Raiders : Better Than an Outside Chance Hunley Could Be Mr. Inside

If it was Wednesday, there must have been another inside linebacker on the lot. It was and there was. This one’s name was Ricky Hunley and he had a story to tell.

Former No. 1 picks working on their third employers by age 27 always have stories to tell, but even by those standards, this one stands out.

Most honored player in University of Arizona history. . . . Seventh overall pick in the 1984 draft. . . . A starter from his second full season, 1986, through 1988. . . . On the waiver wire in 1989.

Snatched off by the Raiders, whose status at the position, between the axing of Matt Millen and the return of Jerry Robinson, might be best encapsulated by the word vacuum.

In three games, with the Miami ex-prospect Jackie Shipp starting, they have allowed 164.3 yards rushing a game, worst in the league. It would be unfair to lay it all at Shipp’s feet, but at the same time you’d like your middle linebacker to be better than your No. 5 tackler.

Is it any wonder that about two minutes after Hunley started talking in his introductory press conference, he declared:

“I think I’ve finally found a home.”

And:

“I’m a linebacker. A linebacker’s job is to step up in there and take on people. That’s what I’ve accomplished all along and that’s what I like doing. When I get the chance to play, that’s what I’ll do.”

What made a man with such zeal, youth, size (6-feet-2 and 249 pounds) and speed (he says he ran a 4.83-second 40-yard dash last week for the Raiders) available?

There are disagreements about what Hunley has left, but there was another factor in his plummet from grace, and that was his candor.

“Well, when I was raised, my mom told me, ‘You deal with the plain truth,’ ” Hunley said. “If it’s true, it’s true. There’s no in-between. It’s either black or white. That’s the kind of person I am.”

He missed half his rookie season holding out on the Cincinnati Bengals, who traded him to Denver.

Two years later, as player representative for the strait-laced Broncos, he called strike-breakers “cowardly” and vowed repeatedly never to forgive them.

A year after that, in another holdout, he said the problem was racial and noted that most of the Bronco coaches, including Dan Reeves, were from the Deep South, prompting his trade to Phoenix.

Two years later, after--surprise--a holdout, he slid all the way to the waiver wire.

“It’s been a career of transitions for me,” he said.

“I look back on my career--missed a half a year coming out as a rookie, going from Cincinnati to Denver. First year was a wash--I just played special teams. Second year was my first training camp. In Denver they want to make sure you understand the system before they throw you in there, so the second year was training.

“My second full year was the first year I was a starter. I had a great year. Led the team in all categories for linebackers--interceptions, tackles, assists. Went to the Super Bowl and started.

“The following year, I was second in those categories. Didn’t have a great year. Strike didn’t help much. We still managed to get back to the Super Bowl. Got trounced.

“Had a great off-season, expecting to go back. Bam! Traded to Phoenix. Wasn’t real excited about it but I figured if I had to go anywhere, I could go back to Arizona, where my home was.

“Got there and alternated quarters with Niko Noga. . . . He was playing the first quarter, I was playing the second quarter, he was playing the third quarter, I was playing the fourth quarter. Whatever that meant. A lot of things there were rather strange. They’ve had their problems and probably will continue to.

“I spent the off-season in Phoenix, moved everything up there, worked out with the team. I dropped my weight down from 253 to 248. Coach (Gene Stallings) said, ‘You’re our starting middle linebacker and we want you to be our team leader.’ Dah-dah, dah-dah-dah.

“Then contract negotiations, got an offer two days before training camp. Missed 12 days. Got there and coach says, ‘You can never make up the time.’ I wasn’t going to get into this, but you got me going. He said, ‘I don’t think you’re happy here and I don’t think you’re going to be happy here playing part of the time. So I’m going to let you go.’

“To say a veteran who’s pencilled in as a starter--missing 12 days is really going to kill him? When you take a rookie (No. 1 pick Eric Hill) and throw him in there and he’s missed like 18 days? It’s like your mind is made up.

“I do have something to prove to myself. Every year that I finally get my feet under me, to where I can have a springboard year, to really take off and have the kind of year that I expect of myself, then some type of stumbling block is thrown out there to stop me, whether it’s a trade, a strike.

“But I’m not going to let those things distract me anymore. I’m focusing on just football and becoming the best player I can.”

Coach Mike Shanahan said that Hunley might even play Sunday against Seattle.

Raider Notes

Linebacker Jerry Robinson, still feeling the effects of his groin pull and the flu, practiced lightly. He was listed as “probable” but Robinson didn’t seem as optimistic. . . . Coach Mike Shanahan said Linden King will replace Emanuel King at outside linebacker, and Mike Harden will split strong safety with Zeph Lee.