Position in the Spotlight: Oakland

We're heading west for the next position in the spotlight city, Oakland, California. We decided to split San Francisco and Oakland up because of the cross town rivalries that exist in more than 1 sport, and the fact San Francisco's pick is obvious (we even mentioned it in the preview). Oakland actually has more pro sports teams than San Francisco, 3-2. They have the A's, the Raiders, and the Golden State Warriors, who play in the Oakland Coliseum parking lot. These teams, especially the A's and Raiders, have enjoyed a lot of success, with the 3 teams combining to win 7 championships (1 of the Raiders Super Bowls was in Los Angeles) since moving to town in various years of the 60s, but I noticed that it was hard to find a certain position that really stood out throughout a team's history. The A's have always had success with extremely well balanced teams, combining great pitching, hitting, and speed, and the Raiders have had a lot of success at running back, linebacker, defensive back, and wide reciever. There is one position though that was in the spotlight for one reason 30 years ago, and a totally different reason today, and that is my pick: Oakland Raiders Head Coach.

After a few rough years in the early days of the AFL, the Raiders hired a former USC offensive ends coach to try to turn the team around. His name? Al Davis. Yes, that Al Davis. Davis immediately turned the team around, won coach of the year in 1963, and the Raiders legend was born. After Davis left the Raiders coaching job to become part owner of the team and AFL commissioner in 1966, he was replaced by his assistant, John Rauch. Rauch brought the Raiders to a level that they hadn't been before, leading the Raiders to the 1967 AFL Championship and a trip to Super Bowl II, which they lost. Rauch led the Raiders back to the 1968 AFL Championship game but ended up quitting as head coach because of frequent interference from Davis....

Around this time, the Raiders were quickly becoming known as pro football's "bad boys," with a lot of players with colorful personalities. Davis gladly brought in all of the "problem" players of the NFL and turned them into winners. He needed a coach with a personality as big as his renegade players, and he found it in 32 year-old linebackers coach John Madden. Madden reigned in his talent and led the Raiders to the playoffs all but 2 years coaching the team from 1969-1978, winning Super Bowl XI in 1976 and leading the team to several AFC Championship games. Madden has the highest winning percentage of any modern day coach at .763 (2nd all-time to someone that only coached for 6 years in the 20's). Madden eventually left the team due to his fear of flying but left an extremely talented team behind and some huge shoes to fill.

Davis replaced Madden with his old quarterback from the 60's, Tom Flores, which made Flores the first latino head coach in NFL history. With a new quarterback in Jim Plunkett and a lot of the same talent from the 70's, Flores brought Oakland it's 2nd Super Bowl in 1980, and he made Dick Vermeil cry (ok, that's not too hard). This was all occuring while Davis was trying to move his team to Los Angeles, and he succeeded before the 1982 season...

The Raiders didn't lose many fans in Oakland after their move. They would never convert over to the hated Niners and many traveled to LA for the games (they were already used to traveling to San Diego once a year), so I'll touch on it briefly here. Flores won the Raiders another Super Bowl in 1983 and moved to the front office in 1988, replaced by Mike Shanahan. Shanahan was fired half way through 1989 (and according the ESPN still owns an Al Davis dart board 20 years later...damn, that's one bitter man), and was replaced by the NFL's first African-American head coach, hall of fame offensive lineman Art Shell. Shell led the Raiders to the playoffs 3 times before being fired after the 1994 season, coincidentally the same year the Raiders moved back to Oakland.

Things began to change for the Raiders head coaching position when they moved back to Oakland in 1995. Davis was increasingly interferring with his coaches and was growing more impatient with his hires. Mike White coached the team for only 2 years before being fired on Christmas Eve in 1996. He was replaced by Joe Bugel, who led the Raiders to their worst season since 1962 in 1997, and was abruptly fired. Davis then turned back to the strategy he used with John Madden back in the 60's, and hired the rising young coaching star, Jon Gruden. Gruden was a winner, turning the Raiders back around to a dominant force in the AFC, until he was "traded" to the Buccaneers after the 2001 season for draft picks after a controversial playoff loss to the Patriots.

