Hawkins Is Leader-in-Hiding for Raiders : L.A.’s ‘Small’ Running Back Talks a Big Game and Plays One at the Same Time

Men whom other men will follow come in all sizes. The Raiders have a tall aspirant in quarterback Marc Wilson and a natural leader in Marcus Allen.

Todd Christensen doesn’t mind showing the way, although you might say that he and the rest of the squad aren’t exactly on the same page.

The Raider leader no one knows about? Fullback Frank Hawkins.

At 5 feet 10 inches and 214 pounds (his figures) or 5-9, 210 (the Raider press book’s) he is really a third guard. All there are on the field are bigger players, and all he does is block them.

But then there’s his hidden role.

“The most overlooked thing about Frank Hawkins is his leadership,” Allen says. “It’s because he’s a small guy. Basically, the smallest guy out there.

“But he’s the one who gets everything going. He’s like a quarterback out on the field, especially with the offensive linemen. I lead by example. He’s very vocal. He says things that can’t be printed.”

Says Christensen: “What does he say? We have to block the something-somethings. We have to kick a certain part of their anatomy.

“The thing I like about Hawk, a lot of short people have a complex, they always have to prove something. He doesn’t have a complex, but he’s always proving something.

“He was too short, too slow, he was from a lousy conference (Hawkins attended Nevada Reno). The what’s-he-doing-in-the-NFL?-type thing. He has to read articles that say he isn’t fullback-size.”

On the Raider defense, where macho ranks right behind lifetime financial security, Hawkins is a special favorite. After this summer’s exhibition against the Browns, in which he stacked up linebackers like cordwood, one of them, Anthony Griggs, later told Howie Long, his old teammate at Villanova, that he’d had enough of Hawkins for one night.

“Hawk is his own man,” says Matt Millen, approvingly.

“Really?” says Hawkins, laughing. “Little old me?”

Six days a week, Hawkins is unfailingly cheerful, which is one reason that his character transformation on the seventh day is little remarked on.

“I get up angry on Sundays,” Hawkins says. “I know what my job is: block and block and block. That’s all I can look forward to.

“What do I say out there? It’d be easier if you ask me what I don’t say.

“It’s something that just happens. I really don’t say I’m the leader. It’s just that there are certain things that have to be done out there. There are certain key situations, and guys have to realize they’re key situations. There are times we have to use up seven minutes. There are times we have to go 80 yards.

“I’m a firm believer in saying, ‘You’re playing against someone, it’s a challenge. And if you need help, say something. Ask your buddy next to you.’ There isn’t anything wrong with that”

He is equally direct at work. He doesn’t like the frilly plays, the finesse moves and the angle blocks. What he likes is taking someone on, man to man, to find out who’s best.

“Ray Willsey (the Raider backfield coach) once told me on the sideline, ‘Hey, technique is 40%, and 60% is heart,’ ” Hawkins says. “All you have to do is get in front of the guy and stay in front of him.

“I’m a tough individual. I don’t like to give up, or succumb to anyone else. I have to be. Eyes are always on me. Certain people don’t expect me to be able to do my job. That makes it more of a challenge to me.

“The toughest guy I’ve faced? There was a guy named Dick Ambrose, who played for the Browns. He stands out in my mind. He was a tough guy. How many challenges does anyone need? This was in the days when we didn’t make any bones about where we were going. He never backed down. He never turned his shoulder.

“Of course,” he says, laughing, “I owned him.”

Hawkins is his own man, all right. He was cut in 1981 and almost retired. He almost jumped to the USFL after the ’84 Super Bowl.

“I was cut in Oakland,” he says. “I went home. I was supposed to go to Canada. I got on the plane and went halfway there, turned around and went home.

“I was supposed to go with San Francisco. I gave them several hours to make up their mind. When they didn’t, I said, ‘The hell with it, I’m done.’

“I had a degree (in criminal justice. He’s now in a master’s program in business). I thought, ‘I don’t need this (bleep).’

The Raiders re-signed him, and he has been extremely useful since. But they never stopped looking for a bigger fullback, either. They reportedly liked John L. Williams, a 220-pounder from Florida, last spring. The Seawhawks drafted Williams in the first round, before the first Raider turn.

Hawkins is said to have been angry all last season, in which he trailed Allen in carries, 380 to 84. He was no more enchanted this season when Allen was hurt and he was still kept in his blocking role.

The remarkable thing about his anger is that he keeps it to himself, unless asked. Then he goes out and whittles down a few more linebackers.

Marcus Allen is listed as questionable for Sunday’s game at Kansas City, because his sprained right ankle is still responding slowly. There is speculation that if it’s marginal, he’ll be held out because Arrowhead Stadium has artificial turf.