Storyline: I tell myself the NFL is cyclical. The Raiders will hire the right people & get back on top. But without Al Davis the Raiders might as well be the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Raiders won’t win again until the Old Man is gone.
Courtesy: raiderimage.com
This is not a pleasant thought, but I guarantee that 95% of Oakland Raider fans had this idea rattling around inside their heads only a few years ago. The only reason I didn’t go with the 100% is that a certain portion of Raider Nation has always worshiped Al Davis as a “Can Do No Wrong” demigod.
As for the rest of us, more even-keeled denizens of the Raider Nation? Sure, we loved Al, and could never thank him enough for the unique experience that is Raiders Nation. He gave us the Silver & Black mystique and three Lombardi trophies. Al Davis is, was, and always will be the Raiders.
However, after the 2010 season, and eight straight years of non-playoff football, most Raider fans I knew just wanted Al to give it up to the younger generation … or at least get some help running the team. Seeing Al operate over the decades the Nation knew this was as likely as a Raider reunion featuring Marcus Allen, Mike Shanahan, and Lane Kiffin.
Al had been going the other way over the past decade, started with trading Jon Gruden in 2002, losing Bruce Allen shortly after and, then, eventually parting with Mike Lombardi in 2007. The Old Man was an insular as ever, trying to run a modern NFL football operation with a game plan from the 1960s.
How does a fan base exist in such a state of mind? Sure, the Raiders would be good again but, first, the dude in the white tracksuit had to get drafted by the Grim Reaper, regardless of his forty-time.
That’s no way to live, though: waiting for a Hall of Fame legend and beloved owner of your favorite football team to pass away so it can once again be competitive. However, those were exactly my thoughts at the time. Believe me, I’m not proud of that, but I guarantee you that much of the Nation felt the same, exact way.
Then came October 8th 2011. On a fall Saturday morning Al Davis moved on from this world. I’m proud to say my first thoughts were not of greener pastures for my football team. It was shocking moment that hit me like a Howie Long blindside sack. Al seemed invincible and it was a sad day for all of Raider Nation.
It’s always a strange experience when someone famous dies whom you don’t know personally. I had rooted for the Raiders and Al all my life. Now he was gone. Poof, just like that. The Reaper had made his pick. Even a man obsessed with winning couldn’t overcome death.
The 2011 season concluded with a humiliating loss in Oakland to San Diego. The loss kept the Raiders out of the playoffs … again. However, the Nation was at the dawn of a new era. For the first time since the Raiders donned the beloved Silver & Black under Al, a new season of moves would take place–under someone else’s leadership.
It was time for change. It was time to win once again.
Fast forward to mid-November 2014. Your Oakland Raiders, the last winless team in the league at 0-10, haven’t won a game in a calendar year.
I just threw up in my mouth writing that sentence.
Courtesy: CBS Sports
The Raiders record since the beginning of 2012 is 8-34.
That just gave me the dry heaves.
The last three years have been an inconceivable nightmare. How did the Raiders get worse? How did the Oakland Raiders become the least talented team in the NFL?
I could go through the litany of mistakes the Raiders have made under the new regime of Mark Davis and Reggie McKenzie, but I’m sure the Nation has been rehashing the bad moves non-stop since Reggie was hired. In my mind the team is more depressing than ever.
It’s not only losing every Sunday that gets to me. It’s also the lack of identity. Without Al Davis the Oakland Raiders may as well be the Jacksonville Jaguars.
I tell myself the NFL cyclical and, eventually, the Raiders will hire the right people and get back on top again. But you never know. The Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns fans have been telling themselves the same story … forever.
Are the Raiders now part of the infamous NFL club of perennial losers? Some obnoxious Chiefs fan might say it has been that way for a while, friend. But I say the last three years have been worse. It was supposed to get better but, instead, it has been an implausible train wreck.
Who would have guessed that hoping for an old man to die would lead to such dire results?
Yes, we are all bad people.
Courtesy: twitter.com