Gruden was replaced by his offensive coordinator and former head coach of my rival high school, Bill Callahan. Gruden's success helped the Raiders attract a lot of talented players as free agents, and Callahan took his ready made championship-caliber team all the way to the Super Bowl in 2002, staying the course with Gruden's system and playbook in tact. Irony works in funny ways though, and the Raiders wound up running head first into Gruden and the Bucs in the Super Bowl. Tampa's defense played like they memorized the playbooks (they probably did, since they were Gruden's) and Rich Gannon threw 5 interceptions on their way to losing badly. Callahan was fired after going 4-12 the next season.

Davis's reputation as a boss was really starting to deteriotate at this point, and he was having a hard time finding a good head coach for his team. He turned to former Redskins head coach Norv Turner, who had already proved by this point in his career that he is a great offensive coordinator and a lousy head coach. After 2 seasons, Turner was fired. After a long search in 2006, the Raiders turned back to Art Shell, who hadn't been a head coach since being fired in 1994. After 2-14 season (the 2nd worst in team history) Shell was fired. Gruden went back to the fountain of youth for the 3rd time and hired Lane Kiffin, who even kind of looked like John Gruden if you squint a little, visor and all. Things got ugly quickly, with Davis trying to force Kiffin to quit so he wouldn't have to pay out his contract. It eventually led to Kiffin being fired early in the 2008 season and being replaced by Tom Cable, who was again nowhere near any other team's head coaching radars. The Raiders showed some life under Cable last year, and only time will tell how he fares as head coach. But either way, the Raiders head coaching job is in the spotlight both for the legends of the past, and the controversy of the present.

Honorable Mention:
Oakland A's 1-2 starters: The A's have had their share of (steroid-enhanced) sluggers over the years, but they have had their most success when having a great 1-2 punch at the top of the pitching rotation. From Catfish Hunter and Vida Blue in the 70s, to Dave Stewart and Bob Welch in the 80s and early 90s, to Tim Hudson and Barry Zito in the early 00's, the A's always seem to find themselves good pitching.
Oakland Raiders Wide Reciever: Al Davis loves speed, and he loves great wide receivers. The Raiders have had some good ones over the years, from hall of famer Fred Biletnikoff in the late 60s and early 70s, to Cliff Branch in late 70s/early 80s, to future hall of famer Tim Brown in the 90s, and even future hall of famer Jerry Rice in the early 00's. They even had Randy Moss for a few years. Will controversial 1st round pick Darrius Heyward-Bey be the next great one?

Pick #168 Oakland Raiders - Megan McLain, SS, U of Buffalo

The Raiders continued to draft players that were off the radar of other teams, drafting Megan McLain, a 5'6 senior out of the University of Buffalo. The Raiders claim she is a strong safety.
"I never even played football before!" the giddy new Raider said, "but when Mr. Davis said that they liked my speed, I was like, OK!"
McLain won the MAC championship this year in the women's 100m dash. When asked how she felt about the position the Raiders were assigning her to, she said, "SS. Is that short stop?"

The Holy Rollers Gather Moss

Originally posted on the old Is It Sports? site. Ryan was still a die-hard Vikings fan back when Moss was traded, so I'm putting his text in Purple. My text will be in black. Moss came to the Raiders with a bad attitude, so Ryan's points were pretty much right.

