Wright Reconstructs Dream With Raiders : Football: Former Cal State Northridge receiver took a circuitous path to NFL team’s camp.

After signing a letter of intent to attend USC in 1982, wide receiver Keith Wright dreamed of playing in the National Football League.

A standout football player, baseball player and sprinter at Verbum Dei High in Los Angeles, Wright set a national junior college single-season record for receiving yardage at Harbor College as a sophomore in 1981.

He boasted he would break receiving records at USC too, then rewrite the NFL record book.

“When you’re young, you have nothing but the greatest of intentions and the biggest of dreams,” he said.

Wright, 27, never realized those ambitions. But he is getting a chance, however slim, to make his dreams come true in the Raiders’ training camp in Oxnard.

Academically ineligible after his first semester at USC, he never played for the Trojans. “I just wasn’t ready (for college),” Wright said. “There’s nothing else I can say about it.”

He drifted into trouble after leaving USC and in 1984 a jury found him guilty of robbing a San Pedro fast-food stand of almost $1,100.

Maintaining his innocence, Wright testified that he was set up by a restaurant employee whose former girlfriend he had dated and a man living across the street from the restaurant who was hired within two weeks of Wright’s conviction.

Wright declined to discuss the incident.

“Every time I show up somewhere new, they want to talk about that,” Wright said. “I’ve talked about that. That part of my life is over with.”

Wright received a four-year prison sentence. Released after serving two years, he enrolled at Cal State Northridge in 1986.

“There wasn’t nothing enlightening about (prison). It was a waste of time,” said Wright, who had been convicted four times for minor offenses before the robbery trial.

As a junior in 1987, Wright blossomed under Northridge Coach Bob Burt, making a team-high 26 catches for 476 yards. He led Western Football Conference receivers by scoring 10 touchdowns.

“Coach Burt gave me a chance and I’ll always be grateful for that,” Wright said. “In my first year, I wasn’t in a situation where I could demand that they throw me the ball 15 or 20 times a game. But I accepted my role. It was a type of a humbling thing not being the head cheese and not complaining about it.”

Wright again stumbled in the classroom and was declared academically ineligible for his senior season. He signed with the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League but never left the practice field his first season. In 1989, Wright caught 44 passes for 697 yards and six touchdowns for the Eskimos and last season he had 54 receptions for 900 yards and nine touchdowns.

Although he enjoyed playing in the CFL, Wright longed to play in the NFL. He signed with the Raiders as a free agent last May.

“He’s a good receiver with excellent hands,” Raider Coach Art Shell said of Wright, 6-foot-1, 185 pounds. “I think he has better hands than what people give him credit for. He runs good routes. He gives our defensive backs out here good competition.”

Wright is a longshot to make the Raiders, who are set at wide receiver with Willie Gault, Mervyn Fernandez, Tim Brown and Mike Alexander. He was cut last month, but re-signed one day later to fill out the roster.

Still, Wright’s chances of making the final 45-man roster are not good.

“Keith has worked hard for us,” Shell said. “He’s done everything we’ve asked of him. But he understands it’s going to be very difficult for him to make this football team.

“I think he has the ability to play in this league, but with the receivers we have, it’s going to be very difficult for him here.”

Even after the Raiders released him, he didn’t have to think twice about accepting their invitation to return.

“It’s been a dream of mine to play in the NFL. And it was a dream of mine as a child to be a Raider. But as you grow up, you realize that the important thing is just to play the sport. This is a good organization. This is where I would like to be. Being from Los Angeles, it would be nice to stay here and play.

“My chances aren’t very good. They didn’t draft any young receivers because they have a good corps of receivers returning. They have a head start on me because they know the system like the back of their hand.”

If Wright doesn’t make the Raiders, he plans to return to Edmonton.

“I liked it in Canada, but my contract was up,” Wright said. “I didn’t leave because I thought lightly of the CFL. If I have to go back up there, I’ll have no complaints, because for me the main thing is just to play football.

“The NFL is a different game totally from the CFL. It’s fast-break football where everybody throws the ball. But what I learned in Canada has helped me.”