PRO FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : RAIDERS : Tim Brown Still Feels Restricted

Wide receiver Tim Brown was among 31 Raider veterans who reported to training camp Friday at Oxnard, but he wasn’t completely happy to be there.

In May, Brown lost an arbitration hearing heard by NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue that made an escape clause in his contract invalid.

“I feel that it was a raw deal, but there’s nothing you can really do about it,” said Brown, who held out last season before signing a two-year deal.

“I had a clause that stipulated that if free agency came up in the 1992 season , I would be an unrestricted free agent. Well, it so happened that because we put ‘unrestricted free agent’ and not ‘free agent,’ we lost.”

Tagliabue decided that the terms in the recent collective bargaining agreement between the owners and the players’ union made an unrestricted free agent only a player without any ties to a team. In Brown’s case, the Raiders had right of first refusal after the 1992 season.

If the clause in Brown’s contract had said merely “free agent,” and not “unrestricted free agent,” the Raiders’ right of first refusal would have been ineffective.

“I don’t have any hard feelings with anyone here,” Brown said. “They did what they had to do.

“(Holding out) like last year was definitely a plan. . . . But at the same time, if I would have done that it would have ended up hurting me like it did last year, where I didn’t get the work in and ended up having silly injuries that bothered me the whole year.”

Last season, Brown led the Raiders in catches with 49 for 693 yards and seven touchdowns. He is not sure, though, what role he will have this year.

“I had a couple of conversations with Mr. (Al) Davis and we talked about everything and we made a vow not to discuss what we talked about,” Brown said. “But I told him about how I feel about things around here. I didn’t leave out anything. If he wants to trade me, he’ll trade me. If he wants me here, I’ll be here. I have one more year on my contract, and I’m going to go out there and play ball. How much ball I play is not on me.”

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The Raiders, who are still without first-round draft choice Patrick Bates, traded for free safety Ricky Dixon of the Cincinnati Bengals, giving up an undisclosed draft choice.

Dixon, a former first-round pick from Oklahoma, will give the secondary some added speed.

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Five veterans had not signed contracts at report time, but the Raiders expect to reach agreement with them soon. They are wide receivers Willie Gault and Sam Graddy, defensive back Torin Dorn, linebacker Aaron Wallace and tight end Andrew Glover. The only player under contract who did not report was defensive lineman Howie Long, who wants to renegotiate.

“(Long) is under contract and he’s expected to be here and go to work,” Coach Art Shell said. “That’s all I have to say. I don’t get involved with money issues.”