Long Road Home

There was only one thing worse for an Oakland Raider rookie defensive lineman than being sent into The Pit.

Being sent into The Pit and finding Art Shell there.

Howie Long had already endured his share of tribulation by the time he arrived at the team’s training camp in Santa Rosa, Calif., as a second-round draft choice in 1981. He had been through a childhood in tough, blue-collar Charlestown, Mass., a broken home and the difficulties of surviving and thriving in a small-college football program at Villanova.

“We had three to a room [at Villanova],” Long said, “and there were only two beds. You do the math. The strongest got the beds.”

Then came The Pit.

It was a small dirt area at the Raider training facility where offensive and defensive linemen were matched over an imaginary line of scrimmage.

The Raiders, wanting to show the talented but raw Long how much he had to learn, put him in against Shell, a future Hall of Famer.

As they swung into action, Shell hit Long under the eye with one elbow, blasted him in the ribs with the other and put the 6-foot-5, 268-pounder on his back.

Staring up at the imposing Shell, Long muttered in awe, “I never saw anybody like that at Villanova.”

Nor anybody like Raider defensive line coach Earl Leggett.

“Kid, you just work hard,” Leggett told the rookie Long, “and do what I tell you to do, and you’ll be wealthy and a household name in every home in America.”

Nearly two decades later, on a hot, muggy Saturday afternoon on the steps of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in front of a record crowd of 8,000, Long, with Leggett’s prophecy having long since been fulfilled, reached the pinnacle of individual achievement.

He was inducted into the Hall along with quarterback Joe Montana, defensive back Ronnie Lott, linebacker Dave Wilcox and Pittsburgh Steeler owner Dan Rooney.

Long’s presenter was Leggett.

“For us, he was the right pick at the right time,” Leggett said. “I could not picture Howie Long as anything but a Raider.

“He had a total fear of being unsuccessful, but, in 13 years, he became the most disrupting force in football.”

Long was an Oakland Raider for one season and a Los Angeles Raider for 12 after the team moved south.

Named to the NFL’s All-Decade team for the 1980s, to the Pro Bowl eight times and to the All-AFC squad four times, Long recorded 84 sacks in his career, not including the 7 1/2 he had in his rookie year, the last season before the sack became an official statistic.

In his later years, Long was not as effective, as opposing teams focused on stopping him with double- and triple-teams. He would sometimes jump offside in an effort to gain the extra step that could help him beat the extra coverage.

Contributing to the frustration was the fact that the Raiders turned from an often-dominating team, united in resolve, to a struggling squad, the losses on the field matched by controversy and dissension in the locker room.

Through it all, Long was able to keep his concentration and determination at a high level. And opposing quarterbacks kept looking nervously over their shoulder, double-teams or no double-teams, ever watchful of big No. 75 charging in, teeth gritted and jaw set.

Sportswriters loved Long because they knew they could always get a colorful quote by stopping at his locker stall.

After the Raiders faced the Kansas City Chiefs for the first time since longtime Raider Marcus Allen joined the Chiefs, Long told reporters, “Seeing Marcus Allen in a Kansas City uniform is like seeing your wife in someone else’s kitchen.”

When the candy bar that bore Long’s name was distributed to writers, Long told Eric Noland of the Los Angeles Daily News, who had been briefly banned from Raider camp for writing critically of the team, “If I was you, before I touched that candy bar, I’d get a taster.”

But finally, the years in the trenches exacted their toll. At 34, Long retired.

Long said: “[Assistant coach] Dave Adolph once told me that if at the end of your career, you know that you did not give 100% to everything you did, it will haunt you the rest of your life. I gave every ounce I had to give and, when it was over, I was exhausted.”

Long went on to a still-burgeoning career as a television analyst/movie actor/commercial spokesman.

But Raider owner Al Davis never seemed to understand Long’s decision to retire.

“For six years, our relationship was nonexistent,” Long said. “He always believed in me a lot more than I believed in myself.

“He was the one who stepped up and took a chance on the kid from Villanova, and he was always kind to family. And from him and others in the Raider organization, I gained their tremendous passion for winning.”

Long said that he and Davis resumed their relationship in a long conversation earlier this year, and Davis was on hand Saturday afternoon for Long’s memorable day.

“It’s an out-of-body experience,” Long said of his induction. “It’s not like it’s happening to you. You realize that you are in an exclusive club, part of the greatest team ever assembled. This goes beyond the Steelers and the Raiders. You see players from teams like that embracing and it boggles your mind.”

And finally, bathed in the glow of a moment he will never forget, Long paid tribute to his sport.

“Baseball is America’s pastime,” Long said, “but pro football is America’s passion.”

He has come a long way from Charlestown. But that shouldn’t come as a big surprise.

Not after he survived The Pit. On his first day in a professional football camp, Long learned what it took to be a Hall of Famer by colliding with one.

The standard was set.

And 19 years later, Howie Long became one himself.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME / CLASS OF 2000

HOWIE LONG

DL, Raiders, 1981-1993

* Voted to eight Pro Bowls. . . . Key member of 1984 Super Bowl champion that beat Washington. . . . Had 84 sacks in his career. . . . A first- or second-team All-Pro selection five times.

RONNIE LOTT

DB, San Francisco, 1981-90; L.A. Raiders, 1991-92; N.Y. Jets, 1993-94

* Played on four Super Bowl winners with 49ers . . . Had 63 career interceptions and was named to 10 Pro Bowls and the NFL’s 75th anniversary team.

JOE MONTANA

QB, San Francisco 1979-92,

Kansas City 1993-94

* Super Bowl MVP three times in four wins. Other time, in 1989, he led 92-yard drive capped by 10-yard TD pass with 34 seconds left to give 49ers a 20-16 win.

DAVE WILCOX

LB, San Francisco 49ers 1964-74

* Voted to seven Pro Bowls in 11 years and missed only one game. . . . Had 14 interceptions in his career. . . . In 1973, 49ers coaches gave him 1,306 rating, far above a linebacker’s typical 750.

DAN ROONEY

President, Pittsburgh Steelers

* Father Art, who founded Steelers, also in Hall. The younger Rooney was in charge when team won four Super Bowls in six seasons during ‘70s. Helped mediate strikes in 1982 and 1987.

*

* HIGH MOMENT

Joe Montana finally realizes magnitude of making Hall. Page 11