The Oakland Raiders selected former Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor in the third round of the supplemental draft.
Davis loves quarterbacks with a big time arm and Pryor has that.
Would you be shocked if Pryor started a game toward the end of the 2011 season, that is if the Raiders have no chance to make the NFL playoffs.
Selecting Pryor in the supplemental draft is straight from the Al Davis playbook. If a player is an athlete, fast and some kind of questionable background that player qualifies to be a Raider.
Of course Pryor is suspended for the first five games for what he did at Ohio State. That makes sense.
Two men are fighting for their lives after being wounded at Candlestick Park after Saturday night's 49ers-Raiders pre-season game when two men were shot in the stomach.
One was wearing a T-shirt that had some rather unflattering things to say about the Niners. He is in critical condition.
The other was shot and suffered superficial face wounds. He is also hospitalized. Police think the shootings are related.
A man wearing a Raiders T-shirt, who was pulled off a party bus, is being called a suspect.
During the game itself, in a bathroom at the Oakland Coliseum, another man was found unconscious with severe head injuries. He is also in critical condition.
Police may have a suspect in the bathroom attack- a man described as a Pacific Islander male, between 25 and 30 years old, 6'3" to 6'5" weighing 250 lbs. with a goatee and long curly hair in a ponytail. He was last seen wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans.
Obviously, someone that you didn't need to piss off in any way...
Here's the latest from the California version of British hooliganism...
The Oakland Raiders have told coach Tom Cable they are not picking up his option to bring him back for the 2011 season.
Cable's agent Don Yee says other teams have already shown interest in hiring Cable for other jobs- possibly as an offensive line coach with another NFL team.
The Raiders had until January 17th to inform Cable whether they would exercise options for 2011 and 2012. Cable led the Raiders to an 8-8 record this season, their best mark in eight years, and he had a 17-27 record since taking over from Lane Kiffin on an interim basis back in 2008.
Here's some interesting sound from our friends at KPIX/CBS5 in the Bay Area where Cable is somewhat clairvoyant... ((HT: Youtube))
Charlie Weis looks like he's going to take the OC job in Boomtown after all. Nothing like being an overbearing, Type-A personality that will be paired with another Type-A personality for a coaching staff.
Will Muschamp will be the enthusiastic one in Gainesville, and the question now becomes: Who gets to recruit...??? And how do they recruit as a unit...??? Pat Dooley of the Gainesville Sun has the details about Weis and Aubrey Hill joining the staff.
Now, to the NFL... and it looks like Jason Garrett, winner of 4 of the 7 games he's coached as the interim leader in Dallas, may get that "interim" label pulled after all.
OTHER STUFF: Looks like Tom Cable is in question for a return to Oakland, Gary Kubiak is returning to Houston and the Texans, and Marvin Lewis can stay in Cincinnati if his staff changes- which Lewis may balk at...
Oakland Raiders defensive end Richard Seymour was ejected from today's game against the Pittsburgh Steelers for an open-handed punch/slap/shove to Ben Roethlisberger's face as he celebrated a touchdown pass to Emamanuel Sanders.
Roethlisberger jumped into the arms of tackle Flozell Adams after the throw. Roethlisberger may have said/ appeared to say something to Seymour, who turned and struck the quarterback in the jaw with his open right hand.
As Roethlisberger fell down, lineman Chris Kemoeatu grabbed Seymour. Both Seymour and Kemoeatu drew penalties, but only Seymour was ejected.
Here's the play...
Decide for yourself if the shot was karmic in nature...
Wow. For those of us who grew up in the 70's, he was the oldest guy to ever play football. To those older, he was a pretty good football player who lasted 26 years in the NFL before he retired at the age of 49. For those younger, you may not have ever heard of him. George Blanda passed away at the age of 83
George Blanda did double duty as a football player. He was a quarterback, who began his career with the Chicago Bears. He moved on to the Houston Oilers, before he landed at his most famous location....the Oakland Raiders.
