Raiders Join Forces With Navy : They’re Trying to Work Out a Schedule for McCallum

OXNARD — Napoleon McCallum of the Navy and the Raiders met the press at the Long Beach Naval Yard Thursday, while his employers tried to figure out a way to share him.

Both sides seem to be working at it. The Raiders were first noncommittal about combining a Navy schedule with their own, but Thursday Coach Tom Flores said: “I’m optimistic it can be done.”

McCallum explained that normal Navy policy will allow him to trade watches aboard his ship, the Peleliu. McCallum must stand a 24-hour watch every five days. McCallum must also work his normal daily shift, 5 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Friday. Raider practices, 25 miles away at El Segundo, start at 2:30.

The captain of the Peleliu, Capt. Kenneth R. Barry, who will decide any scheduling adjustments, was still at sea Thursday. Nothing definitive can be expected until he and Flores, or their emissaries, talk.

Flores, however, was at least on good terms with Barry’s predecessor. In May of 1984, the Raiders showed their highlight film aboard the Peleliu. Flores gave the captain, whose tour of duty has since ended, a Raider cap and jacket, and got a Peleliu cap in return.

“I’m happy,” McCallum said on a telephone hookup to writers at the Raider camp. “I’m happy I’m going to be able to--hopefully--play with the Raiders.

“I do see a problem if (the Raiders) want to hold a space open for me, knowing I’ve got to do the work for the Navy. I’m going to be able to practice with the team every day and be able to attend the games. . . . I won’t be able to come to the morning meetings. But if they allow it, I can do that after practice.

“I’m hopeful but it’s their organization and they’ve got to do what’s right for them. They’re one of the winningest teams, so whatever helps them win, whatever they need to do to win, that’s what I want them to do. I don’t want to be a hindrance.

“We just need to get together and talk about the situation as it really is and see if they can deal with it.”

When they do get together, the Raiders will have a lot of questions, such as:

--How long will McCallum be available on this basis?

--Is the Peleliu going anywhere this season?

The ship is “under maintenance” but it’s scheduled to be ready for sea duty about December, with the likelihood of a shakedown cruise after that, according to a Navy spokesman. If it goes anywhere, McCallum has to go with it.

That could theoretically result in a new kind of Super Bowl story: Raiders take a day off from preparations for Super Bowl XXI in Pasadena to go to Long Beach and wave goodby to running back Napoleon McCallum.

“There is a possibility (of the Peleliu sailing), but that’s a ship’s schedule and I can’t talk about that,” McCallum said.

And how long will he have this duty?

“I’m not sure what the tour is for a supply company officer,” he said. “I think 24 months. After that, I’ll have a land-based station so it’ll be better. . . . I’m going to put in a request that I stay here. I’ve got a house here in Los Angeles.”

Does he worry about being worn down by the double duty?

“I still believe the (U.S. Naval) Academy is tougher than everything I’m trying to do here,” he said. “At the academy, we got up early, went to six classes, then had practice. You had to compete on the college level and then go back and study for tomorrow’s classes. That along with all the military things you had to do. I’ve been put in pressure situations before and I lasted. I did fairly well.”

And if things can’t be worked out between the Raiders and the Navy?

“I’d want to cry,” McCallum said. “I’d want to cry and then I’d go on. If I’m not part of the team, then I’m still going to root them on. . . . Hopefully they’ll still allow me to come by and learn some things so I can have a better chance at it next year.”

For the moment, he’s a Raider. He’ll dress for tonight’s exhibition against the New England Patriots, although Flores says he probably won’t play.

Application of the McCallum decision to Atlanta halfback Eddie Meyers, a Marine lieutenant, and to Naval Academy basketball star David Robinson remains to be seen. Meyers is due back at Camp Pendleton Sept. 1 and won’t be able to play football unless the Marines reassign him. “I feel left out in the cold,” he told the Washington Post.

An academy spokesman said that neither Robinson nor any academy personnel would comment on the decision. Unless the Navy were to think of a new kind of assignment for him, though, Robinson couldn’t play a National Basketball Assn. schedule while on active duty.