Sounds Like Brown’s Up to a Challenge

Are the Raiders going to trade their most valuable player because he’s a blabbermouth?

It could happen. Tim Brown could be talking his way right out of town. The already outspoken wide receiver has made a new-year resolution to speak out even more, against anything and everything he sees wrong with the Raiders, even if that makes him, in his own words, “a blabbermouth.”

Brown is only a Raider by default, remember, because Al Davis decided to match Denver’s gaudy 1994 offer to the player. Only a fool, however, fails to understand the difference to Davis between a player looking to make more money and a player publicly critical of the Raiders.

Marcus Allen’s obvious value didn’t count once Davis made up his mind that Marcus had done him wrong. Allen got benched until he got out. But Brown hasn’t been inside the Raider doghouse--not yet.

His near-jump to the enemy did not cause trouble. It did not prevent the Raiders from playing Brown, since all he had done was “use the system to increase his value,” as Davis put it. Nor did it keep Brown from doing his best. He was by far the team’s top offensive player and once again made it to the Pro Bowl.

But when the Raiders changed coaches while Brown was in Hawaii, he reacted with sharp criticism. And he threatened to keep blabbing, if that’s what it took to make people realize that something was rotten in the state of California.

It was clear from Brown’s remarks that the target of his displeasure was Davis. He took pains to point out that Mike White, the newly appointed coach, was OK by him and that he was looking forward to seeing what White would do with the offense.

But if Brown truly wants to stay with White and the silver and black, he had better beware. No way the Raider owner is going to tolerate public criticism of the organization or open rebellion directed at him. Winning comes first for Davis, but loyalty runs a close second.

“One thing Al Davis demands, and he used these exact words to me, is extreme loyalty,” White said upon being named coach. “Extreme.”

Few Raider players have ever challenged Davis, directly or indirectly, and remained Raiders.

Since the dismissal of Art Shell, several players have diplomatically said that he wasn’t the problem, but they understood that coaches do eventually take the fall. Some made vague allusions to “problems in the organization,” while even Brown tactfully avoided mentioning Davis by name.

Most must be wondering what kind of coach White will be.

“Tell them that Mike White will be an outstanding coach,” said New York Jet quarterback Jack Trudeau, who played college ball for him at Illinois. “Mike’s one of my favorite people. I’m surprised it’s taken him this long to become an NFL head coach.

“He can communicate with anybody, whether it’s a kid from the ghetto or from Beverly Hills. I think he’ll do great.”

Trudeau, who grew up in Livermore, established school records for passing yardage and touchdowns while at Illinois. He recently attended a reunion of the 1984 Rose Bowl squad at which White gave a speech that “electrified the whole room, got everybody’s blood going,” Trudeau said.

On a White-coached team, the quarterback is king.

“He had a saying: ‘When you step on the field, you own 51% of this team,’ ” Trudeau said.

“He put the pressure on the quarterback in practice. The game always seemed easy compared to practice. As a 21-year-old kid, I was given the responsibility of running my football team. Mike never second-guessed anything I did. He always backed me up. His theory is that your quarterback had better be a guy who is more prepared than anyone else on the field.”

Sounds like someone Jeff Hostetler might appreciate.

“I would sure think so,” Trudeau said. “It was pretty obvious that Jeff wasn’t altogether comfortable with what the Raiders were doing, from the bits and pieces I could see. I think this change should put him at ease.”

Change could be good for the Raiders.

Provided there isn’t one at wide receiver.