Will It Be Relief or Release for Evans? : Raiders: Having been cut many times before, quarterback hopes to still be on roster come Monday.

This is normally nervous time for quarterback Vince Evans.

This is cutdown time, the time when Evans must constantly look over his shoulder.

This is the time when he looks at the waiver list and checks it twice, when he dreads every call from the coaching staff, when he treats every day on the field as if it is his last.

In six years as a Raider, he has been a human yo-yo--up and down, in and out, cut and re-signed, active and inactive, on the waiver list and back on the roster.

Evans has always been deemed expendable, the perfect pawn to provide insurance when the cupboard was sparse and a sacrificial lamb when it was overstocked.

If it seems as if Evans has been around forever, it’s because he almost has.

He was the most valuable player in the Rose Bowl after leading USC to victory over Michigan. That was in 1977 .

As a pro, Evans had stints with the Chicago Bears (1977-83), the Chicago Blitz of the now-defunct United States Football League (1984) and the Denver Gold of the USFL (1985).

He returned to the NFL in 1987, signed by the Raiders as a free agent for the replacement games in the midst of an NFL strike. Evans played in three replacement games, but stuck on when the strike ended.

He never got any substantial playing time after that. He was around in case of an emergency. No one ever questioned his arm, just his ability to be an NFL quarterback, to effectively run an offense.

Evans could have quit a hundred times. It was certainly tempting. But, as a deeply religious man, he used his faith to sustain him.

“There are going to be obstacles in life,” he said. “But if your dream is worth fighting for, then you’ll go through the valley of the shadow of death to get to the mountaintop.”

Evans was also sustained in his bleakest days by his mother, Reva, who would send him biblical quotations to keep his spirit up.

One read, “Though your beginnings seemed insignificant, your latter days shall bring you increase.”

Evans wasn’t nearly as sure as his mother about his destiny.

“At the time,” he said, “it looked like my beginning was going to remain that way and maybe my latter days were just not going to happen.

“But those little words were like food, nourishment during the time of famine in my life.”

Evans kept coming back, working for a golf management company in Los Angeles in the off-season and hanging on with the silver and black during the season.

But a funny thing happened to him on the way to oblivion.

With Jay Schroeder injured and Todd Marinovich in the Raider doghouse, Evans got the start in the Raiders’ last game of last season. He was handed the reins of a 6-9 team against the favored Redskins in Washington on a frigid December evening.

It was hardly an enviable spot, kind of like being handed the wheel of the Titanic for the last 100 yards of its voyage.

But Evans made the most of it. He completed 15 of 22 passes for 214 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winner to Tim Brown with 13 seconds to play, to give the Raiders a 21-20 victory. Evans had to laugh. Everywhere he went around the country during the offseason, he heard people asking, “Where did this guy come from? Where has he been? Did they get him out of the parking lot or what?”

At 37, 16 years after entering pro ball, Vince Evans was an overnight sensation.

“It’s funny how things happen sometimes,” he said. “But when you’ve got a goal and a focus on where you want to be, it may seem impossible to others that you could end up in a position like this, but it’s just an affirmation to one’s inner beliefs to see it come to fruition.”

That’s not to say that the Raiders suddenly saw Evans, now 38, as their quarterback of the future. He still hadn’t proved he could run a club over the long haul. In the offseason, the Raiders signed free agent Jeff Hostetler for $7.5 million and drafted Billy Joe Hobert on the third round.

“I was saying, ‘They don’t need those guys,’ ” Evans recalled. “I’ve been saying that since I’ve been here. Those are intangibles that you as a player have nothing to do with. I could go and tell Mr. (Al) Davis, ‘Hey man, I’m your guy. I’m the man that you need. I could drive this car for you.’ But still, if in his mind he sees something else that’s beneficial for his organization, he’s going to do what he’s got to do.”

Still, this preseason was different for Evans. From Day 1, Coach Art Shell has designated Evans as Hostetler’s backup and has not wavered.

So with this year’s final cutdown on Monday, Evans should have a feeling he hasn’t enjoyed as an NFL quarterback since his Bear days--security.

Right?

“You know,” he said, “because it’s happened so much, I guess I’m still gun shy. But, I’ve had it happen so many times that my faith is not on what they decide, but what’s on the inside of me. Before I came here, I never got cut before. There was some real deep soul-searching I had to go through as an athlete when I got here.”

There is no guarantee that Evans is safe from the waiver list even this season. He might still be cut on Monday if the Raiders need the roster spot and are confident that, at his age, Evans won’t be picked up anywhere else. Then they could re-sign him 24 hours later and return him to the No. 2 quarterback spot behind Hostetler.

Would it bother Evans if that happens, even if it’s merely a temporary administrative move?

“Yeah,” he said, “I’d be a little disappointed. Of course.”

But certainly not surprised.