What's happened to the Raiders?

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There are team owners in sports who know what they’re doing. The Golden State Warriors’ Joe Lacob is a perfect example. And then there are owners such as Mark Davis of the former Oakland Raiders.

As is evident from the way the Raiders play football. 

Mark’s late father, Al, built the team into a Super Bowl champion. But if a franchise is transferred to the next of kin because of the legal system, there’s no guarantee the qualities to make that franchise successful also will be.

Mark, who grew up in Piedmont, the tony suburb of Oakland, just surreptitiously fired another coach late Monday night, a few hours after the Raiders suffered a 26-14 defeat by the ascendant Detroit Lions.

The Raiders, explained Davis, “were heading in the wrong direction.” Which a good part of the group called Raider Nation, would point out the team began to do years ago. Literally. 

When like fugitives on the run they fled the Oakland Coliseum for, well, it’s hard to call the landscape around Las Vegas greener pastures. Only more financially beneficial ones. 

Meaning the 68-year-old Davis and his partners, who cashed in elegantly and wealthily, provided a new luxurious stadium and the upcoming Super Bowl, which, no surprise, will not include the Raiders.

Bill Walsh, the legendary 49ers coach, once told me a problem in the NFL when a team is struggling is the owners’ friends will sit near him during games and belittle the franchise. How embarrassing. 

That the Raiders’ woes with Football shown throughout the nation on ESPN’s Monday Night, was more embarrassing. What to do? What Davis did was fire head coach, Josh Mcdaniels.

And oh yeah, even though he’s still on the team, quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, late of the 49ers, has been benched. When he wasn’t injured, he was throwing interceptions.  

In the publication “Pro Football Talk” Mike Florio, a longtime observer and NFL writer, asks a very pertinent question, to which: Who is advising Mark Davis?

“Whoever Davis is listening to,” wrote Florio, “presumably had influence over what he’s done and over what he’ll do next . . . Given his track record of hires since he inherited the team he hasn’t been getting good advice, or he’s ignoring any good advice he’s gotten.”  

The advice Raider fans from an earlier era could have given was to keep the team in Oakland, where it not only was a contender but a major part of the community.

Too late for that, certainly. The Raiders are long gone, leaving only memories and an owner who flew the coop and has been unable to build a winner.

John Madden was different because he was ordinary

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So here was this sports columnist sitting in a lineup of cars trying to get to the Bay Bridge toll plaza. And three lanes to his right, there’s a guy repeatedly honking his horn for apparently no reason.

The columnist finally looks over, and it’s John Madden, waving and laughing. He had seen me as we drove west from Oakland to San Francisco. No pretension, just joy.

Madden, who died Tuesday at 85, was special because he was ordinary, at least away from the field, a size extra-large blend of curiosity and commentary.

He knew the game of football, winning Super Bowl XI as coach of the Oakland Raiders. He also understood the game of life: Be friendly as much as possible.

He was born in Minnesota but virtually was a Northern Californian, growing up in Daly City, graduating from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and eventually ending up in the East Bay community of Pleasanton — where, in the manner of the pioneers, he grabbed vacant fields that quickly enough became valuable property.

John could be demanding. There are stories about his impatience with others in broadcasting. Yet most of all, in person or behind a microphone, he made you feel good.

I was the Raiders beat man for the San Francisco Chronicle for a while in the early 1970s, and he didn’t always like what I wrote — which didn’t make him unusual in the profession.

What did make him unusual was the way he responded. Some coaches claim they never read the papers. Madden would come at me after practice, waving the Chron sports page.

Then he would sit me down and explain what was wrong, so I wouldn’t make the same mistake again. An education. 

In those days, the Raiders took the writers on their charters for road trips, the better for the papers to save travel expenses. As soon as the flight was in the air and the seat belt sign was off, Madden would stand up and march to the front or rear of the aircraft.

As we learned, Madden disliked flying. After he left Cal Poly, a football team charter crashed in 1960. Numerous players, friends of Madden, died. The accident haunted him.

He also was claustrophobic, feeling trapped in a silver capsule, and as soon as he left the Raiders for broadcasting, Madden switched first to a train and then a bus — the Madden Cruiser.

