The Raiders Are Back--Thanks to Shell : Football: Lester Hayes thought Shell could do it. And now the team is believing it too.

Lester Hayes was watching “Nightline” one April night two years ago, not paying especially close attention, when he heard Al Campanis say blacks “may lack some of the necessities” to be coaches and managers.

“I’m sitting there listening to this senile old man, in complete shock,” Hayes recalled, “and the first people I think of are Art Shell and Dennis Green (now head coach at Stanford). It was frightening to think either one of them could be described as ‘unqualified’ or ‘lacking’ by anybody. I kept thinking, ‘Wait till they get a chance and we’ll see.’ ”

After Shell’s first six weeks as head coach of the Los Angeles Raiders, everyone is beginning to see--most important the Raiders. Since Shell replaced Mike Shanahan on Oct. 3, the Raiders have won four of six games. Shell threw out all Shanahan’s rules--allowed the Raiders to sit on their helmets, spit sunflower seeds in the locker room--scrapped the high-tech scheme and went back to throwing deep and busting heads.

“We have to regain our identity,” Shell said. “That was always power and explosion. We have to become tough again. We have to get back to being the Raiders.”

The Raiders have declared themselves back. Officially. And they have Art Shell, their Hall of Fame tackle turned coach, to thank for that.

“The first day we walked on the field, I felt the change,” said defensive end Howie Long, one of the few links to the Raiders’ glory days. “Mike Shanahan is a brilliant guy. I remember when we played Denver and he came out on the field and was just rattling off defensive schemes we could run against them, just bang-bang-bang-bang-bang. . . .

“It was a philosophy thing, not Xs and Os. It’s like that movie ‘Gung Ho,’ where the Japanese come in to run that car factory. The guys were working their butts off, but they did it their way; they’ve got music on the assembly line and stuff. But the new guys come in and say, ‘No, no, no. This is the way we’re going to do it.’ ”

If there’s any team in the league that believes in personal freedom, it’s the Raiders. “We had assigned seats in the meetings,” Long said. “I said I didn’t do well with assigned seats at St. Francis de Sales Junior High and I wasn’t doing very well here with it. When Art was hired, it was like the lid being taken off a teapot. It was boiling and the steam needed to be let out. The boys wanted to run free, man. You know?

“I’ve said this before, but I think if you look around the NFL, the great head coaches are figures, more so than Xs and Os people. Art, obviously, has the ability with Xs and Os. What he does is relate the ‘Raider Way’ of doing things to the players.”

From all accounts, before Shell, the ‘Raider Way’ had become drudgery. Long practices with no permission to “take a knee.” No sitting on helmets on the sideline. Penalties brought Shanahan’s wrath.

“I don’t know what any of it had to do with winning,” veteran cornerback Mike Haynes said. “Art just wants to win. He allowed us to go out and practice at a tempo that was not full speed. We didn’t have to wear pads on Fridays. He just changed the atmosphere.

“If you had to choose whether it was Xs and Os or something else, it was definitely something else. . . . He just made guys enjoy playing football again. That was always one of the great things about playing for the Raiders, why guys all around the league wanted to play here: because it was fun.”

Shell was drafted by the Raiders in 1968 in the third round and groomed for two years before making the starting lineup.

Once he got there, he didn’t come out until 1982. Shell started 156 straight games during one stretch and made the Pro Bowl eight times, more than any other Raider. Along with guard Gene Upshaw, he formed perhaps the best guard-tackle tandem ever in pro football.

Raiders owner Al Davis had hired Shanahan in 1988 because he thought “our organization needed a fresh implementation of ideas.” He looked outside the family for the first time and might have hired the Redskins’ Joe Bugel, except that Bugel pulled out.

Davis said he never expected Shanahan to try to change everything. So after a 7-9 finish last year, an 0-4 preseason and a 1-3 start, and seeing no meeting of the minds forthcoming, Davis called Shell.

“This guy, I’ve known him since he was a kid,” Davis said about a man who has worked for him for 22 years. “He knows me and I know him. I’ve watched him with our older players. He can communicate with people. He can inspire people to be great.”

If the Raiders hadn’t turned on a dime with Shell’s 4-2 start, there might have been questions about his youth--at 42 he’s the league’s youngest head coach--and experience--he shared offensive-line duties and was never a coordinator.

Of course, Art Shell would be news even if the Raiders were 2-4 under him. He is the first black man to be an NFL head coach since Fritz Pollard in the 1920s.

Shell didn’t take any time to feel out this situation. He walked in the door with old Raiders stories. A few weeks ago, Shell told his players about a guy named Dan Birdwell who had the locker beside him in 1968. Birdwell told Shell to play the game “like somebody had just hit your mother with a two-by-four.”

The fact that the Raiders are back in contention for a playoff wild card is stunning. And until further notice, the turnaround appears complete. “What’s different? Attitude,” Shell said. “Attitude wins games. It changed immediately.”