PRO FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : RAIDERS : Chances Were Slim, so Peat Lost Fat

Raider guard Todd Peat knew it was better to go hungry than to eat his contract. So last March he headed to Durham, N.C., and a fat farm--the Duke University Diet and Fitness Center.

“It was a very humbling experience,” Peat said Thursday at Flagstaff, Ariz., where the Raiders and Phoenix Cardinals began three days of joint workouts. “I was there because I wanted to continue football. Hundreds of other people were there who just wanted to live.”

Peat, who began the program weighing 385 pounds, lost 80 of them and showed off his new body to his former teammates, the Cardinals, at Northern Arizona University.

“I’ve never seen him look so good,” Cardinal offensive tackle Luis Sharpe said.

Peat, an 11th-round draft pick of the Cardinals in 1987, was overweight all three years he was with the team. He ballooned to 385 last winter after suffering a torn triceps muscle. He went to the Duke clinic in March and stayed there 12 weeks.

“I learned a lot about my body,” he said. “I learned about eating. I was somewhat ignorant about my eating habits. It’s harder to get educated about the problem and remember the things you have to do to keep your weight down.”

It took only three minutes of practice for the teams to have their first fight. Cardinal linebacker Garth Jax tangled with Raider offensive tackle Greg Skrepenak, a second-round draft pick from Michigan.

Jax said he wanted the Raiders to know “we’re someone to contend with.”

One of the most notable bouts was between Sharpe, formerly of UCLA, and third-year defensive end Anthony Smith, who ripped off Sharpe’s helmet and told him, “I’m a professional football player. I’m not a professional fighter.”

Sharpe didn’t back off.

“You’re going to learn something these three days,” Sharpe said to Smith. “Keep talking, baby. That mouth is going to get you in trouble.”

There were 11 fights in the afternoon workout, prompting Raider Coach Art Shell to discuss the situation with Cardinal Coach Joe Bugel. “Fighting is not football,” Shell said. “It’s not conducive to getting work done.”

The teams practiced outdoors on a grass field in the morning, but heavy rain forced them indoors to the Walkup Skydome in the afternoon. The Raiders were disappointed to have go indoors after working in the cool mountain air with a backdrop of the San Francisco Peaks, altitude 7,000 feet.

“The air is a little thin, but it’s beautiful here--the trees, the smell of pines,” defensive tackle Bob Golic said. “The only problem was the footing on the grass was bad. You struggle if you try to do anything laterally or try to make a power move.”