PRO FOOTBALL DAILY REPORT : RAIDERS : Former Giant Bunch Signed

Jarrod Bunch waited a long time to hear he was a Raider. But he never expected to hear it from a former teammate.

It was the night of the Raiders’ season opener at San Francisco. Bunch was in Los Angeles with his girlfriend but wasn’t watching the game.

When the phone rang, it was Bunch’s close friend on the New York Giants, receiver Chris Calloway.

“Pack your bags,” Calloway told Bunch.

Calloway, watching the game on the East Coast, had just seen Raider fullback Napoleon McCallum suffer a season-ending leg injury.

Sure enough, Bunch officially became a Raider, signing a one-year contract after spending three years with the Giants.

To make room for Bunch, 26, the Raiders put McCallum on the injured-reserve list, officially ending his season.

“It feels good,” Bunch said. “There’s a saying that you haven’t played professional football until you’ve played for the Raiders.”

Bunch, who will back up fullback Tom Rathman, didn’t play much last season.

After being used almost exclusively on special teams in 1991, his rookie year, Bunch, a first-round draft choice from Michigan, got a chance to play in 1992 and made the most of it, rushing for 501 yards. He averaged 4.8 yards per carry, second best in the league.

But last season, he racked up most of his yardage walking back and forth to the trainer’s room.

Bunch injured a knee, contracted pneumonia and the whooping cough.

Things weren’t much better in the off-season. He underwent corrective surgery on his right foot and both knees. In training camp this summer, he was sidelined with a pulled hamstring. Unable to suit up and unable to reach a contract agreement, Bunch was released last month.

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The Raiders released defensive back Torin Dorn, who had been on the injured-reserve list after injuring his hamstring. Dorn was a fourth-round draft choice of the Raiders in 1990.