Lie In The Bed You Made, Emails, and the News of the Week
Yeah, yeah, it's a day late. So we'll make this the exclusive, hard to find, special edition Hump Day Raidertalk. Besides, things at Raiderland are much more fun tonight than they were last night, when we thought Sean Payton was the next coming of, well, of the coach Al Davis traded. Isn't it funny that Payton kept getting compared to Jon Gruden as far as his youth, intelligence, and drive? Well, maybe we could have kept the original one happy instead of trying to find his clone?
Here's how the last part of the interview went.
Davis: So, Sean, welcome aboard. Just so you know...I'll be in charge of all roster decisions, so if a player pisses you off, you can't cut him. And if you don't think a player is good enough, it doesn't matter. I'll keep the players I want on the team, then you get all the blame if you can't make winners out of them. Oh, and I think James Jett is available, and we're thin at wide receiver.
Payton: Right, uh...I'll call you. No really, I will.
Davis: (tearfully) Ok! Take care buddy!
Again, why would someone want to coach this team? Maybe one of the Patriots' coordinators will be desperate enough. Whoop-dee-do. It looks like Davis has reversed course from the Gruden days and now wants a puppet coach. The way I see it, when Davis failed to get Gruden, who had certainly proved himself, a long term contract and give him the draft and roster power he wanted, Davis was saying "I'd rather control this team than win."
So even when a desperate coach does takes this job, it will again be Al's team. That probably means another year of Jerry Rice and Tim Brown dropping passes. It probably means another year of an offensive minded coach with a porous defense. If anything, hasn't Davis learned that defense wins championships? Isn't he watching the two teams in the Super Bowl? Didn't he see the Ravens celebrate on our field a few years ago? Didn't he see the Bucs undress us last January? Yet there he goes again, looking for an offensive minded head coach. Why? We had the # 1 offense two seasons ago and lost to the Dolphins and Bucs, two defensive-minded teams. Most of our high draft picks the last few years have been on the defensive side of the ball: Napoleon Harris, Philip Buchanon, Tyler Brayton, Nnamdi Asomugha, Sam Williams. Why not toughen up our defense and let a young offense develop while still being able to win games? That's exactly what the Ravens did this year and it got them into the playoffs.
The Quote
"I don't know how I'd respond to a disciplinarian."
Yeah, Al said that to the media last night. Letting the players run the team sure worked out well last year. Thanks Al.
Emails
Mark Warner writes:
Has anyone noticed that the single consistent factor other than Al Davis
that has been present ever since Flores left and we have had ZERO coaching
stability and only a couple of glimpses of success (during Shell and
Gruden) is Tim Brown. As much as I love Timmy, I do believe that he
contributes alot to what you were talking about. That is, setting the
precedent that all players have to do is whine and complain, and they get
rid of a coach at will. And Timmy has always been a real whiner and a real
Al Davis suck-up. Plus I think he wants a coach to treat him like an
assistant coach and not like a player.
Phlanca2 had a similar statement.
"Callahan wanted to groom the younger generation into disciplined players both on the field and off. The veterans want to sit on their helmets and pay a fine if they're late. Tim Brown is the worst of all of them and should have been gone 2 years ago, but he thinks he is as much of the Raiders as Al Davis."
Good points. Thanks and all, but really, shut up and retire Timmy.
Rick Faller in Redding, CA reminds us that "nobody seems to want to hold the players on the field responsible for their (bleeping) effort! TBrown is a whining little has been. Rice has hit the wall and could not get separation if he jumped out of a plane. The fat asses on the OL? Where is the criticism for those fat chumps? Special teams players kept abandoning their assigned lanes and consistently got out hustled by the other team. I'm just sick hearing how everyone thinks bringing in new coaches will solve our problems."
Unless that said coach is allowed to crack the whip, which obviously Davis won't allow.
Brian Campbell sums it up.
"The organization that once worked well is dysfunctional in the NFL today."
I'm starting to worry that he's right.
News of the Week
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has sent in the army to bolster a week-long struggle to rescue 10 tons of beer trapped under Siberian ice, Itar-Tass news agency said Tuesday. A lorry carrying the beer sank when trying to cross the frozen Irtysh river, and a rescue team of six divers, 10 workers and a modified T-72 tank from the emergencies ministry have so far failed to save the load. Temperatures were around minus 27 degrees Celsius (minus 17 degrees Fahrenheit) in the region, near the Siberian city of Omsk and around 1,400 miles from Moscow.
Does anyone else sense a call coming soon to the fans in New England who braved those two ice bowl Patriot playoff games? Hmmm, beer, insanely cold temperature, sign them up.
Davis: So, Sean, welcome aboard. Just so you know...I'll be in charge of all roster decisions, so if a player pisses you off, you can't cut him. And if you don't think a player is good enough, it doesn't matter. I'll keep the players I want on the team, then you get all the blame if you can't make winners out of them. Oh, and I think James Jett is available, and we're thin at wide receiver.
