Ellison Puts Off One Long Campaign for Another : Pro football: Former 49er linebacker decided his political career could wait when he signed with Raiders.

After winning the Super Bowl last January, the San Francisco 49ers met President Bush during a Rose Garden reception at the White House, where everyone made small talk.

But when inside linebacker Riki Ellison was introduced to the President, they didn’t talk about something as mundane as football. “What about the Strategic Defense Initiative?” Ellison asked.

A budding politician who dreams of becoming a U.S. senator, Ellison never wastes an opportunity to express his political views. Ellison, 29, considered retiring from football this year to run for the Republican nomination in the 20th State Assembly District, which encompasses much of San Mateo County.

But Ellison put his political career on hold to sign with the Raiders last May.

“I was debating whether to run for political office pretty seriously last spring,” Ellison said. “But I had to make a decision as to whether I was going to play football or run for office. I couldn’t do both.

“I’m at a place in my life where I can always be a politician 10 or 20 years from now, but I can never play professional football again. This is the time where I’m young and I can still play.

Ellison said he sought advice from Jack Kemp, who parlayed his career as a star NFL quarterback into a political career that led to a Cabinet post, and Kemp told him that politics could wait until he was through playing football.

“It’s hard to find something that stimulates you as much as football,” Ellison said. “In the off-season, you’ve got to find something that’s going to charge you up as much as going out and hitting 300-pound guards. Managing a 7-Eleven is not going to do it. That intense feeling of power you get in Washington is almost as good as being on the 50-yard line. That feeling is what grabbed me.

“(Politics) is a power game and it’s something I think I can do well and help make the world a safer place. When I die, I want to leave a mark on the world, not as a football player because I don’t think I do too much for the world as a football player besides entertain, but as a person who puts in some legislation that helps people.”

After graduating in 1983 with a degree in international relations from USC, where he participated in a graduate program in arms control, Ellison became a lobbyist for Lockheed in Washington during the off-season.

Ellison has also studied the workings of the State Legislature, attending meetings of the State Democratic Caucus last year, although he’s a Republican.

Ellison said he was encouraged to run for the State Assembly by a group of Bay Area Republicans who were impressed by his anti-drug speeches to high school students.

“Obviously, I think the No. 1 issue in America has got to be drugs, and a lot of politicians are sidestepping the issue,” Ellison said. “Our society is breaking away from the family unit, and we’ve got to strive to enhance that so people depend on the family unit to get through these problems. We’re never going to be able to stop the drugs from coming in; I think that’s a wasted effort. We’ve got to work on the people that are taking the drugs.”

A liberal on domestic issues such as protecting the environment, Ellison takes a conservative approach to foreign policy.

“I’d like to see us take more of an isolationist policy,” Ellison said. “I don’t think we should be militarily involved overseas. I don’t think we should get involved in the Middle East at all because there’s too much hatred of the United States there.”

Obviously, Ellison can’t have much impact on foreign policy in the State Legislature, but his dream is to become involved in national politics.

“The Senate would be my ultimate dream, but it’s a long way away,” Ellison said. “A lot of people have teased me since I went down to the Raiders, saying that I broadened my constituency. Now I can work on Southern California, where most of the conservatives are.”

But Ellison plans to maintain his home in Portola Valley and build his political base in the Bay Area.

Ellison had plenty of free time to study politics because he was sidelined by injuries for two of the last three years in San Francisco.

He sat out the 1987 season after shattering his right forearm in the 49ers’ season opener. Doctors inserted a steel plate to reinforce the arm. Ellison returned for the playoffs, however, and played the entire 1988 season.

He broke the arm again in the 49ers’ final exhibition game last summer and sat out the 1989 season. During surgery to repair the arm, doctors removed the plate and inserted a metal rod, since removed.

“It was a freak injury,” Ellison said. “The plate shouldn’t have been in there, and the bone broke because the stress of the metal plate was stronger than the bone, so the bone broke below it.”

With former Raider Matt Millen starting in place of Ellison at inside linebacker, the 49ers won their second straight Super Bowl.

Because of Ellison’s injuries, the 49ers offered him a contract that would have compensated him based on how much he played. The 49ers planned to cut Ellison’s salary of $425,000 in half and make up the difference in incentives based on his playing time.

“I don’t think it’s fair as a matter of principle that you can do that to a player who has been playing for seven years,” Ellison said. “It’s not fair that you should be penalized for being hurt.

“And Al Davis wanted me and there were no strings attached. So I chose to come here.”

After rejecting the 49ers’ offer, Ellison signed a three-year deal with the Raiders, who acquired him to strengthen a position weakened by the departure of Millen last year.

Asked if it has been difficult to learn a new defensive scheme after spending seven seasons with the 49ers, Ellison said: “It’s been a challenge mentally because after you play the same system for seven years, you kind of get bored with it. But I’m looking forward to it because every game’s going to be a fight. When I was with the 49ers, it was like a first-round knockout and then we’d just cruise the rest of the game because our offense was so powerful. Here, it’s going to be like a street fight.”

After starting 77 games with the 49ers, Ellison has been relegated to the second team with the Raiders while he learns a new system. The inside linebacker plays a key role in the Raider defense, calling defensive signals.

Ellison played well during the third quarter of the 17-10 exhibition loss to the New Orleans Saints in London last Sunday.

Now, Ellison will return to San Francisco when the Raiders play the 49ers in an exhibition game at Candlestick Park Saturday night.

Ellison developed a reputation for being excitable during his collegiate career at USC, where he was known as Riki Gray. He changed his name to Ellison after leaving college--Gray is the surname of his stepfather, Ellison his father’s name.

While dating his wife, Sheila, Ellison drew a heart on the door of her dormitory room.

Nothing unusual about that, right? No, except Ellison inscribed the message in his own blood.

But Ellison has calmed down a bit, at least off the field, and is trying to reshape his image for a political career that he hopes will lead to Washington.

Raider Notes

Why didn’t tailback Marcus Allen play in the Raiders’ 17-10 exhibition loss to the New Orleans Saints in London Sunday? Coach Art Shell said: “Marcus didn’t play Sunday because I didn’t want to play him. If you go back and look at Marcus’ history with this team, Marcus has very seldom played more than a series or two (in exhibition games). Howie Long only played two series. It’s not important that (Allen) plays. He’ll get a chance to play this week. He just got into camp, and we don’t believe in rushing people.”

Derrick Crudup, moved from safety to running back in the off-season, was shifted back to defense. “When we came out for the 2 p.m. meeting, the offensive coordinator, Terry Robiskie, came up to me and told me to go to the defensive back meeting because I was going to play safety,” Crudip said. “Since I can play both free and strong safety, I didn’t know which one they were going to put me at, so I lined up at free safety, and Al (Davis) hollered out and told them to put me at strong safety. I’m glad to be back over there.” The move was made because the Raiders are thin at defensive back after injuries to cornerbacks Dennis Price (separated left shoulder) and Terry McDaniel (hamstring injury), but Shell said Crudip will remain on defense.

There has been little progress in talks with five unsigned Raiders--quarterback Steve Beuerlein, fullback Steve Smith, defensive end Greg Townsend, cornerback Mike Haynes and safety Vann McElroy.