Ryan: i have something great to write about
Steve: that's fine
Steve: what's that?
Ryan: Moss got traded!
Steve: haha oh yeah
Steve: how could I forget
Ryan we could have a point-counter point article Ryan: point - this is awesome for the vikings Ryan: counter point - this sucks for the raiders
Steve: yeah actually we could
Steve: my dad is actually really excited about the trade
Ryan: .... why?
Steve: because he's extremely talented
Ryan : granted, but in the much stronger AFC one talented wide receiver isnt going to push them over the top Ryan: if you get a good receiver, you need him to be a role player, and not the focus Ryan: Moss was his best when we had Cris Carter on the other side catching passes
Steve: this is kind of a weak draft this year, so Moss is probably better than anyone they can draft
Steve: the Raiders just re-signed Porter to do that
Steve: who's pretty underrated
Ryan: Porter is no Carter
Steve: well obviously not, but if you leave him open he'll still kill you
Ryan: you can say that about any nfl wide receiver Ryan: even darrell jackson
Steve: its not like he's complimented by a 43 year old Jerry Rice
Ryan: So are the Raiders content to have Collins-Moss be their only threat every game? Ryan: well, Collins-Porter also Ryan: I honestly dont know who their running back is

I don’t know what it is with this off season. First A. J. Pierzynski goes to the White Sox, and now Randy Moss goes to the Raiders. The trend here is that the cancers from my teams are going to teams that Steve has a vested interest in. Both times I talked to Steve though, he hasn’t seemed phased by this. The teams he cheers for are so fraught with headache inducers that another one isn’t going to matter.

But the thing about it is, A.J. won’t shift the balance of the whole team. All he will do is make life unpleasant for the Joe Borchards and athletic trainers of the world. Randy Moss will shift the balance of the whole team. They will focus their entire offense to revolve around Number 84. Granted, his ego is probably big enough to have a pretty substantial gravity field, but if you are going to be dogging it half the time, don’t pretend like you are God’s gift to football.

The funny thing is, he’s already started to help the Vikings. Let me explain. The other morning on SportsCenter, there was a phone interview with his agent, curiously named Dante. He, in Randy Moss’ (henceforth known as Hasbro, given how much he looks like one of those Trolls ®), behalf, lambasted Pro Bowl quarterback Daunte Culpepper for, among other things, fumbling incessantly, throwing interceptions incessantly and spelling his name with a U.

As I was listening to this diatribe, a little light went on deep in my soul. It was like running into an old friend, one you used to love talking to but parted ways, usually because of mitigating circumstances and not because of a falling out. I remembered how to be critical of Daunte Culpepper.

See, the thing is, Moss’ agent was right. Culpepper just doesn’t have his head screwed on straight. The thing that wasn’t mentioned was that this is all Hasbro’s fault. If you’ve ever looked at Daunte on the sideline, really looked at him, you would notice an empty look in his eye. Back at Central Florida, he was a dynamic leader, propelling a subpar team to heights they would never have dreamed of. Then he got drafted and played back-up for a few games, behind Jeff George and Randall Cunningham no less. In addition, he was always overshadowed by the cocksure wide receiver who always seemed vaguely condescending towards the younger Culpepper.

Most young hotheads need to be knocked down a peg when they reach the league, but Culpepper was not one of them. He already knew how to overcome adversity and carry a team on his shoulders. Now he was being placed in a lower stature than two other quarterbacks and a wide receiver. I can name a lot more great teams led by a quarterback than by a speedy, formerly coke driven wide receiver. This was the worst possible environment for him to start his career.

The problem, then, for the past half decade was that Hasbro was the undeserving leader of the team. The team went as he went, which was despicable, for many of the reasons you may have read about in a previous article. The leader is supposed to call out his teammates and push them harder to do better. Instead, what Hasbro did, was berate Culpepper for not getting him the ball.

That empty look I mentioned earlier, was the same empty look a lion has after he is taken out of the wild.

This season, I expect the intensity he had coming out of college to return. I expect him to respond to Hasbro’s agent, not by rectifying the mistakes he has made in the past, or dramatically improving his personal faults, but by leading this team to wins, perhaps more than they should be capable of. The lion is back in his jungle. - Ryan

Let me just note that what Ryan wrote above was back on March 3, when this whole Randy Moss trade was fresh news. At the heart of all of this, I'm still a Mechanical Engineer and my Senior Design class and exams have been taking away from my "webmaster" duties as of late....

