McCallum May Try to Resign From Navy

OXNARD —  They’re running out of moves in the affair of the Naval Raider, Napoleon McCallum.

Ens. McCallum has been rebuffed in his most recent appeal to rejoin his football team and intends to submit his resignation from the service.

Whether the Navy will accept it is another matter.

“An officer who has not completed his service obligation can submit such a resignation, although the Navy has said it will usually reject it,” said McCallum’s agent, Darryl Dennis, Friday from Washington.

“The Navy has said that such a resignation is conditional on accepting reserve status and that an officer must demonstrate that a hardship would otherwise be imposed.”

McCallum played last season while serving on a ship in dry-dock at Long Beach. But after a change of secretaries of the Navy, he was assigned to the California, a guided-missile cruiser docked at the Alameda Naval Air Station in San Francisco Bay.

He has requested reassignment but Thursday Dennis was informed that the request was turned down.

“I was shown a copy of a letter by Capt. MacWilliams from the office of legal affairs,” Dennis said.

“It said basically that they were refusing my request to allow McCallum to be reassigned to Long Beach as he had been promised he would be, or that he be laterally assigned to public affairs, or that he be allowed to assume reserve status.”

Dennis said that if the resignation doesn’t work, there is still a study by the government accounting office coming out that might do the trick.

“The report, which I have a copy of, suggests rather strongly that Ens. McCallum has been treated very unfairly,” he said.

The Raiders, meanwhile, are not figuring on having McCallum.

“At this point it’s hard to pencil him in,” Coach Tom Flores said.

And now a report on the rest of the Raiders serving in other theaters of operation:

Don Mosebar--Holding out. His lawyer is Howard Slusher, who’s on better terms with the Raiders than he is with anyone else. Slusher’s Raider clients commonly hold out a couple of weeks, however, as did Charley Hannah last year. Mosebar made $195,000 last season. Since he’s 25 and the team’s best lineman, the Raiders will have to go big bucks but they say that Slusher is asking real big bucks. Slusher is also busy negotiating for Cincinnati’s Anthony Munoz and hasn’t returned phone calls.

Shelby Jordan--Holding out. His shy demeanor notwithstanding, he represents himself, and well. He made $320,000 last season, second-best among Raider offensive linemen. He’s set to start at right tackle this season, but he’s 35 and there seems to be a feeling among management that he’s overplaying his hand.

Bo Jackson--Playing baseball. Friday night, he struck out three times. He has just one home run and only four runs batted in since the All-Star break.

The consensus around the Royals is that Jackson is ultimately gridiron-bound. He has said he intends to honor all five years of his football contract. But what, he was asked, if the Royals press him to play just baseball next year--as General Manager John Schuerholz has said they will--will Bo return?

“I wish I could see that far down the road,” he told the Kansas City Star’s Bob Nightengale. “But I can’t.”

Jackson also told Nightengale that he can’t understand why everyone makes such a fuss out of everything he does.

A South Bay Municipal Court commissioner Friday ordered the county Probation Dept. to prepare a report on whether Raider linebacker Jerry Robinson should face diversion rather than prosecution on four drug charges.

Robinson, who was arraigned before Commissioner Bernar Gross, will return to court Sept. 22 at which time a preliminary hearing date will be set if Robinson is not granted entry into a diversion program. At his arraignment, Robinson also pleaded not guilty to one count of driving under the influence of drugs.

Robinson, 30, of Rancho Palos Verdes, was arrested July 16 after sheriff’s deputies observed him approaching an accident scene in the Palos Verdes area at a high rate of speed. The deputies allegedly found cocaine and codeine in his car after he was stopped.

At Friday’s hearing, Deputy Dist. Atty. Audrey Collins expressed concerns about possible diversion for Robinson “based on his past problems and the gravity of this offense.” She added he might also be legally ineligible because he is currently on probation for a 1985 reckless driving conviction.

Ens. Napoleon McCallum