The Oakland Raiders last week made clear they didn’t want Rich Gannon showing his face at their headquarters in preparation for calling the team’s game for CBS-TV.
John Herrera, a “senior executive” for the team, told the press Gannon wasn’t welcome because of “incendiary” comments the Raiders’ one-time quarterback has made about the Raiders’ organization since he became a broadcaster.
The Raiders gave in because they basically don’t have the right to keep a network broadcaster away. But when Gannon wasn’t able to catch a flight to Oakland in time to spend time with team officials heading into the game, Herrera apparently told the Oakland Tribune it “was a win-win situation for us.”
Newsflash for the Raiders: That would be the first multiple win situation this team has had in quite awhile.
Bill Callahan replaced Jon Gruden as the Raiders’ head coach in 2002. He led the team to the Super Bowl, got crushed by Tampa and then promptly lost the team. In the years since, the Raiders have had five coaches and won respectively 4, 5, 4, 2, 4, and 5 games.
During those years, owner Al Davis recycled Norv Turner for two years, re-hired Art Shell for a year, and spent a year-and-a-quarter somehow making Lane Kiffin look like a sympathetic character.
When he fired Kiffin four games into the 2008 season he turned to Tom Cable to finish the season. And then when such luminaries as Steve Sarkisian turned down the job during the 2008 offseason, Davis gave Cable the job on a permanent basis. … Or at least as permanent a basis as Davis hands out the coaching job anyway.
Davis followed that up by shocking everyone in the draft with his first two picks in the April draft just a few months after jettisoning most of the players signed during the free agency session before the 2008 season – a collection of signings that were widely panned – if not openly mocked – by critics.
Yet, despite these strange moves, under Cable’s leadership, it actually looked at the outset of this season as though there might be a glimmer of hope. The Raiders played gamely in the opener before losing to a supremely talented San Diego squad. Oakland was then outplayed by Kansas City but found a way to win, evening their record at 1-1.
But this week’s outbursts against Gannon were followed by another joke of a game against Denver. Darren McFadden fumbled three times in that game and quarterback JaMarcus Russell followed up two putrid passing performances with a slightly less putrid one in the Broncos’ defeat.
Now, training camp rumors of a physical altercation between Cable and assistant Randy Hanson are resurfacing as well. Cable denied the rumors in August when they first came out. At that time Hanson wasn’t talking.
Now, Hanson told the Napa Valley Police that Cable broke his jaw.
So not only has Davis gone through coaches at about one a year, but the one he hired is allegedly solving conflicts with co-workers by using his fists.
And Herrera wants sympathy because Gannon says the Raiders’ organization should be blown up and rebuilt from the ground?
Nope. I don’t think so.
Come on Mr. Davis. You’ve run a great organization. You had a fantastic career. You’ve won Super Bowls and introduced players and coaches at the Hall of Fame. But your organization is in disarray. You’ve won 25 games in six years. Your drafts have been busts. Your free agent signings have been worse. Coaches beating coaches …
That’s not Gannon’s fault. It’s time to move on.
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