Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 6:44 am Posts: 14671 Location: Baton Rouge Gender: Male
cool, I usually root for the Bolts. They're probably my 2nd favorite NFL team. I'm an A&M student and I'm friends with Sammy Davis and I know Terrence Kiel pretty good. On top of that, Gates is a badass and Edwards is a top 5 LB in the league.
cool, I usually root for the Bolts. They're probably my 2nd favorite NFL team. I'm an A&M student and I'm friends with Sammy Davis and I know Terrence Kiel pretty good. On top of that, Gates is a badass and Edwards is a top 5 LB in the league.
Thats awesome! I think Keil is great! Its a shame Davis has kindof been pushed aside ever since Florence started playing well. To be honest, I'd rather start Davis over Jammer, but that probably wont happen.
Ill probably root for the Cowboys all the way to the super bowl...but if its against the Chargers...well...
_________________ "Welcome to President Bush, Mrs. Bush, and my fellow astronauts."
- Dan Quayle
IT'S GOING to be a very Merry Christmas this year for coaches run off by Al Davis. A bunch of them are either going to the postseason or are in line to do so while Al sits home stewing over his mess of a team for a third straight holiday season.
Jon Gruden's Tampa Bay Buccaneers won a crucial game against Atlanta on Saturday and are one home win over New Orleans from winning the NFC South and clinching a playoff berth.
John Fox, Raiders defensive coordinator under Mike White, is 10-5 as head coach at Carolina and also a victory away from the playoffs.
Chuck Bresnahan, defensive coordinator under Gruden and Bill Callahan, holds the same position with the playoff-bound Cincinnati Bengals as part of Marvin Lewis' impressive reclamation of that franchise.
Bob Casullo was special-teams coach under Gruden and Callahan and now holds the same position with the Seattle Seahawks, who nailed down home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs Saturday.
Good gracious, even Callahan is going to the postseason. His Nebraska team plays in the Alamo Bowl against Michigan on Wednesday.
Embarrassing for Al? Absolutely. Just a tad revealing? You bet. But all rolled into one, letting these coaches go elsewhere is a pimple on an elephant compared to Davis telling Mike Shanahan to take a hike as his head coach in 1989.
Of all the bad football decisions Davis has made since winning his last Super Bowl in 1984, that call stands as the worst — even worse than benching Marcus Allen — because he's still paying the price for it today and likely will continue to be haunted by it until his days as an NFL owner are finished. Rapidly mounting numbers of Raiders fans are hoping that will come soon.
With Denver's thorough 22-3 whipping of the Raiders on Saturday at Invesco Field, Shanahan improved his head coaching record against Oakland to 17-5. Since becoming the Broncos' head coach in 1995 — the same year the Raiders moved back to Oakland — he has beaten them at least once every year except 2002 and has swept the two-game series seven times, including this year.
But the Shanahan Curse goes way beyond the head-to-head nose-rubbing he has delivered to his former employers. The man's impeccable overall record, which is starting to take on a Hall of Fame sparkle, makes you wonder how Raiders history might have been altered if Davis had just demonstrated a little more patience and allowed his young prodigy to do his thing.
The Team Of The Decades might still be worthy of their self-proclaimed title instead of being mocked for it. Instead, Davis will be looking for his seventh head coach this off-season while the Broncos continue to rule the AFC West with this one little man Al so impulsively and foolishly let get away.
With Saturday's victory, Shanahan is 112-63 as Denver's head coach and will be taking his team to the playoffs for the seventh time since 1995. He has had one losing season in 11 years — 6-10 in 1999 in which he still beat Oakland twice — and has a 7-4 playoff record with two Super Bowl victories (he also won one as the San Francisco 49ers' offensive coordinator in 1994, beating the Raiders 44-14 in the opener that year).
The Raiders, over the same 11-year period, are 81-94. They've been to the playoffs just three times (where Gruden's impact is fairly undeniable) and have endured five losing seasons, including four in which they lost 11 times or more.
Shanahan's teams also have been incredible at home, 70-18 since 1995 under his direction, including 8-0 this year. The Raiders have lost 19 home games just since 2001.
Beyond all the numbers, which are overwhelming enough, Shanahan has demonstrated himself to be a better judge of talent and a far better builder of football teams than Davis over this same period. That has to grate on Al even more than the coaching record, because it's a direct comparison against him.
Offensively, nobody has consistently developed stronger running attacks than Shanahan. Even more impressively, he has done it with guys who were essentially afterthoughts in the draft like Terrell Davis and Mike Anderson. Likewise, the longtime Raiders-killer at receiver, Rod Smith, was plucked out of nowhere. Jason Elam, Denver's perennial Pro Bowl kicker, has proved to be a more consistent kicker from short and long range than Davis' prized first-round draft pick, Sebastian Janikowski.
Saturday's lopsided affair was just another log on the fire of Shanahan's dominance over Oakland and Davis. It's not likely to turn around, either. For all he's done, Shanahan is just 53 years old.
Forget all the speculation about what might have been if Davis had kept Gruden. What if he'd kept Shanahan? Maybe he'd be enjoying a very Merry Christmas himself, lording over the NFL like the old days instead of checking his latest list of possible coaching candidates from a position of stark humiliation.
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 10:53 pm Posts: 20537 Location: The City Of Trees
Raiders | Petrino said no three times
Thu, 9 Feb 2006 19:50:57 -0800
ESPN.com's Chris Mortensen reports University of Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino confirmed that he turned down the Oakland Raiders head coaching job for a third time Wednesday, Feb. 8. The latest offer would have paid him $18 million over five years. Petrino told Mortensen that he was flattered by the Raiders' persistence but that he was committed to Louisville and did not feel his family was ready for a move. Petrino is the only coach to whom the Raiders have offered the position
Raiders | Team has mystery candidate in mind
Thu, 9 Feb 2006 19:49:50 -0800
ESPN.com's Chris Mortensen reports that there is yet another "mystery candidate" with considerable NFL experience who is a candidate to become the new head coach of the Oakland Raiders.
Raiders | Lofton remains a candidate
Thu, 9 Feb 2006 19:48:26 -0800
ESPN.com's Chris Mortensen reports San Diego Chargers wide receivers coach James Lofton remains in the running to become the Oakland Raiders new head coach.
Raiders | Shell the leading candidate?
Thu, 9 Feb 2006 19:48:07 -0800
ESPN.com reports Art Shell has emerged as the leading candidate to become the new head coach of the Oakland Raiders.
Raiders | Fassel spoken to by phone only
Thu, 9 Feb 2006 19:52:58 -0800
ESPN.com reports Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Jim Fassel has spoken with the Oakland Raiders by phone about their head coaching vacancy. However, ESPN.com's John Clayton reports that Fassel has not interviewed in person with the team.
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