Raider Role Is a Natural for Hoskins

OXNARD —  Once a player becomes a Raider safety, he immediately takes on the image of a punisher.

He can’t run and hide from it, nor can he ignore it. It simply is there--part of the team’s history.

From Jack Tatum and George Atkinson to Ronnie Lott and now Eddie Anderson, Raider safeties have been known for hitting.

So, when a newcomer like Derrick Hoskins steps into the job, he feels some pressure.

“One reason why I was drafted was for my hitting,” said Hoskins, who was the Raiders’ fifth-round choice in 1992. “I’ve always been a pretty tough hitter, ever since high school.”

Last season, Hoskins watched Lott start all 16 games at safety, while he played mostly on special teams. During the off-season, however, his role changed after Lott signed with the New York Jets as a free agent.

Hoskins, 22, is being counted on to take over where Lott left off, and after one month of training camp at Oxnard, he is doing so.

With first-round draft choice Patrick Bates providing tough competition, Hoskins has met the challenge of being a starter.

“He’s been doing very well for us and is having an outstanding camp,” Coach Art Shell said. “He is more comfortable now. He’s starting to whack people around.”

This is high praise for the 6-foot-2, 205-pound Hoskins, who was drafted from Southern Mississippi and has quietly moved up the Raiders’ depth chart in only one year.

“What I like about him the most is his toughness,” Shell added. “He’s a player who just wants to play.”

Chuck Friend, who coached Hoskins at Neshoba Central High in Philadelphia, Miss., said: “Hitting has never been a problem for Derrick. When we used to scrimmage, all of our running backs hated when he was on defense because they knew they were going to get hurt.”

The biggest adjustment Hoskins had to make after being drafted was getting used to living in Los Angeles, a foreign environment to Hoskins, who grew up in rural Mississippi.

“There definitely wasn’t too much to do except play sports,” Hoskins said. “Basically, I grew up in the country.”

Philadelphia, which received national attention when three civil-rights workers were found murdered in 1964, has a population of 7,010, and the town’s biggest names are sports heroes.

Its two high schools have produced four professional football players in the last decade--Hoskins, defensive end Tim Edwards of the New England Patriots and running backs Fred McAfee of the New Orleans Saints and Marcus Dupree of the USFL and the Rams.

“Basically, we all just hung out together and focused on sports to stay out of trouble,” said Hoskins, who played against McAfee and was Edwards’ teammate in high school. “Because Philadelphia is a small place, there aren’t too many opportunities for you.”

Hoskins decided to make a career of football when he was 5, after his mother bought him a uniform for Christmas.

“He walked in after playing all day with his older brother and told us that that he was going to be a professional player,” said Hoskins’ father, Johnnie. “It surprised us because no one else in the family was involved in sports. But he just loved the game.”

From then on, Hoskins became a dedicated student of the game. He even wrote a letter about his love for the sport to his favorite player, running back Tony Dorsett of the Dallas Cowboys.

“He really became hooked when (Dorsett) sent him a football picture card back,” Johnnie Hoskins said.

In high school, Derrick Hoskins was a three-sport star for three years. He was a standout safety and wide receiver on the football team, a guard on the basketball team and a triple jumper.

“He was always the type of guy you had to have a lot of respect for because he always knew what he wanted,” said Friend, who has coached at Neshoba Central High for 12 years.

Although his parents wanted him to attend Mississippi State, 40 miles from Philadelphia, Hoskins decided to enroll at Southern Mississippi, two hours away.

His hitting ability became legendary and he caught the attention of several NFL teams, including the Raiders.

When he arrived at the Raider practice site in El Segundo last year, Hoskins was tried as a cornerback. But after two weeks, he was moved back to safety, where he became a student under veterans Dave Waymer, who died last spring, and Lott, a future Hall of Famer.

“They helped me both on and off the field,” Hoskins said. “They talked to me about everything and kept me focused.

“At first, I had a certain image about L.A., but they helped me look at things differently. L.A. is a really nice place. It is not what I expected.”

Two months ago, Hoskins returned home and helped out with his high school’s off-season football workouts. It was like old times, but after a few days he wanted to return to Los Angeles.

“He definitely likes L.A., and that was clear on his last visit home,” Johnnie Hoskins said. “He was only here a couple of days and wanted to go back and drive his new sports car.”

Hoskins agrees he’s comfortable here.

“I really enjoy playing for the Raiders and being out here on the West Coast,” he said. “It is a big change for me, but I like it. I may be someone from the South, but I’m just down to earth, and that’s all that really matters wherever you go.”