Peete Gives Lions Until Wednesday

Rodney Peete is giving the Detroit Lions until Wednesday. If they do not make a satisfactory offer by then, he is going to play baseball for the Oakland Athletics.

Peete has not played a game of organized baseball since last June but he is prepared to report to the Athletics’ Class A club in Medford, Ore., to play third base if he does not hear what he wants to hear from the Lions in the next few days. A sixth-round National Football League draft choice, the USC quarterback is due in camp Friday in Detroit if he intends to play football.

“That’s why I’ve set Wednesday as a deadline date,” Peete said Friday in the Century City office of his attorney, Leonard Armato. “All along in my mind over the last year, I’ve been placing football first and baseball second. But Detroit has been lagging in working out a deal, while Oakland has been actively pursuing me ever since, to the point that my baseball interest has really peaked. I’ve become more intrigued with baseball.

“Right now, I’m just kind of straddling the fence. I’d say it could go either way.”

The Athletics are making things even easier for Rodney by offering him the option of playing football as well as baseball, a la Bo Jackson. And he is thinking about doing it.

“They gave me three choices,” Peete said. “I can sign with them right now and play baseball full-time. I can play baseball now and join the Lions later. Or I can sign with Detroit to play football now, then report for baseball in February. Oakland is being extremely open-minded about it, and I haven’t completely ruled out playing both sports.”

Peete clearly is putting himself in a position to use baseball as a bargaining tool, just as Deion Sanders has been doing with the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and baseball’s New York Yankees. Of course, Sanders has the luxury of being a first-round draft pick, making him a bit more indispensable to his football suitors.

The football advantages for Peete are that he plays such a valuable position and that he was drafted by a bad team that needs every good player it can get. The disadvantages include the fact that eight collegiate quarterbacks were chosen ahead of him, and two more, Steve Walsh and Timm Rosenbach, were taken in Friday’s NFL supplementary draft. So, it is not as though Peete is everybody’s All-American.

What remains a mystery is why he sank so low in the NFL draft. On the first day’s five rounds, Peete was not picked at all. On the second day, even the Raiders, who currently play their home games on Peete’s college field, passed over him to select another quarterback. Peete watched the draft go by, disbelieving.

“I think it was tougher on my mother than it was on me,” he said.

Having put baseball aside, even skipping his senior season, Peete had made up his mind to make a career of football. The previous spring, he had been an All-Pacific 10 infielder, hitting .338 with 12 home runs, despite missing 20 games with a broken bone in his right hand.

Oakland drafted him after the season, and Peete nearly signed. When the 1989 draft rolled around, even though he had not played a game in a year, the A’s drafted him again. That took some of the sting out of being drafted so low by the NFL.

“One thing about Oakland, you can tell that they’re going to be a good team for a long, long time,” Peete said.

By that same token, third baseman Carney Lansford is 32 years old. A couple of good years in the minors, and Peete could be in a position to move up.

The Detroit Lions have spent years trying to rebuild themselves into a unit that could challenge the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings for a division title. They have hired Mouse Davis to coordinate their offense and hope to use No. 1 draft choice Barry Sanders as the running part of a run-and-shoot attack.

Chuck Long figures to be the starting quarterback, but Long, like so many of his peers, has had to cope with injuries. Peete’s chances of playing, or even starting, are far greater with Detroit than they would have been if he’d been drafted by many other teams.

Armato says he does not want football talks to drag on while his client loses valuable time on the diamond. “Baseball season is already under way, and if Rodney does decide to pursue baseball now, it makes sense for him to get on with it. We don’t want to get involved in a situation where we’re negotiating football but not participating in baseball, and time is going by.

“So, I’ve sent a letter to the Lions saying that we want to make a decision by Wednesday: Respond to our last offer by then in some way, shape or form, just so we know their level of interest, and Rodney can get on with his life. The cards have been dealt, and now it’s up to them.”

Peete said he is getting antsy.

“I’d like to know what’s going on,” he said. “Because right now, I’m working out as if I’m going to play football. But I’m also going out and swinging the bat a little, just in case.”