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McElroy Ponders His Football Future : Raiders: Three veterans have cloudy status going into final regular-season game Sunday against the New York Giants.

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

An era is passing before our eyes.

Remember the 11th-hour deal in 1983, when Al Davis hornswoggled the New England Patriots out of Mike Haynes and paired him with Lester Hayes to form the finest cornerback tandem the game had ever seen?

Hayes is gone and likely up to Chapter Eight in “Coach Davis and Other Geniuses I Have Known,” his soon-to-be-published autobiography.

Haynes departs Sunday in a rare on-the-field appearance. An injury to Russell Carter and a dearth of experienced cornerbacks means that at least he can go out with his cleats on.

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Now, remember 1982, their first season in Los Angeles, when rookies Marcus Allen and Vann McElroy tangled daily in camp?

Allen may be playing his last Raider game Sunday. He wants out, and Davis wouldn’t mind letting him out.

McElroy?

Let’s just say the Raiders have had him in their cross-hairs since training camp, when he suffered a hip injury and wasn’t allowed to practice until he signed an addendum to his contract, consenting to take about $10,000 less than was due him for any game he missed because of injury.

After that, he tore a hamstring in Game 4. Eligible to return after Game 10, he was held out until Game 13, a saving to the club of another $30,000.

McElroy now is on the kickoff team and plays sporadically on defense.

Color another great Raider career silver, black and almost over.

“I came into training camp, and, basically, I think the intention there was to replace me,” McElroy said.

“I had a minor injury there and I couldn’t practice until I signed that particular deal. There was nothing I could do. I was on the physically-unable-to-perform list, and that’s a list where you’re kind of stuck. You’re in limbo because you don’t get paid. They can leave you on that for the rest of your life.

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“I was totally surprised. It’s not like I hadn’t done anything in the past.”

Maybe he shouldn’t have been surprised. A two-time Pro Bowler, in 1983 and ‘84, and an alternate as late as ‘86, McElroy missed four games with injuries in ’88. Davis had liked the speedier Eddie Anderson since the day in 1986 when he showed up with the strike team.

When McElroy was injured this season, Anderson broke into the lineup spectacularly. He has five interceptions, two returned for touchdowns.

On the other hand, he is no match for McElroy as a leader and coordinator.

But then, the Raiders don’t care. Strong safety Mike Harden now calls defensive signals.

Thus, McElroy sat . . . and sat . . . and sat.

“When I played this season, I was graded basically as the top defensive back,” he said. “Everyone was saying, ‘Man, you’re back, you’re playing Pro Bowl football, you’re playing great.’ All this stuff.

“Then, all of a sudden, I get this partially torn hamstring, and nothing’s ever said to me again. No one tells me anything. Then I come back in six weeks and I’m eligible. I’m ready to play, completely healthy, and, basically, the idea is, ‘Well, we’re just going to sort of leave you there.’

“Nothing was ever said. I was never told anything really by anybody in that period of time. I would ask and ask and ask.

“It’s tough. You’re in a situation when you’ve been elected captain. I was trying to fill a role here, too. I didn’t want to develop an attitude, be a problem and start stirring up a bunch of trouble.

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“Basically, I just kind of sat back, made all the meetings, practiced hard, did all I was supposed to do, made them fully aware of the fact I was ready to play.

“I don’t want to get into a big controversy now. It’s the last game of the season. It’s a big game for this team. Let the focus be on the game we have to play. This is a huge game for this organization, in my opinion.”

The remarkable thing about this story is that the Raiders always prided themselves on taking care of their own. People who crossed them or held out, such as Allen; or sued them, such as Bill Lewis, did so at their own peril.

But McElroy didn’t. The minister’s kid from Uvalde, Tex., remains the same leave-my-heart-on-your-doorstep performer he has always been.

“This game has really been my life,” McElroy said. “You just ask my wife. I live this game from morning till late at night. I go home and, if I’m not watching film, I’m thinking about different things in the game. During the season, I’m just so wrapped up. During the off-season, I work my butt off, just trying to be the type of player they expect me to be and have been.

“When Art (Shell) was picked as head coach, man, I was so fired up because I felt the team was going to start in the direction of the old Raiders. Man, that was exciting! Just the little things he did right off the bat. It became fun. We started winning again in the Raider style. That was really hard. I was so excited for him.

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“I’ve had so much respect for the organization, for the people who have been here before us, for my teammates.

“I mean, I’ll go out there and I may not do it right every time, but if somebody’s in a fight or somebody’s going down, I’ll be the first guy to be there at their backs.

“I really don’t think I’ll be back. I’d like to be, but I just don’t foresee it. If I’m going to be treated the way I’ve been treated, I don’t want to be.

“You look at a guy like Marcus Allen, who’s given his life to this team. You look at guys like Matt Millen, Bill Pickel. Those are guys who really live and die this stuff. They’ve given nothing but their all to this team and this organization.”

McElroy has one more game to give his all to the Raiders.

Then, we’ll see where the shakeout takes them all--Haynes, Allen, McElroy, the franchise.

Raider Notes

Defensive end Howie Long, who didn’t start until the seventh game of the season, is the only Raider Pro Bowl selection, behind AFC starters Bruce Smith of Buffalo and Lee Williams of San Diego. Long has made the Pro Bowl six times since 1983, missing only last year when a calf injury cost him half the season. Said Long: “I’m most proud of the fact that I got it in my mind that I was just going to suck it up and do everything I possibly could do--not necessarily pointed in the direction of the Pro Bowl, just to play.”

Coach Art Shell protested the passing-over of running back Bo Jackson, linebacker Greg Townsend and wide receiver Mervyn Fernandez. “I think if you take a guy like Bo, you put him up there with the rest of those guys that made it and you ask each player which guy would you rather have, I’m sure 99% would say Bo. . . . I’ve always felt that it was great when the coaches voted for the Pro Bowl (rather than the players, who do it now). The coaches around the league know the players better than the players do. That’s my personal opinion.”

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