Pioneers Pollard, Friedman battled bias

Frederick “Fritz” Pollard was the first African-American coach in the NFL with the Akron Pros in 1921, but it wasn’t as if the Chicago native had broken down all barriers of racial prejudice.

As the player-coach, Pollard had to dress in the team owner’s cigar store and wait in a car before the game instead of warming up on the field. Then he would run out for the opening kickoff to avoid fan repercussion and possible violence.

Pollard told an interviewer in 1983 that he experienced racism as an 86-pound sophomore at Lane Tech. The team was taking a train to a road game.

“I got to the railroad station on time, but I was told the train had left an hour earlier. I took the next train,” Pollard said. “When I got to the game, my coach told me our opponents didn’t want me to play. The coach didn’t know how to tell me. So he had the entire squad take an earlier train.”

From 1933-46, under the influence of Boston Braves (later Washington Redskins) owner George Preston Marshall, the league had a “gentleman’s agreement” that to recover from Depression losses they would appeal to white audiences and keep black players out, rationalizing that it was for their own protection.

Pollard also coached and played for teams in Milwaukee and Hammond, Ind. The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s seniors selection committee nominated him for possible election next February.

Benny Friedman, the committee’s other nominee, also experienced prejudice as a Jewish player from 1927-34. The first effective passer, Friedman threw 66 touchdown passes despite using a fatter, bladder-shaped football. That remained the NFL record until 1943.

In a 1930 newspaper game story, Friedman was identified as “that redoubtable descendant of Palestine. . . . The boy from the ghetto passed with unerring and uncanny ability.”

The Hall of Fame wasn’t established until 1963, when Marshall was enshrined in the charter class, so it’s easy to see how these pioneers slipped through the cracks.

Ogunleye intrigue

It appeared Drew Rosenhaus, agent for Adewale Ogunleye, manipulated the Bears into coughing up more money than they wanted to in the Marty Booker trade.

After Rosenhaus leaked negotiations to reporters, the Bears felt compelled to keep Booker informed. Booker left the building, leaving the Bears with little choice but to meet Ogunleye’s price.

But reports the Bears started by offering $4 million to sign and wound up giving $10 million plus a roster bonus of $5 million next year are exaggerated, the Bears maintain.

Booker didn’t need to be told in the first place, and the Bears believe he would have gotten over it if the deal had collapsed.

Also, consider this: Ogunleye might have left money on the table. Though he gets $16 million guaranteed in his first two years and $20 million in his first three, Seattle paid free-agent defensive end Grant Wistrom $17.5 million in the first two and $21 million in the first three.

Wistrom recorded 12 sacks the last two years playing under Bears coach Lovie Smith in St. Louis. Smith didn’t pursue him in free agency. Ogunleye has collected 24.5 sacks in the last two years.

By trading Booker, the Bears saved a potential $12 million in salary over the next four years of his contract, which now goes toward Ogunleye. If Ogunleye somehow had become a free agent and avoided a franchise tag, his price would have been steeper. For example, the Philadelphia Eagles paid Jevon Kearse a $16 million signing bonus although the oft-injured Kearse has had only 11.5 sacks the last two years.

So the deal looks good for the Bears. And they have at least another week to bask in it because Ogunleye won’t play until then.

Booker hot

Booker’s first practice with Miami had to be curtailed because of heat.

“It’s amazing,” said Dolphins coach Dave Wannstedt, who left Chicago the year before Booker arrived. “Here’s one of the hardest workers the Bears have had. He came down today and felt it with the humidity a little bit. But when he’s out there catching the ball and making plays, he has those soft hands that remind me of O.J. McDuffie. He’s going to be a great addition. I’m real excited about having him on board.”

Wannstedt said the Dolphins will scale back their playbook initially just to get Booker on the field for the season opener.

Hail to Sims

Tackle Barry Sims signed with the Oakland Raiders in 1999 as an undrafted free agent out of Utah. He will start ahead of first-round draft choice Robert Gallery, the heralded left tackle from Iowa. Gallery is working at left guard so the Raiders can get their five best blockers on the field.

“It may be a two-day deal, it may be longer. Long term, there’s no question Robert’s going to be a big-time left tackle,” coach Norv Turner said. “Barry’s playing so well that I see him playing left tackle in our opening game.”

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Sims, who has started 46 of the Raiders’ last 48 games, now has fended off his third No. 1 draft choice, following Mo Collins in the summer of 2000, then Matt Stinchcomb to begin 2001.

Chicago disease?

Vikings wide receiver Marcus Robinson was a late scratch at Atlanta last week and might miss the rest of the preseason because of a hamstring injury. Coach Mike Tice called the ex-Bear’s injury a “mild, mild sprain” and has not hid his disappointment in Robinson’s inability to stay on the field.

“He’s one of those gifted athletes who needs to be right all the time, I guess,” Tice said. “I’ve never been right, so I don’t know what it would feel like to be 100 percent.

“I guess he feels like in order to have his great abilities come through, he wants to feel better than he’s feeling. So I’ll respect that. We’re deep at receiver.”

Said Robinson: “I hate the word injury-prone. Sometimes it gets to the point where I can’t run. When I run, it’s like a job. You know you’re going to get little nagging injuries, but normally you can push through it. It’s no problem. But if you’re not running at 100 percent in this offense, you’re not going to make it.”

What you wish for

Washington coach Joe Gibbs loves to run the ball, so new running back Clinton Portis is sure he will love Gibbs. But after carrying seven straight times against Miami, Portis said, “Coach Gibbs thinks I’m a machine. The running game happened to be going, but seven carries in a row? You get pretty tired.”

Asked how many carries he projected for Portis this year, Gibbs said, “His tongue’s going to be hanging out, let’s put it that way.”