George Blanda was a kicker who kicked for all of those teams, while he was playing quarterback. You probably didn't know that he was the NFL's all-time leading scorer up until the year 2000.
Blanda's passing away is probably another reminder to a lot of us that we are getting old. There are several generations now who probably have no idea who he was. They should. He is and was a big part of the history of the NFL. He was unique in their annals. There will never be someone who did what he did in football. Ever.
We pass along our condolences to his family and our thanks. Though we were very young when Mr. Blanda was still playing and retired, we do remember him. Though we despised the Raiders, that is our endearing memory of him. Thanks for reminding us that we all age...and that ain't such a bad thing.
Check out this brief look at a Hall of Famer. Thanks NFL Network/YouTube:
According to published reports out of Columbus, Ohio...one of the NFL's most feared defenders back in the 70's has passed away.
Jack Tatum, Ohio State grad and longtime Oakland Raider was 61 years old. He's probably known mostly as the guy who paralyzed Darryl Stingley, which is unfortunate because he was one of the NFL's best saftety's...ever.
Tatum will probably always be remembered for his stint in Oakland. For those unfamiliar, it was when they were very, very good...all the time. Our condolences to Mr. Tatum and his family.
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.
Count us among the confused. It appears that after interviewing for three days with the crazed Al Davis to be, we thought either Head Coach or Offensive Coordinator that Hue Jackson will be the second of the two choices. He was scheduled to interview withe the Chicago Bears for their open OC job today but cancelled and multiple reports have him taking the Raiders job.
Check out this report from the Chicago Tribune RIGHT HERE
Also, here is FOXSports' Jay Glazer's story RIGHT HERE
This is only worth reporting for a couple of reasons. One, we speculated that Jackson could end up the Head Coach in that bizarro world known as Oakland. It appears now that we were wrong. Two, it also appears that the thought of working with the underachieving JaMarcus Russell was more appealing than working with Jay Cutler who is developing a rather bad reputation very quickly.
There is quite a bit of circumstantial evidence piling up that it may acutally be true. Jackson, the Quarterbacks Coach for the Baltimore Ravens has also been an Offensive Coordinator for the Bengals and Falcons. He's been in Oakland meeting with the demented Al Davis for now going on three days. The premise was, he's there to interview for the offensive coordinator job. However, the current Head Coach, Tom Cable, was not involved with the meetings...at all. We can't actually confirm this story, but we will provide all of the evidence that we have found so you can decide for yourself.
((Hue Jackson with Former Falcons QB Joey Harrington//Courtesy: camp-football.com))
Here is one story on the subject, from the Carroll County Times RIGHT HERE
The Baltimore Sun has the same information RIGHT HERE
Also, FootballCoachScoop.com has a mention of the same thing, the link: RIGHT HERE
This is what we are reading between the lines. The Raiders in their normal, bizarre way of doing business have been denying everything regarding their coaching situation. There are numerous reports out there saying Tom Cable is done. There have also been rumors that several people have been offered the job, but wisely, none of them have taken it. The Raiders will neither confirm or deny any of this. The questions are these: If Jackson is going to be the OC, then why has he been there for 3 days and not spoken to the current coach? If he's going to be the guy...then why all the secrecy?
Gut feeling tells us, that Jackson, who is a total class act and will probably be an excellent head coach, is going to get the job. It's just unfortunate that the job is with the Raiders. They are far, far removed from their days of glory and without a total roster and ownership overhaul, probably won't be much better than they currently are. However, it would be a great opportunity for Jackson to get his feet wet and if he has any success, he could parlay it into a much better job.
We think that Tom Cable will be losing his job in the next couple of days and Jackson will be the successor. Again, this is somewhat speculative right now. We are just trying to read between the lines. Let's see if we are correct.
In the meantime, check out this "Sort of" tribute video to the Raiders we found on the You Tube....Enjoy!