Well I have no idea what is going to come of this trade for both teams. So I'm going to do a point-counterpoint sort of thing with myself from the Raiders point of view here. I do need to clarify something first. Picking up the most talented player at his position to come around in a long time is never a bad thing for any team. Sure he might carry some baggage, but if he's on the field doing what he does best he will win you games, and isn't that the point of sports? Last time I checked the team that had the fewest arrests, fines, suspensions, and edited quotes on ESPN didn't receive the Lombardi trophy at the end of the season. So here is the good, bad, and ugly in Oakland for this trade.

The Good
Before I bother typing anything, I want you to read this great article by Skip Bayless on ESPN.com the other day. He pretty much summed up almost all the good things I wanted to say about this trade when I first thought of making a post on it. First of all, what do the Raiders have to lose? They just came off 4-12 and 5-11 seasons after taking their veteran loaded squad to Super Bowl XXXVII. This year's draft isn't extremely deep, so trading the 7th pick and a linebacker for a superstar receiver isn't a bad idea. If the Raiders still want a high first round pick for some reason, they have the franchised Charles Woodson to trade, possibly to Dallas for the 11th pick overall. Norv Turner had a season to learn his players, and now will be able to fit his personnel into his air-it-out game plan that Al Davis loves so much behind the cannon armed Kerry Collins. The Moss-Porter speed and athleticism combo fits the Turner system well, while the Rice-Brown slower, route running tandem fit the Gruden/Callahan west coast offense well. And as Ryan said above, yes, the entire offense will revolve around Moss, and that's the point of the trade. Who did it revolve around last year?

any guesses?

still waiting......

Yep. no one. And they won 5 games.

As far as personality goes, Al Davis has always lived by the "Just Win, Baby" philosophy - who cares what you do off the field, just make sure you show up for the game and win - and its earned him 5 trips to the Super Bowl and 3 rings. Moss fits this perfectly and he could flourish with Northern California's more laid back approach to his lifestyle and how the insane Raider fans will embrace him for his rebel actions as one of their own, just like the Raider legends of the past. For decades Raiders fans have adored the wild personalities of the team and the controversial plays they've caused (like the Holy Roller against the Chargers in 1978, hence the title of this post) and Moss could write another chapter in their history.

The Bad
The Raiders have a lot of problems on defense. They were ranked 30th in the league last year and Warren Sapp and Ted Washington aren't getting any younger. They do have some young talent though like Phillip Buchanon and Stuart Schweigert that could step up and have huge years. I think they just need to jell as a unit, and hopefully this new offense can take some pressure off them. Another problem they have is at running back. Last season Amos Zereoue was the leading rusher with a measly 425 yards. They signed Lamont Jordan from the Jets for this season, who's been buried behind Curtis Martin for the past few years, so he might not be bad but he's nothing to be worried about. Needless to say, that number 7 pick could have been used on Ronnie Brown, Cadillac Williams, Antrell Rolle, or Erasmus James. One other problem I see is that old Raiders thug style from the 60's, 70's and early 80's may not really work in today's world. It seems like teams today get paid too much and are too pampered to have the same blue-collar attitude that those Super Bowl winning teams of the 70's and 80's had. Back in those days, those guys got paid just enough to make a living and if the winning stopped and they got cut, they couldn't just retire and live lavishly like players today. Assembling a team of bad asses has led to a lot of problems for the Raiders since 1983, and it took the more mature 2002 team led by Gannon, Rice, Brown, and Garner to bring them another conference championship, before ultimately being derailed by an all night Tijuana bender by Barrett Robbins the night before the game (and Callahan not changing any plays of course).

