JaMarcus Russell, Thanks For Playing.

JaMarcus Russell is going to be released by the Oakland Raiders any minute now. You can hear the collective "Thank God" for the Raider nation.

Russell had Al Davis on his side. The Godfather insisted that Russell was the second coming of Darryl Lamonica and Ken Stabler. Al hired a quarterback friendly head coach in Lane Kiffin to tutor Russell but even Kiffy-kins saw that JaMarcus Russell was soft, lazy and not leadership material. Kiffin tried to sell Al Davis on Calvin Johnson in the 2007 NFL Draft but Al Davis didn't see the second coming of Cliff Branch.

It didn't matter, Al Davis was head strong and stuck with JaMarcus Russell. Through his rookie year holdout to some god awful performances this was Al's guy. Even when backups Bruce Gradkowski and Charlie Frye outplayed Russell he still had the Godfather on his side.

After three years of ring kissing the Godfather has come to his senses by listening to his head coach, Tom Cable, who has no confidence in Russell. The Washington Redskins (coached by Mike Shanahan who the Godfather whacked 22 years ago) gave Al Davis an offer he couldn't refuse, a quarterback, Jason Campbell, that can start right away.

Now JaMarcus Russell is getting whacked.

Here's one of JaMarcus Russell's finer moments as a Raider. (Thanks Youtube.com)

Now Al Davis has to sign off for Russell to be released and hasn't done so yet. The Raiders have a mini-camp Friday and if Russell is still a Raider he might be there. If he gets hurt in the mini-camp the Raiders would be liable for his contract, about 9 million dollars in salary. So if Russell turns an ankle in a drill then......

And don't cry poverty for JaMarcus Russell. He's due $3 million in guaranteed salary this season which means Russell would have collected $39 million from the Raiders. Talk about stealing money.

Photo Courtesy: The Oakland Tribune