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Sac D | all galleries >> Galleries >> Chiefs at Raiders - 12/23/06 > Another article

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December 23, 2006	Photo by Sac D

Another article

McAfee Coliseum - Oakland, California

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30
1/100s f/4.0 at 7.4mm iso80 hide exif

Full EXIF Info
Date/Time	23-Dec-2006 12:41:19
Make	Panasonic
Model	DMC-FZ30
Flash Used	No
Focal Length	7.4 mm
Exposure Time	1/100 sec
Aperture	f/4
ISO Equivalent	80
Exposure Bias
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Metering Mode	matrix (5)
JPEG Quality
Exposure Program	program (2)
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Sac D		24-Dec-2006 17:50
http://www.mercurynews.com By Ann Killion There is something about this time of year. When things are going badly, they are beyond bleak. They are downright Dickensian in their grimness. And that was the depressing scene in Oakland on Saturday night. The lead-up to the Raiders game was a 48-hour death watch on Art Shell. The Raiders were playing their fierce rival, Kansas City, yet there were great swaths of empty seats. A foreboding chill was in the air. It was desolate. Dreary. All that was missing was Scrooge's gruel. The Raiders were booed off the field after their 20-9 loss to Kansas City in their final home game of the season. It was their 13th loss this season, their eighth in a row. All records for silver-and-black futility in a 16-game season. For the second consecutive year, the Raiders have not won an AFC West game. "All I can say is we are just as disappointed as they are," Shell said of the fans. "We work very hard to try to give fans what they need. The majority of the fans here, they'll keep the faith. They've always done that." But they've never been tested like this, for this long. The Raiders better not assume they'll come back. The 13th loss of the season was aired on the Raiders' latest foe in a long line of archenemies: the NFL Network. The network incurred the Raiders' wrath Thursday night, when Adam Schefter reported that, according to a "high-ranking source" within the Raiders organization, Shell would be fired at the end of the season. The Raiders responded that night with one of their classic, all-caps news releases. It was one of their best, ranking with the "Slandering of Al Michaels" -- still the standard of the genre. This one read: "Adam Schefter has always been a false rumor monger with respect to the Raiders and anti-Raider based upon his relationship with Denver and with Mike Shanahan. No decisions have been made relative to the 2007 Oakland Raiders nor will they be made for some time. Adam Schefter could not have gotten his information from a ?reliable source' because there's only one reliable source and he doesn't trust Adam." Aside from humor value and from suddenly making Schefter borderline famous, the news release was noteworthy for its final sentence. That part is definitely true. There is only one reliable source, only one high-ranking official of any consequence. And, in all likelihood, Al Davis has no idea what he will do about the mess that is the Raiders. He labors long and hard over such decisions, he has regretted firing Shell after the 1994 season for much of the past 12 years and he has to know that firing Shell will accomplish absolutely nothing at this point. The reasoning Schefter's source offered -- that Davis was unhappy with the way Jerry Porter and Randy Moss have been handled -- was obviously faulty. Shell hasn't kept Porter on the bench while Davis clamors for him to play. That's a little like saying Davis was unhappy with the way Shell benched Marcus Allen. Davis approved Shell's hiring of Tom Walsh. Approved of Shell's decisions. Approved of it all. He's the boss. The lone reliable source. If Shell is the problem with the 2-13 Raiders, he is merely a variation of the same problem the Raiders have had for most of the past 15 years. Shell is just picking up where he left off. Though the Raiders have hit rock bottom this year, the forces that have dragged them down have been in play for years. Those negative factors were only controlled for a brief spell in the late 1990s when an increasingly desperate Davis ceded a certain amount of authority to a young and fearless coach who caught lightning in a bottle. And that short run of playoff success looks more and more like the aberration in recent Raiders history, rather than the norm. The Raiders' problems? A lack of chemistry, a lack of leadership, a lack of authority, a lack of credibility, a lack of adaptability, a lack of discipline. The Raiders are -- and have been -- a team with mediocre personnel that doesn't fit together. They are -- and have been -- a group that balks at a coach's authority, because it knows the coach holds none. They are -- and have been -- a team that relies on past glory with little concept of how to adapt to the league. They are -- and have been -- a team that operates out of vindictiveness and conspiracy rather than vision. They are plagued by infighting and paranoia. Firing Shell -- and hiring who? Rob Ryan? Steve Mariucci, who is employed by the evil NFL Network? -- won't change the culture of the Raiders. The "reliable source" is the only one who can influence that, and with his latest rash of odd threats, strange news releases and spiteful decision-making, he doesn't seem inclined to change. All the Raiders are doing now is biding time until April and the draft, when they can whiff on the chance to take Brady Quinn with one of the top picks and instead take Leon Hall, the defensive back out of Michigan. When they can choose to keep Porter on the bench again. When they can trade Moss for Keyshawn Johnson or some other malcontent who won't fit in. It's hard to see a change in the pattern, in the sameness of it all, season after season. Ugly. Bleak. A true humbug. Those are your Oakland Raiders.