He Has Hidden Talent

You know, I believe I’ve seen every pro quarterback L.A. has ever had, beginning with Bob Waterfield. I saw Waterfield, in fact, while he was still in college at UCLA.

There was quite a procession of them--Waterfield, Norm Van Brocklin, Billy Wade, Bill Munson, Roman Gabriel with the Rams. And then, the Raider bunch--Jim Plunkett (I saw him in college, too, at Stanford), through Marc Wilson and Jay Schroeder.

But as of Sunday, I hadn’t seen Jeff Hostetler. So, I thought I would betake myself out to the Coliseum and feast my eye on this new hopeful, the latest man-child who was supposed to take the Raiders out of the wilderness.

I tried to keep an open mind--and a tolerant heart. Don’t expect Waterfield, I kept telling myself. Or Plunkett.

The game started and the Raiders kicked off to San Diego. The Chargers couldn’t budge the ball and punted to L.A.

On the first play, Hostetler faded, planted--and threw a strike to receiver Tim Brown who was three yards in the clear at the 35-yard-line. Brown caught the ball and cruised into the end zone. Touchdown! Six! In 10 seconds of play! Wow!

I thought immediately how pleased Raider owner Al Davis must be! I mean, this was his kind of football. Blitzkrieg. Come in low over the rooftops. Dive bomb. Demoralize the opposition. Quick six.

“Boy, was he lucky to get this guy!” I told myself. Shades of the Mad Bomber, Daryle Lamonica. Shades of the invasion of the low countries, for all of that. These were the old Raiders. Strike long and fast. Their own 30 was good field position for them. Look out league!

I sat back to watch the slaughter. Davis had picked the right quarterback, after all. Those of us who’d wanted Boomer Esiason, Bobby Hebert and company should bite our tongues. Wrong again.

A 71-yard touchdown strike! They weren’t going to need the ball much.

But if we thought a 71-yard scoring play was impressive, let me tell you the record quarterback Hostetler set up two quarters later:

If you look in the NFL record book, you will see the notation that the longest touchdown pass completion in league history was 99 yards. It’s a record shared by the likes of Plunkett to Cliff Branch, Sonny Jurgensen to Gerry Allen, George Izo to Bobby Mitchell, and so on.

Scratch that.

The Raiders’ new quarterback threw a 102-yard touchdown pass to Donald Frank with six minutes to play in the third quarter. It was a game breaker.

It was a perfect pass. None of your Joe Kapp end-over-ends. It wasn’t tipped, wobbled, bobbled or shoveled. It hit the receiver right in the chest. It led him just the proper amount. Every quarterback likes to do that.

The only trouble was, Donald Frank was not the primary receiver. He wasn’t even in the pattern. He’s a San Diego Charger defensive back. The enemy. It was an interception.

It was a back breaker. But in between that touchdown and his first, Hostetler had thrown another scoring strike to Tim Brown, this one covering 38 yards.

So, looking at it objectively, the Raiders’ Hoss had thrown three touchdown passes in the game, for 71 yards, 38 yards and 102 yards. That’s pretty hair-raising stuff. That’s what made the Raiders great, right? Not for them that plodding five yards at a time. Game breakers, that’s the ticket!

So, you have to tell the skeptics the Raiders have precisely the person in the irons they’ve always lusted for. Ol’ Hoss is not looking to jab you to death. He wants to count you out with the roundhouse right.

In a way, you can sympathize with the interception. I mean, Hoss had the ball on the Charger three-yard line, right? It was second and three for a TD. Now, he has a choice of a three-yard touchdown pass--or a 102-yard touchdown pass.

He wasn’t aiming for Donald Frank, of course. He was aiming for Brown, who was supposed to be at the spot the ball was thrown.

But maybe ol’ Jeff doesn’t do three-yard touchdown passes--the way some maids don’t do windows, some lawyers don’t do parking tickets.

You know, he doesn’t throw interceptions--even though he promptly threw another when the Raiders got the ball back. With the New York Giants, he threw only 12 interceptions in nine seasons. Of course, it’s hard to throw an interception from a kneeling position holding for extra points, which Hoss spent much of his career doing.

Still, he did have only a 1.6 interception percentage last season, when he did most of the quarterbacking for the Giants. The best lifetime interception percentage is 2.59, by Bernie Kosar with Cleveland. The best single-season interception percentage is 0.66, by Joe Ferguson with Buffalo.

Hostetler faced reporters after his team’s loss to San Diego on Sunday with about the same enthusiasm he would face third and long. But he did allow as how the interceptor, Donald Frank, “hid himself in there.” That, of course, is what an interceptor tries to do--come out of the clouds on top of the bomber.

But Hostetler had a 424-yard day, completing 22 passes--20 to Raiders and two to San Diego. He threw for three touchdowns--two to Raiders and one to San Diego.

Actually, Hoss had a 526-yard day if you include the Frank reception.

I have to tell you, I like Hostetler’s style. He holds onto the ball like a guy waiting for a bus sometimes. John Unitas used to say you had 3.5 seconds to get rid of it, but Hostetler takes that long to get the laces up. The only local quarterback I ever saw who held it longer was Shack Harris. And he held onto it as if it contained his life’s savings.

Of course, I wouldn’t want to let go of the ball either if I knew Donald Frank was in the neighborhood. But I think from my first viewing, ol’ Hoss is going to be one of the memorable ones. I don’t think he’s going to be boring.

I don’t remember any of those other guys throwing 102-yard touchdown passes the first day I saw them. Hoss has promise. Any QB can find the open man. Hostetler finds the hidden man.