Jordan: He’s Hero Today, Gone Tomorrow : Raiders: Star of team’s victory over Oilers is traded to Packers for undisclosed draft choice.

Charles Jordan knew a wide receiver had to go.

With Tim Brown, Alexander Wright, James Jett, Rocket Ismail and Daryl Hobbs also in contention for the five wide receiver spots, Jordan knew the Raiders’ final cutdown to 53 players was going to affect one of them. He just didn’t know who.

On Sunday morning, Jordan found out the player was him.

“Hello, Charles?” said George Karros, the Raiders’ scouting director, when he telephoned Jordan. “You’ve just been traded to Green Bay. Keep your head up. It’s a numbers game.”

So in a span of less than 24 hours, Jordan went from a hero whose catch helped the Raiders win their final preseason game at Houston to a Packer in need of some warm clothes.

“I’m not bitter or disappointed because (the Raiders) did give me a chance when no one was even interested in bringing me in,” said Jordan before he caught a plane to Wisconsin. “It’s a great opportunity for me, I guess. Basically, they are bringing me in to play. I’ll get a chance to get more playing time and an opportunity to get better.”

What made Jordan expendable, he was traded for an undisclosed draft choice, was the fact that the Raiders are blessed with talent at wide receiver.

“It’s always a difficult process when you have to release people,” Raider Coach Art Shell. “It’s an unfortunate thing and a tough business. But it’s something that we have to live with it.

“(Jordan is) a quality player, who we’ve had inquiries about. But, the way our squad is structured, we can’t keep six (wide receivers).”

Having a team trade for Jordan would have been highly unlikely prior to last season when he signed as a free agent with the Raiders. That’s because Jordan, who played quarterback and wide receiver at Inglewood Morningside High, had played only one season at Long Beach City College in 1988 and was out of football for four years.

He got his chance with the Raiders only after he impressed scouts at an all-comers free-agent workout camp.

“Yeah, no one but the Raiders wanted to give me a chance last year,” said Jordan, who was inactive for the first six games last season before being placed on injured reserve with a leg injury. “But, they gave me chance and I learned a lot here.”

Jordan was a longshot’s longshot to make the Raiders in training camp a year ago, but he kept making plays that caught the coaching staff’s attention. The problem for Jordan was that no matter how well he played, he always had players like Brown, Wright, Jett and Ismail ahead of him.

That was never more evident than this preseason when Hobbs emerged as the team’s leading receiver. On the plane ride back to Los Angeles following the Raiders’ victory over Houston on Saturday, Jordan was told by a teammate that either he or Hobbs was going to be traded.

“I kind of expected that I would get traded and not Hobbs once we got back,” Jordan said. “Basically, people out there knew who Charles Jordan was. I figured I would go to Green Bay because Ron Wolf (Packer vice president and general manager) was interested in me last year. One reason why I wasn’t placed on the practice roster last year was because the Raiders knew that the Packers would pick me up off of waivers.”

To trim their roster from 60 players to 53 Sunday, the Raiders also waived defensive end Alberto White, wide receiver John Morton, defensive backs R.J. Kors and Cary Brabham and running backs Randy Jordan and Derrick Gainer.

The release of White is somewhat of a surprise since he led the team in sacks during the preseason.

The Raiders can add five players to their practice squad after 1 p.m. today. White, Morton and Brabham are eligible because they do not have a season of free-agency credit.