Allen’s Talks With Raiders Remain Hung Up : Holdout Quietly Extends to Three Weeks With Salary Negotiations at Standstill

Where’s Marcus?

Where’s Al?

Where’s Hook?

They’re all in their places, with grimaces on their faces.

Marcus Allen is home in Brentwood, waiting.

Al Davis is here, watching practice with his usual preoccupied expression. He’s not budging nor, of course, talking.

Allen’s agent, Ed Hookstratten, is in his Los Angeles office, where the telephone traffic is light. The Raiders won’t call him and he won’t return writers’ calls.

Thus Allen’s holdout passes silently into its third week, with absolutely nothing being said. Things are so quiet, Raider coaches often ask writers what they’ve heard. The writers reply, “Nothing, what have you heard?”

Meanwhile, the team gets routed in its first exhibition with a Vance Mueller-Kerry Porter backfield. The two young backs are hardly to blame, but the presence of Allen, who is the team’s outstanding leadership figure, wouldn’t have hurt.

Unless something turns around in a hurry, the Raiders will have to struggle on without Allen, perhaps for most of the exhibition season. If this case follows the Matt Millen-Stacey Toran holdouts of a year ago, it will end around the fourth exhibition. If it reaches the regular season, Allen would have to forfeit 1/16 of the Raiders’ $1.1-million offer--$68,750--for each game he misses to pursue his point.

There are two non-talking sides to this story, and here they are.

MARCUS

What do his teammates think of him?

They voted him their most valuable player in four of the last five seasons. As unsure of himself as he often seems off the field, he is a towering figure among the Raiders with a long history of sucking it up for the team.

There are Raider officials who think his 1,759-yard league-leading season in 1985 was a marvel that has never been fully appreciated, since Allen did so much of it on his own, operating behind something less than an overpowering line.

Playing behind worse lines, he has been injured for most of the last three seasons, raising questions about what he has left. He remains valuable because of his ability to play hurt, his all-around game and his grace in accommodating Bo Jackson by becoming a 205-pound fullback.

He is said to want a three-year guaranteed extension, at Jackson’s numbers.

Halfbacks are not normally tendered guarantees, since they’re such natural targets, but at least part of Jackson’s contract is guaranteed.

Allen didn’t attend the team’s spring mini-camp. He did go to the facility in El Segundo to lift weights, but was told that if he wasn’t going to practice, he’d have to leave. Let’s just assume Allen didn’t like that much.

Hookstratten has called Davis, a source says, but Davis hasn’t returned any of the calls. Hookstratten and Davis were once friendly, but several sources say that Davis is angry at him, too.

A.D.

It has generally been known that Allen was never Davis’ favorite player.

Why?

In the first place, the Raiders, before Allen, were fullback-oriented. In the John Madden days, they ran it up the gut; but Davis has always wanted to throw it long and has always feared becoming dependent on a star runner. Star runners often get worn down, banged up and have short careers, a la Earl Campbell, Billy Sims, et al.

Given a star runner, Davis’ preference would be to limit his carries, keep him strong for the playoffs and prolong his career. After Allen’s rushing title in 1985, it was noted by some Raider officials that no team with a league rushing champion on it has ever won a Super Bowl.

Allen has been in Davis’ face at least once, asking the owner to get him more carries. Davis doesn’t like being challenged.

Davis thinks that Allen’s present pay level is fine. Allen is in the option year of his contract and the Raiders have offered him at least $1.1 million. Only Eric Dickerson, of NFL backs, makes more in base salary, $1.2 million.

For all the talk about Bo’s money, Allen’s $1.1 million is probably worth more, since it’s all cash. Jackson will make $1.356 million this season, but $967,000 is deferred. Bo has a deferred signing bonus of $416,000. Of his $840,200 salary, $551,000 is deferred to 1994-95.

There would seem to be compromises possible, but not imminent.

Raider Notes

The Raiders made two expected moves on their offensive line, moving rookie Steve Wisniewski to right guard, where veteran Larry Lee was standing in, and shifting John Gesek to left guard, where the 305-pound Newt Harrell was being auditioned. . . . Monday’s practice, in light of the 37-7 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, was a brisker affair, with the players obliged to run more sprints afterward then they had been. Also, Al Davis, who usually just watches and makes an occasional comment, got more involved with the defense. . . . Mervyn Fernandez, who separated his left shoulder, is walking around without his sling and can raise his arms above his head. “It’s still there,” he said, “but it’s just stiff and sore.” . . . Todd Christensen wore pads for the first time. . . . Greg Townsend is down to 265 pounds. The bad news is that this is his second time. He arrived in camp at 274, went down to 267 but went back up to 273 last week.