Townsend Set for Round 2 With Chiefs

Do you remember when the Raiders had grudges? When they hated someone worse than themselves? When there were issues other than survival?

Those days will return with Sunday’s rematch against the Kansas City Chiefs, after the first meeting in which Greg Townsend became famous.

Pete Rozelle credited Townsend with spearing 260-pound Brad Budde and starting the fight in which he later kicked the fallen 285-pound Dave Lutz in the head and tore the helmet off 275-pound Mark Adickes.

That was a lot for one 250-pound, speed-burning pass-rush specialist. The Raider Hall of Fame was a lock. Other vistas might have unfolded.

How about a guest shot on David Letterman?

A TV movie of his life--”I Dismember Kansas City”?

Not exactly. Townsend is just trying to live it down.

“I always get reminded of it after every game from the fans waiting outside for autographs,” he said. “They always say, ‘There’s the guy that got suspended.’ I try so hard to play good football. It’s amazing. It’s like the old story. . . . “

That particular old story is not perfect for these pages.

“My mail has been about even,” Townsend said. “Some hate, not all of it. I only read ‘bout one or two. Then I got tired of that.

“I only had one that affected me a little bit. One guy wrote that his son witnessed this and because of that, he might not play football again. It’s one of two ways. Either he sits down and tells his son, ‘Greg did what he had to do after the guy hit him across the chest,’ or, ‘Son, you’re in the wrong sport, don’t play it. Play baseball . . . or tennis . . . or join the swim team.’ ”

The newest Raider to join the pantheon of the Assassin, Dr. Death, Tooz, Kick ‘em in the Head Ted and Lyle is sort of miscast. He’s unfailingly pleasant, candid, full of fun, with no rough edges showing.

Of course, when a fight breaks out, he’s something else. His worst sin, the one even the Raiders conceded merited punishment, the kick to Lutz’s head, was delivered, said Townsend after that game, because “he hit me and I hadn’t gotten my lick in.”

To which he added, laughing, “You can take the guy out of Watts but you can’t take the Watts out of the guy.”

How does a nice young man with a great sense of humor become notorious? He grew up in a tough neighborhood with four older brothers who were rough and ready guys and made things easier for him.

“They got the Townsend name known,” he said. “I just had to bring up the rear. ‘Bout all I had was four-five fights. And (beaming) I won ‘em all.”

“I was partially in a gang. When they started shooting and threatening family members, that’s when I said, ‘Forget this.’

“We weren’t the kind to start fights. We were the kind to finish them, though. We were raised in a Christian household. My father was always talking to us: ‘If you see your brother in a fight, I don’t care if he’s winning or losing, you go bop that other guy across the head.’

“My mother was always like, ‘Oh, walk away from that.’ ” Laughing, he said, “You can’t use that turn-the-cheek. ‘Cause they’ll hit the other one.”

With low grades coming out of Dominguez Hills High, he was steered by an Oregon State assistant coach to Long Beach City College, where he developed into a star linebacker. The big schools started courting.

“I was leaning toward USC and UCLA,” he said. “UCLA looked at my transcript and said, ‘Forget it.’ USC wanted me to replace Chip Banks.”

Instead, he wound up at Texas Christian, replacing someone he’d never heard of.

“It was really good,” he says. “Even the bad memories are fond. I owe that school--but they won’t get paid any time soon.

“My junior year, I first made my move. I went against four All-Americans in five weeks and beat ‘em. . . . I made all-conference that year.”

After his senior year, the Raiders drafted him in the fourth round, a pleasant surprise since Townsend wondered what position he could play in the NFL.

“I only weighed 230,” he said. “The first day I walked into the facility in Alameda, Derrick Ramsey was in the training room. You ever heard Derrick Ramsey talk? He has this (Townsend drops his voice comically) big deep voice.

“He says (gruffly), ‘Hi youngblood.’

“I say (falsetto, like Frankie Valli), ‘Hi.’

“He says, ‘(gruff) ‘Ah’m Derrick Ramsey.’

“(Falsetto) ‘Greg Townsend.’

“(Gruff) ‘What position you play?’

“(Falsetto) ‘Defensive end.’

“(Gruff) ‘Ah don’t know about you, Youngblood, you lookin’ awful small. We got some trees in this league.’

“(Falsetto) ‘I don’t know what they’re going to do with me but I’m glad they drafted me.’ ”

By the end of exhibition season, the Raiders were glad, too. Townsend had a sack in his first exhibition and three in the one against the Cleveland Browns, and he was set as a pass-situation fourth rusher. Going into this season, he had 28 1/2 sacks, divided fairly equally among his three seasons.

Was something missing? If it was headlines, he got them Oct. 7 in Kansas City, after Chief Coach John Mackovic ran films of the fight that had occurred two days before and protested to the NFL.

Rozelle, calling Townsend the “instigator,” suspended him. Even one non-Raider thought that was harsh. NBC’s Merlin Olsen, who saw the film the Raiders provided for the appeal, said it looked to him as if Townsend had been only pursuing the play and had tripped over Budde, who had then hit him, thus starting the melee.

“He tripped over me?” Budde said last week from Kansas City. “It’s like a marriage. After 20 years, you see what you want to see. All I’ll say is the eye in the sky doesn’t lie.”

There are several eyes in the sky but only one judge in New York. The match is over but here comes the rematch.

“He put a bad rap on me, Pete Rozelle did,” Townsend says. “He got everybody thinking I’m a cheap-shot artist.

“I’ve been looking forward to this game. There’s still hostility. . . . Not to sound like a 3-year-old but they had the first licks. I just retaliated. They lost the fight, so Mackovic, he had something to say.

“But I’ll tell you what, there won’t be anything illegal. I’m just going to play hard, tenacious football. I just hope they come ready ‘cause if they don’t, I’m going to rock ‘em real steady.”