The Ugly
Randy Moss never suits up for the Raiders. Instead of showing up for mini-camp he goes on a Grand Theft Auto style rampage across Oakland and takes out 437 pedestrians and 58 police officers with an assortment of shotguns, explosives, and shoulder fired missiles before being finally taken out by Arnold Schwarzenegger himself, who makes a witty quote after killing him in some exotic fashion. Meanwhile back in Minnesota, Vikings rookie superstar Braylon Edwards breaks every single season receiving record, wins rookie of the year, and carries the Moss-less Vikings to 6 consecutive Super Bowl titles.

So what do I think is going to happen? The Good is optimistic but could very well happen in the topsy-turvy NFL, the Bad is probably a little more realistic, but they will at least have Moss and Porter in place at wideout while they build the D and rushing game over the next few years (and hopefully draft a QB), and I wouldn't completely rule out the Ugly part, minus the Vikings actually winning a championship. 28 years ago the Raiders picked up their first Super Bowl win by thrashing the Vikings in Super Bowl XI, so now we'll see if the Raiders are finally thanking them with this trade or if the Vikings will continue to be the gift that keeps on giving (just ask any Cowboys fan). - Steve

Behind the Scenes of an NFL Game

Originally posted on "Is It Sports" by Steve

My dad has been a scout for the Oakland Raiders since the 1997 season. In those 8 seasons, he's almost seen it all, starting with a 4-12 season under the immortal Joe Bugel in his first season with the team up to the Silver and Black's appearance in Super Bowl XXXVII. As the Chicago area scout, he focuses on the Bears and their opponents and works at the scouting combine in Indianapolis each February. The stories from the combine (where no media is allowed) are absolutely classic and I'm sure I'll be getting to those on this site one day. I recently met him down in Indy for the Colts-Raiders game, where we worked with the video crew. Since not many people get the chance to see what goes on behind the scenes in an NFL game, I thought it would be interesting to break my weekend down here.

Saturday Check-In: As we walked through the doors, the lobby was LOADED with Raiders groupies looking for autographs. As usual, my dad gets mistaken for a coach, and I get mistaken for a punter. Some players absolutely ate up their fame, hanging out in the lobby, small talking, signing autographs, while others just tried to sneak up to their rooms. We ran into Napoleon Harris in the check-in line, who my dad had been watching since his days at Thornton High School on the south side. As they talked, I noticed a sleepy, disheveled looking Robert Gallery checking in wearing what may have been pajamas? workout clothes? something. Then came the best part of all for the players when they realized that they got to hang out in exciting Indy for the day!

Saturday Night: After dinner at Champs and watching the beginning of the end of a beat up Kyle Orton's Heisman hopes by narrowly defeating lowly Penn State, we went back to the hotel and met up with Ted Hendricks in the lobby. If you don't know who he was, watch the next NFL Films special on ESPN2 at 2 AM and you have about an 80% of seeing him (Hall of Fame LB, 4 rings with the Colts and Raiders, all time blocked kick leader, REALLY good friends with Al Davis). I first met him when I was 13 and he has to be the most intimidating 57-year old I've ever met, but he's a really nice guy. One time he ran over a stop sign with his car and gave it to John Madden as a birthday gift. When we went back to our room, we shared an elevator with a sleepy, disheveled looking Robert Gallery wearing the same pajamas as before.

