Raiders land of the lawless
August 23, 2009 by James Edwards
Filed under Sports
NFL Football at its best. NFL Football at its craziest.
Most of you have heard about the alleged punch from Coach Tom Cable hitting his defensive assistant coach Randy Hansen and fracturing his jaw, but did you know that this is a way of life in Raider land? It turns out that one former player or coach after another has a story to tell about violence with the Raiders with most of it going unreported.
Violent confrontations between employees is nothing new for a franchise that has compiled the NFL’s worst overall record (24-72) during the past six seasons. Interviews with numerous current and former players, coaches and front-office employees reveal a consistent pattern of physically charged clashes, most of which went unreported. In addition, the principals rarely incurred overt discipline, creating the impression that lawlessness is a way of life in Raider land.
“It’s never a dull moment,” says USC receivers coach John Morton, who worked for the Raiders in various capacities from 1997-2004. “It’s hard to be a Raider – it’s not for everybody. If you’re a player or coach, you’ve got to have thick skin. And every time you hear something about the Raiders, it’s something that’s kind of crazy.”
Added another former Raiders assistant who recently worked for the team: “The environment sucks there. Everybody just wants their side to do well so Al doesn’t call them out. Trust me, after what just happened with Cable, this staff already knows they’re fired.”
The funny part is that the Oakland Raiders were doing a shared scrimmage workout recently and there seemed to be no fight in the Raiders as the 49er defense took away ball after ball from the Raider offense. What is funny about that? It is seen as a good thing, that maybe the players are concentrating on football and getting it right.
Has Al Davis hired a snitch?
The story gets crazier as Hansen is the reason the last coach, Lane Kiffen, was fired, because of Lane disciplining Hansen without Al Davis knowledge.
Hanson, several former and current players say, was suspected by his peers of feeding information to Davis.
“The guy’s considered a snitch,” says one player who was with the team in 2007. “Al would come to practice every Thursday and see what we had installed, so if Rob [Ryan] or Lane wanted to put something in the game plan without him knowing, they’d have to put it in for the Friday practice or the [Saturday] walk-through. But [Davis] would find out and get mad, and they thought Hanson was the guy telling him. We didn’t trust him, either.”
It’s unclear whether Cable’s potential mistrust of Hanson precipitated the Aug. 5 incident that landed the assistant in the hospital, but several sources familiar with the two men believe this was the case. On Monday, AOL FanHouse reported that Cable had hit Hanson and that the assistant “never saw it coming.” A police report taken at Queen of the Valley Hospital in Napa on Aug. 6 identified neither Hanson nor the attacker.
It appears that as long as Al Davis runs the show that Raider land will remain lawless!
Photo source Newscom
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