Nasty G Fits Mold of Raiders

Dallas had a protection racket. Troy Aikman had pet names for da boys. He called them Tuey, Stepo, Geezer, Newt, Corn Dog, Big E, Vic Vines, Hell-to-Pay and Nasty G.

They were bodyguards. Their job was to keep the Cowboy quarterback safe.

Nasty G’s real name is Kevin Gogan, and this week he went to work for his new quarterback, Jeff Hostetler. Leaving the two-time Super Bowl champions wasn’t easy for the offensive lineman, but the Raiders made him an offer that the Cowboys refused to match.

“Troy called me to say, ‘Don’t go, don’t go,’ ” Gogan recalled during a break from his first day of Raider summer camp.

“He said, ‘Wait. I’m reworking my own contract.’ ”

In other words, Aikman was willing to defer some of his own big Cowboy bucks to keep some of his big buckaroos from saying adios.

But no, Nasty G was leaving Big D.

“I gave the Raiders my word, and my word is my word.”

So, here he is. No longer part of that gang with Mark Tuinei, Mark Stepnoski, John Gesek, Nate Newton, Frank Cornish, Erik Williams, Alan Veingrad and Dale Hellestrae who were there in camp in 1992 when Dallas was about to begin a new dynasty. No longer blocking for Aikman or pulling for Emmitt Smith.

Gogan, 29, is one of the runaways, one of the many Cowboys who abruptly chose to leave the top team in football.

He won’t kid you, though.

Gogan readily admits, “If Jimmy Johnson was still there, I’m sure I would be, too.”

However anyone else perceived the partnership between Dallas owner Jerry Jones and his former coach, their players were sure of one thing: Jones was a bottom-line guy, Johnson a between-the-lines guy.

Johnson would have fought to keep him, Gogan is convinced. Same way Aikman did.

But the tight spiral of greatest concern to Jones was inflation. His players found that out two games into the 1993 season, when they were 0-2 and their super-back Smith was still at home, watching them on TV.

“After the game against Buffalo, we knew we had to get Emmitt back or else,” Gogan remembers.

They did. And with Smith and Aikman leading the way--and with Gogan at times leading the way for them --the Cowboys did win another NFL championship. But then the coach and owner parted company.

Gogan, valuable and versatile because he could play either guard or tackle, kept tabs on the teammates who followed Johnson out the door. For a while, he went back home to the state of Washington and waited on an offshore island for the word. Would the Cowboys match the Raiders’ offer or wouldn’t they?

He says, “At one point I just got completely away, no phone, no anything. I just said, ‘Whatever happens, happens.’ ”

By the time Aikman himself got through to him, his mind was made up.

Gone were those golden days with the Cowboys, and with them the memories. Gogan was going back to Southern California, where he won his first Super Bowl ring, where Leon Lett got caught from behind, where the players partied afterward at the Santa Monica Civic Center, where singer Tanya Tucker got up and serenaded Jerry Jones, where Gary Busey got up with his guitar and did Buddy Holly one better.

Not every minute with Dallas had been ideal. Johnson once wanted to bench Gogan over the objections of line coach Tony Wise so that he could move Newton to left guard and install Williams at tackle. But with Jimmy, the quality of the team came first. Wise--whose linemen with the funny names were known as the Wise Guys--worried that Gogan might be upset. Johnson said something like, “Who cares if players get upset?”

With the Raiders, the 6-foot-7, 320-pound Gogan is likely to move into Max Montoya’s spot on the line, provided the veteran retires as expected. Raider offensive lineman Steve Wright also retired this week, and there are holes to fill.

Coach Art Shell, an old OL himself, figures Gogan can fill one.

“The thing I like is, he is nasty, just the way we like them around here,” Shell says. “Gogan’s not somebody you want to mess with out there.”

The Raiders have a preseason date with the Cowboys, on which their new man will line up on the opposite side.

Asked who will be opposite him, Gogan smiles and says, “It would have been Tony Casillas, but he’s gone, too. Russell Maryland, I guess.”

Will that be weird?

“Playing against the Cowboys? It will, for a minute or two,” Gogan says. “But this isn’t a good business to form attachments. After a couple of plays, I’ll be the same as any other Raider. We’ll be the good guys and the Cowboys will be the bad guys.”