Attitude Adjustment : Raiders: Defensive end Greg Townsend is passing the test of his life, and enjoying his best NFL season.

Two years after a drug suspension nearly wrecked his career, defensive end Greg Townsend has approached stardom with the Raiders in his eighth season. The wait was worthwhile.

The average career in the NFL lasts under four seasons, so Townsend was pushing his luck. He kept improving, refusing to accept an average life, and has been rewarded with his finest season at 29 and, more important, a chance to make amends for a serious mistake.

In eight games, Townsend has seven sacks, which puts him on a pace to break his personal high of 11 1/2 in 1988, when he led the AFC. He scored the fourth touchdown of his career Sept. 30 on a fumble recovery against the Chicago Bears. Last week, during a crucial division game, Townsend playfully taunted the Kansas City Chiefs’ bench during a timeout in a failed effort to steal some plays.

“I was just keeping things loose,” he said. “The coaches were trying to huddle around (Chief quarterback) Steve DeBerg, so I couldn’t hear. I was trying to read lips, whatever I could to to get an edge.”

Kansas City Coach Marty Schottenheimer offered Townsend the team’s clipboard at one point, then yanked it back. Everyone laughed.

Townsend said it wasn’t a matter of taking an important game lightly.

“There’s a fine line between fun, business and pressure,” he said. “We haven’t hit the pressure point because we’re 6-2 and still leading our division. If we lose another game, that’s when the pressure starts.”

Meanwhile, Townsend is loose, Townsend is confident. Townsend also is rich, having signed a million-dollar contact last summer. Townsend may be headed to his first Pro Bowl appearance. And Townsend can’t believe he almost threw it all away in 1988 when he was suspended for 30 days after testing positive for marijuana.

Few careers survive positive drug tests, and still fewer prosper.

“I saw my career flashing before my face,” Townsend said. “I have a little girl. I have a mom that I dearly love. I was still dating my fiancee. I was saying to myself that my daughter has to go to school, and maybe the teachers know, maybe her classmates know. That’s going to be embarrassing. My mom and her co-workers are avid churchgoers, that’s going to be embarrassing. It was totally embarrassing to me.”

Townsend didn’t minimize the slip, even though the substance was marijuana, and not a more dangerous drug. He said he remembered what it meant to have role models, and how unfortunate it was that he followed the course of his childhood hero.

“It was wrong,” Townsend said. “It’s so funny. (Former Dallas Cowboy tailback) Duane Thomas was my idol. That’s what I started from. My brother always said that athletes do drugs--’Duane Thomas just got caught for marijuana.’ That’s what I started from, watching my idol do drugs. But I had a responsibility to the people who look up to me.”

It would take time to repair his image, but Townsend vowed to throw himself at the community until the community accepted him back.

Two years later, Townsend has used a fresh start to tackle some important issues of the day. He has lent his name and time to the Spare Change Project and recently sponsored a fund raiser to launch the the Family Assistance Program, a nonprofit organization devoted to helping the area homeless.

Growing up in Compton, Townsend has watched the problem grow from a front-row seat.

“I used to take the bus downtown to see the 99-cent (movie) shows on Sunday,” he said. “You always saw people at the bus stops, sleeping on the sidewalks. They were always asking for change.

“Even today, I never pass a person asking for money. It’s not up to me to judge what they’re going to do with the money. They look hungry, they look like they can use a hot meal. I always give money. When I go to the pearly gates, I think the main question God’s going to ask me, is ‘How many of my people did you feed? How many of my people did you help out?’ This way I can say I lost count at 1,000.”

Townsend said the makeup of the homeless has changed.

“The thing that really astounds you is the families,” he said.

His recent fund-raiser brought in $25,000 for the Family Assistance Program, he said.

“It helps get families off the street,” he added.

Townsend hopes to use his high visibility to assist people and comment on relevant issues. As a black player, he was particularly disappointed by Arizona’s rejection Tuesday of a proposal that would have honored slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King with a state holiday.

Townsend, an avid student of King’s career, applauded NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue’s decision to advise owners to take the 1993 Super Bowl away from Phoenix as a consequence.

The Raiders don’t play in Phoenix this season. Townsend is thankful.

His feelings?

“Bitter ones,” he said. “Why not make Martin Luther King’s birthday a holiday? He was as great as Abraham Lincoln or George Washington. He just didn’t stand for one race, he stood for the nation as one. That’s what he tried to get across.”

Under the circumstances, Townsend said he wouldn’t want to be a Phoenix Cardinal.

“It’s got to be a cold slap in their face,” he said of the team’s black players. “What the hell else do (Arizona citizens) got? What other attractions do they have, other than sports and the Grand Canyon? They’ve got nothing. It’s got to be tough for a black man to play sports for those teams.”

Townsend is thankful to be able to speak his mind again. A clear mind. No more drug-induced fogs. It wasn’t too late to turn his life around.