Jury Is Out on Bell, Raiders’ Backfield

Jurists impeccably neutral, we listen to both sides, beginning with the Los Angeles Rams, who have been said to whisper that Greg Bell, commissioned to run with the football, didn’t care to run inside.

According to the Rams, he also didn’t care to run hurt, implying that the rest of us do.

And the foregoing problems were compounded by Bell’s rocking the vessel, especially in connection with salary, which he found smaller than he thought it should have been.

Now, Mr. Bell is called to testify.

“You look at my record with the Rams and you are going to find someone who did more than his share of running, under all conditions,” he says. “I served that team very faithfully.”

“Then what appeared to be the trouble?” he is asked, in the wake of his recent trade to the Raiders, netting the Rams what amounts to a hamburger sandwich.

“My trouble was John Shaw,” he answers, referring to the Rams’ executive vice president. “John Shaw had a habit of demeaning me. I don’t like people to demean me. And John Shaw demeaned me, even telling me during a negotiation one time he didn’t think I was good enough to make the team.”

“And your response?”

“I told him I could make his team with one leg. I also told him he doesn’t know much about football.”

“Did the owner, Georgia Frontiere, enter the case?” Bell is asked. “If Shaw doesn’t know football, certainly Georgia does.”

“Georgia, I must say, is too much of a mystery to me. But she gave me a good lead on my problem. When I talked to her last year, she said things would work out for the best. She was right. I am out of her uniform.”

“And this doesn’t pain you?”

“I’ll miss the coaching staff,” he answers. “John Robinson is the greatest coach I have played for. And I was very fond of the guys on the team, all experiencing the same trouble over money that I did. There are 28 teams in the NFL. The last time I looked, 25 had a bigger payroll than the Rams.”

Since the Raiders are included among the 25, and since they haven’t yet demeaned him, Bell is happy to make the change.

“Talking to Al Davis, I got the feeling he was glad to have me,” he says.

And well Davis should. If boat-rocking is Bell’s failing, he is a model citizen by standards established by the Raiders, who, in their time, have led the league in players out on bail.

They have taken in drinkers, drug-users and guys charged with assault. One was charged with rape, but acquitted.

And malcontents? The Raiders have taken them in as if their species were endangered, like the spotted owl.

So someone says that a new man they employ is of counsel in the clubhouse, and they look upon him as Mother Teresa.

Reviewing inventory at running back, the Raiders have Marcus Allen, Vance Mueller and, in October, Bo Jackson. They also have recaptured Napoleon McCallum from the Navy, convinced by the Raiders to trim defense spending.

Where does Bell see himself in this collection?

“I don’t even want to picture what’s going to happen,” he says. “I just want to report to camp and I want to play to the best of my ability. No one knows--least of all me--what’s going to happen.”

What is likely to happen is that the Raider brigade of running backs will be reduced by one, probably as soon as management can arrange a deal for the exchange of Marcus Allen.

The relationship between Marcus and the Raiders hasn’t proved heartwarming, the problem deepening last year when Allen, demanding extension of his contract, which still had a year to run, skipped mini-camp.

He followed by missing regular camp. And when he finally activates himself, he gets injured and misses half the season.

So he is mad at the Raiders for not treating him better contractually, and the Raiders are mad at him for creating a problem they felt was out of order at the time.

So now, you presume, the Raiders quietly are testing the market, trying to determine what Marcus will fetch.

These things often hinge on how badly another team needs a running back. Say, during exhibition season, a team playing in Berlin loses its running back to an order of sauerbraten.

That team will give more for Allen than it would if its running back had fasted.

What happens to Bell in this new environment obviously will depend upon what happens to Marcus. If Marcus is still there when Bo returns in October, you are going to see the coziest threesome since Hart, Schaffner and Marx.

Georgia Frontiere may be a mystery to Bell, but she’ll be easier to figure than the running back problem with the Raiders.