FIT FOR DOUBLE DUTY? : McCallum Begins Work on His Second Career as NFL Running Back

The hard part for Napoleon McCallum was not getting up before the sun and following orders. Nor was it driving the crowded freeways from Long Beach to El Segundo, practicing with the Raiders, driving back to Long Beach and doing what his commanding officers on board the amphibious assault ship Peleliu directed him to do.

The hard part about being a sailor and an NFL running back in 1986 was the attention.

“No one has ever been scrutinized that tough,” McCallum said Thursday. “I had to live up to a lot of things that maybe normal people in the Navy really didn’t have to contend with.”

McCallum had just completed his first official mini-camp workout as a member of the Chargers. And he was talking, with relief, about how happy he is to be a land-based Naval recruiting officer and a Charger with a house five minutes from the stadium practice facility.

Wednesday the Navy made public its decision to allow McCallum to play professional football and work as a recruiting officer in San Diego at the same time. How successful he will be in the former won’t begin to be determined until late July, when the Chargers convene at their UC San Diego training camp in La Jolla.

How successful he is at the latter will be determined by how many recruits he delivers to the Navy in a Navy town. How much time his Navy work will leave for football meetings, practices and games won’t be known until next week, when McCallum is scheduled to meet with his new commanding officer, Capt. Samuel Hallmark.

“My commanding officers have always believed what I’ve done (combining football and the Navy) is the right thing,” McCallum said. “And they’ve always been pleased with me.”

Finding the time to do both jobs is not expected to be a problem. But McCallum knows there are certain people who will never condone spending their tax dollars paying somebody who is also cashing the paycheck of a professional athlete.

“I don’t believe those people understand,” he said. “People say no because they don’t understand. Some people never understand.

“And then there are some older people in the Navy that believe I am wasting their money. I don’t think they have a really good understanding of what the Navy’s all about right now. It’s changed a lot since they were in.”

Just as the Chargers and the league have changed since the last time McCallum played in the league. It has been 2 1/2 years since he took a hit. And even he isn’t sure what will happen when he does again this summer.

McCallum said he has built up “way more” than 30 days of leave. And, he said, he will apply for as much of that leave as he needs to complete training camp without having to moonlight from the Navy.

He hopes to return to the physical condition he attained in 1986, when he played in 15 games for the Raiders, including a 17-13 victory over the Chargers in which he gained 56 yards on 14 fourth-period carries.

But don’t ask him about his style.

“I never knew what kind of running back I was,” he said. “I just loved to play the game. The object for me was just to get as much yardage as I could. I’m not one who’s going to streak down the field. But I’ll break tackles. And I’ll get a few people to miss.”

Charger Notes

The mini-tempest of mini-camp escalated Thursday when Coach Dan Henning issued a warning to AWOL punter Ralf Mojsiejenko, who is under contract but unhappy with the written agreement. Henning and Mojsiejenko spoke by phone Wednesday. “We got the air straightened out,” Henning said. “I told him he should be here regardless of what the squabbles he and his agent and the front office are having. If things continue, we would definitely have to start looking (for another punter). I’ve gone into situations before where players that have been under contract have held out with up to as much as $30,000 and $35,000 in fines and then come in two days before the first regular season game. That’s too much trauma.” Mojsiejenko, a Pro Bowl player two seasons ago, is subject to fines up to $2,500 for missing mini-camp. . . . The Chargers signed former Raider wide receiver Dokie Williams. Williams was a high school football star at El Camino in Oceanside. He didn’t play in the NFL last year after undergoing knee surgery in the winter of 1988. San Francisco cut him last summer after the Raiders traded him there in April. Williams, 28, played five years with the Raiders, catching 148 passes for 2,866 yards and 25 touchdowns. . . . Henning said one of the biggest surprises of camp has been free agent Kevin Biggers, a rookie cornerback from Nebraska who wangled an invitation to mini-camp after impressing the Chargers at a tryout camp. “He’s tested well,” Henning said. “He’s played well, he’s practiced, he’s learned, and he’s a guy who can compete out here at camp, which is a real plus.” . . . McCallum is in the process of moving into a Tierrasanta home he just purchased. “It’s a nice area,” he said. “Now I know why so many Navy people retire out here.”