Ismail Really Has a Ball in His First NFL Game : Raiders: Receiver corrals a keepsake after catching first touchdown pass.

Raghib Ismail shot off the bench Sunday as if he were, well, a rocket.

It had been two years since he left Notre Dame, seven months since he left the Canadian Football League and five weeks since he had signed with the Raiders.

Finally, in the second quarter of the Raiders’ fourth game, Ismail got the call he’d begun to wonder if he would ever get.

Assistant coach Terry Robiskie yelled out Ismail’s name. The fired-up receiver-return man jumped off the bench so quickly at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium that he ran right into Robiskie.

“He was hyperventilating,” said Coach Art Shell, laughing as he pictured Ismail frantically reporting for duty.

Robiskie had to practically collar Ismail to keep him from running onto the field at that very instant.

“You stay right here with me,” Robiskie said. “When that guy with the orange gloves starts the clock, you go in.”

Ismail, adrenaline flowing, missed his cue.

“Get in there,” Robiskie said.

“But you said to watch the guy with the orange gloves,” Ismail insisted.

“Get in there,” Robiskie repeated.

Ismail went in and nervously listened to the play in the huddle. But he wasn’t absolutely sure he heard it right. So he checked again with quarterback Vince Evans after the huddle broke. And he checked a third time with fellow receiver Tim Brown.

The ball didn’t come Ismail’s way on that play. And he didn’t get another chance in the first half, since that was the only time he was on the field.

But he made up for it in the second half, catching four passes for 75 yards, both game-high totals. One of those four Evans-to-Ismail throws went for 43 yards and a touchdown.

Standing in front of his locker stall afterward, Ismail was asked if he had saved the ball he caught for his first NFL touchdown.

From the look on his face, it was obviously the first time Ismail had thought of it.

Frantically, he looked all over the locker. No ball.

“Aren’t they supposed to put it in here?” he asked. A few minutes later, someone did.

*

While Ismail was bubbling in the Raider locker room, defensive lineman Nolan Harrison was fuming.

In the fourth quarter, he had lunged after a ball jarred loose from Kansas City quarterback Dave Krieg by safety Eddie Anderson.

Replays clearly showed that Harrison had not gained control of the ball until after it had rolled out of bounds.

But when it was ruled that Kansas City would retain possession, Harrison lost his cool. As he vehemently disputed the call, his flailing arms made contact with umpire Dennis Riggs.

That move earned Harrison an ejection and an anticipated fine unless he convinces league officials that the contact was incidental.

“It’s just a chicken call,” he said. “What can you do? They’re the ones who control the game. And I have to abide by the rules.”