Fann Close to Signing as Free Agent With Giants

The National Football League draft, which concluded Monday afternoon, must seem like ancient history to Albert Fann, Cal State Northridge’s all-time leading rusher with 4,170 yards.

Don Yee, Fann’s agent, said Tuesday that Fann was close to signing a free-agent contract with the Super Bowl champion New York Giants less than 24 hours after Fann was passed over by all 28 teams in the 12-round draft.

“I don’t want to go into details about it right now,” Yee said. “I’ve still got to talk to Albert about the contract and make sure he agrees with the terms, but he’s on the brink of signing with the Giants.”

Fann, a 6-foot-2, 218-pound tailback, had 7,032 career all-purpose yards, the fifth-best total in NCAA history. However, he was passed over in favor of 41 other running backs in the draft.

“This was just not a great draft for backs,” Yee said. “Most of them went lower than expected. . . . But the fact that the Giants are interested in him says something. They are very selective. When you get picked up by them, it definitely means more than getting picked up by a lot of other teams.”

Fann and Northridge Coach Bob Burt both had been told to expect a selection somewhere in the middle rounds--most likely the fifth or sixth. But Fann said he received no hint that he was close to being selected until a representative of the San Diego Chargers called during the 11th round and indicated he might be their next choice.

Instead the Chargers took wide receiver Joaquim Weinberg of Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C. San Diego took running back Chris Samuels of Texas in the 12th round. After considering his options, Fann said Tuesday morning that he considered himself lucky to be a free agent rather than a low-round draft choice. “The draft is just the draft,” he said. “It doesn’t mean you make the team.”

Burt, who recruited Fann out of Cleveland High, was not as analytical. “The so-called experts blew it,” he said. “They made a big mistake. There were guys taken who couldn’t carry Albert’s shoes.”

Fann surmised that NFL scouts questioned the validity of his production because it came against Division II competition. Burt disagreed and pointed to Fann’s invitation to the NFL scouting combine as proof that he was not entirely overlooked. “Every team saw him,” Burt said. “For some reason, they passed on him.”

From his conversations with scouts, Burt said his best guess is that they doubted Fann’s speed. “I told them that’s a joke,” Burt said. “He’s fast enough, and the thing about Albert is, he’s just as fast with pads as he is without them.

“Somebody, everybody, blew it. That’s the bottom line.”

Mike Trevathan, a record-setting wide receiver from Montana and Thousand Oaks High, was offered a free-agent contract by the New York Jets within an hour of the draft’s conclusion.

Trevathan also has an offer from the defending Grey Cup champion British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League and met with Lion Coach Bob O’Billovich on Tuesday night.