Sunday Pre-Game: The Raiders were in a cheery mood after their pre-game breakfast before inexplicably getting on a team bus and getting a ride about 50 feet across the street to the RCA Dome. Warren Sapp tried to switch the charges of all the rooms from the Raiders to Ted Washington during check out, which led to Washington cussing him out and chasing him to the bus. We were supposed to have field passes for the game, but the Colts dropped the ball and didn't provide enough to the team for us to get in. So I just grabbed one of the camera crew's tripods, and walked right into the dome (this is a few hours before it opened), letting everyone know that I was part of the camera crew. Soon I was led back to the locker room area. So just remember kids, if you want to get in a game and don't have a ticket, just bring a tripod and say you're part of some crew. So much for homeland security. Another entertaining part for me was when the players walked past us into the locker room. First, we saw C. Montgomery Burns....errr I mean Al Davis walk by, followed by the players. The way the players show up at the stadium really says a lot about them. Most of the older veterans like Jerry Rice were dressed in expensive suits, showing that they must have style and class. Phillip Buchanon showed up looking like he just came from a Lil' John video shoot, complete with his 8-inch wide, golden, diamond encrusted "Showtime" necklace for the nickname I never heard anyone call him. Oh well he went to Miami. Robert Gallery showed up in the same pajamas, looking sleepy and disheveled, and Rich Gannon walked by in a suit and a WWF-style neck brace on. I was just waiting for Rice (who was asking for a trade because he wasn't getting thrown to) to turn on him and crack him with a chair, with Bonnie Bernstein screaming, NO! He's already injured! that's just despicable!

Warm-ups: I can proudly say that I know for a fact that I purchased the first hot dog sold at the RCA Dome on October 10, 2004. I walked by the concession stands right as the first one opened for business about 30 minutes before the fans were let in. Since Jerry Rice is my all time favorite player, I loved watching him run routes and catch passes during warm-ups (he got no catches again during the game). The other thing that surprised me was that the national anthem was sung before the fans were let in, and that led to a series of questions in my mind. Why is she practicing? Is this being recorded? Wait, is that Ashlee Simpson? Are all songs sung in stadiums prerecorded and lip-synched? Since it is the national anthem, should I stand up even though I'm 1 of 5 people in the dome? and finally, why am I thinking so much?

The Game: As expected, Peyton Manning lit up the Raiders with 3 of his record breaking 49 TD passes, and the Colts cruised to a 35-14 win. Surprisingly, if you don't count week 17 when he was benched, Manning's 198 yards ended up being his lowest yardage output for the entire season. This had a lot to do with the Raiders not being able to stop Edgerrin James. The "This is why they got Eli" version of Kerry Collins decided to show up by throwing 3 picks, as opposed to the "NFC Champion, definitely not a recovering alcoholic looking for another chance" version of Collins. I don't know if I've ever seen a QB more inconsistent. Some days he looks like he should have played in the AFL in the early 60's, throwing up massive numbers, and others he looks like Jake Plummer in 1999 (9 TD's, 24 INT's). My favorite moment of the game was when Purdue's Stu Schweigert laid a devastating hit on Brandon Stokely as he was about to catch another Manning TD pass. Since we were in Indiana, it seemed like 1/3 of the crowd (Purdue fans) were cheering and chanting STUUUU, 1/3 of the crowd was moaning that the nearly unconscious Stokely couldn't hold on, and I think the other 1/3 of the crowd was trying to remember if they slopped the hogs before jumping in their pickup and driving to the big city.

Post-Game: When I went to another Raiders-Colts game back in 2000, I saw Peyton's boys squander a 28-7 lead, losing 38-31 to the Silver and Black. The fans were very good losers, complimenting the Raider fans on a game well played in an "aww shucks" Indiana kind of way. This time, they were some of the sorest winners I've ever seen, taunting the fans in black and telling us to never come back. I just shot back that I doubt we would be, since the next time they play we'll probably be facing the Los Angeles Colts (that worked surprisingly well). The Colts won't be moving though, since they just got a new stadium approved. I've never been a fan of replacing 20 year-old domes before, the the Colts definitely need this. The RCA Dome is a bleak dungeon-like place where the hallways must have been modeled using blueprints from a morgue, and it doesn't even have an out of town scoreboard. This retractable dome couldn't come sooner, especially since Peyton and Purdue are turning more Hoosiers into football fans while Indiana U. and Purdue are turning more away from basketball. The Raiders themselves changed and quickly left the stadium. Obviously very dejected, especially compared to their attitude before the game, they ignored most autograph requests from the loyal Raiders fans that stuck around. One thing did remain constant though. Robert Gallery got on the bus wearing the same pajamas. - Steve