod Martin, Milt McColl and Reggie McKenzie; tight ends Charles Henry, Andy Parker and Eric Snelson; running backs Chris McLemore, Steve Strachan and Reggie Ware, and wide receiver Chris Woods.

Among the younger players unprotected were Sam Kenney, a San Francisco linebacker singled out for praise by 49er Coach Bill Walsh during Super Bowl week, and Mike Ariey, a young offensive lineman with the New York Giants who spent all of last season on injured reserve.

Also among those unprotected:

--Timmy Smith of the Washington Redskins, who rushed for a Super Bowl record 205 yards as a rookie a year ago but was overweight and out of favor last season.

--Such past stars as Washington’s Russ Grimm, Cleveland tight end Ozzie Newsome and nose tackle Bob Golic and Cincinnati’s Cris Collinsworth and Reggie Williams.

--Players who are injury risks, such as former All-Pro center Dwight Stephenson of Miami, whose career is in jeopardy because of a knee injury that caused him to miss all of last season; nose tackle Jim Burt of the Giants, who has chronic back problems, and linebacker Bob Crable of the Jets, who underwent reconstructive knee surgery last season.

Each team protected 37 players, including some whose contracts have technically expired. Any other team offering these players a contract would be required to give the old team right of first refusal and, if it overcomes that barrier, to compensate the old team with draft choices.

The players from this group who have played out their contracts are conditional free agents, and they number 254.

The NFL Management Council said more than 40% of the free agents have less than three years of NFL experience, and that about two-thirds of the free agents finished the 1988 season on teams’ 47-man active rosters.

Many clubs are saying publicly they will sign players because compensation to the old team is no longer involved. That, of course, is what the union has been saying all along, that compensation is a major deterrent to the club that might want to sign a player.

“Before, you always had to look at how much it would cost you (in compensation) to sign a guy,” Denver Broncos Coach Dan Reeves said Thursday. “Now (if a player is unprotected) all you have to do is find somebody you need who wants to play for your team and then work out a deal. There will be 600 players out there who will be totally free, and I’d be surprised if there weren’t 20 guys out there we’d be interested in.”