Guys Are Still Lining Up to Take Marvin’s Job : Raider Guard Has Lost His Place Twice, but He Remains a Starter--for Now

OXNARD — Everyone has his favorite way of being welcomed back after the off-season. See if this sounds like a ticker-tape parade to you:

Before right guard Mickey Marvin reported for his 11th Raider camp, an agent for rookie Bruce Wilkerson announced that Marvin and his long-time partner at right tackle, Henry Lawrence, had been asked to retire.

Marvin says it isn’t true. But he’s already had to reclaim his job twice in recent years, after losing it to to Don Mosebar in 1984 and Curt Marsh in ’86. Marvin knows somewhere out there is a young behemoth with his dressing stall in mind.

“Nobody ever said anything to me about retiring,” Marvin said Monday, sitting in the shade of an awning on the weightlifting porch, his T-shirt drenched after the morning workout.

“I just think agents a lot of time need to keep their mouths shut. I only used an agent my rookie year. After that, I negotiated my contracts myself with Al Davis. I wouldn’t give you two hoots and a holler for most of them.

“Then we took those two young guys (John Clay and Wilkerson) in the first and second rounds--our scouting department doesn’t make any mistakes. But I don’t take it personal. I just have to come out and do my job. When you’re a football player, you understand, you’re putting your career on the line every time you line up.

“I took somebody’s job, too. My second year. George Buehler. He’d been there 10 years. I think he played two more years with Cleveland. I said I wanted to conduct myself with the same dignity that he did when he found out about it.”

Never the biggest Raider lineman nor the quickest, Marvin is one of the most tenacious. An off-season minister in Hendersonville, N.C., for no pay--”Sometimes I get a tank of gas, sometimes they give me dinner”--he has been one of the greatest Raider cheerleaders and among the most selfless players. In the dressing room after the ’84 Super Bowl victory in Tampa, he threw a full embrace around Al Davis and, while sobbing, cried out, “Just dominate!”

Marvin’s memories go back to the offensive line of “Art, Uppy, Double D, Killer and me”--Art Shell, Gene Upshaw, Dave Dalby and Henry Lawrence, the huge--for their time--Raiders of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.

“I remember in ’81 when we beat San Diego in the AFC championship game to propel us to the Super Bowl,” Marvin said. “We were ahead of them, 34-31 (actually 34-27), and we held the ball the last 6:38. We just ran Mark van Eeghen up the middle.

“Sometimes you’re out there playing and things are clicking so well. You catch every ball, hit every hole, make every block. Things are going like clockwork. You just wish the drive could go on forever and ever.

“I used to somewhat feel I was the weak link of that line. I knew God had given me the ability, but it’s just the last few years I’ve kind of gotten comfortable to the point where I say, ‘Hey, I can block people, too!’

“I know I’m going to get beat but I guarantee you, if somebody beats me, it’s going to be a war. If they’re going to beat me, they’ll just about have to kill me to get over me.

“Thank God for the opportunity I’ve had to play for the Oakland and Los Angeles Raiders. . . . I always thought one of the greatest assets for a football player is humility. A coach once told me a long time ago, ‘If you think you’ll be missed, just get a bucket of water and stick your foot in it. Then pull it out. See how the water fills it up? That’s how much you’ll be missed.’

“I sure enough know there’s going to be another No. 65 on the Raiders. God willing, it won’t be for another five years.”