He was adept at describing the quarterback draw — his signature remark after a big gain was empathic and brief: “Boom.”

He fit in everywhere and with everyone, working TV with Pat Summerall and then Al Michaels; getting off the bus at stops in various places and dining and chatting with the locals.

His daily show on the San Francisco radio station KCBS offered Madden at his eclectic best, moving from sports to food to weather to geography.

Once, relating to rivers, Madden said he was uncertain about the word “confluence,” as to the linking of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers to form the Ohio River in Pittsburgh. “So, that’s a confluence,” he repeated, having as much fun as the listeners.

John Robinson was Madden’s pal from their days as kids and teenagers in Daly City. They were both football people — Robinson became head coach at USC and later the Rams.

“We’d go to an ice cream store,” Madden remembered of their boyhood. “I’d buy a cone, and he’d always take a bite; to stop him I’d lick the whole thing, but John Robinson would eat it anyway. He was different.”

So was John Madden. John, that will be me honking in salute the next time I cross the Bay Bridge.

The draft: A few boos (taped), a lot of quarterbacks

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By Art Spander
For Maven Sports

Roger Goodell got his boos — recorded as they might have been. The 49ers got their replacement for DeForest Buckner. And the Raiders got their official acknowledgment they belong to Las Vegas, which as the virus-denying female mayor of the city said on CNN is not China.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2020, The Maven

Raiders' home finale: A loss on the board, boos in the stands

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By Art Spander

OAKLAND — So it is over now. The Raiders are done in Oakland. Finished. They walked off the Coliseum field Sunday with a defeat on the scoreboard and booing in the stands.

We’re told that love never ends happily, and certainly the affair between the city and the team it held so dear is yet another example.

A last dance, a time to mourn as much as to celebrate, a day the music — the soul beat and the salsa that flood the pregame tailgates — died. There will be silence in the parking lots in Oakland before future Raider home games.

The team is moving. To Nevada, to become the Las Vegas Raiders, shifting away from the aging, weathered half-century-old Coliseum to a $2 billion stadium in a city that may not care about pro football but has the wherewithal to grab a team from a town that cares too much.

Maybe it was appropriate on a bittersweet afternoon that the Raiders would allow two touchdowns in the last 5 minutes 15 seconds to the sad-sack Jacksonville Jaguars and lose 20-16.

Or maybe the game meant little. Other than it was a last hurrah, another kick in the gut, one more reminder that the sports we watch and support and agonize over, in fact, belong to the wealthy.

To those who are willing and able to build expensive palaces for their teams, the new Vegas stadium, the under-construction $5 billion stadium down in Inglewood, or to pay Gerrit Cole $324 million to pitch for the Yankees.

Yes, it’s history, irreversible. Owners get the arenas and stadiums they demand. Fans get the shaft — and some weak apologies.

You want the football? The Raiders couldn’t find a way to hold a 13-point second-quarter lead. For a second straight game, the Raiders couldn’t score in the second half. The Raiders dropped to 6-8 and out of playoff contention.

That’s the way this era ends, with neither a bang or a whimper but a lot of could-haves and should-haves.

“I’d like to say we could have sent the Raider fans off with a lot better finish than that,” agreed head coach Jon Gruden. “I think importantly, before we talk about the game, I’d like to thank the fans. I’d like to thank city of Oakland for supporting the Raiders and being faithful in all kinds of seasons. I’ll miss them.”

It’s not Gruden’s fault the Raiders are getting the heck out of town. He coached them 20 years ago, was traded — for draft picks, no less — to Tampa Bay by the late Oakland owner Al Davis, went to work for ESPN and then a year ago returned to the Raiders.

You believe he’s genuinely understanding and compassionate about what is known as Raider Nation. He’s been seen to plunge into that most aggressive and loyal group, the Black Hole, exchanging handshakes and joy.

Not Sunday, of course. The fans were angry and vocal, the immediate disgust with the result — losing the game — coupled with the residual frustration of losing the franchise.

“It’s not really the result today,” Gruden said, trying to deal with the big picture, “it’s the results of the Raiders over the years. It’s the Oakland Raiders. It’s the appreciation, the loyalty that these fans have had for the Raiders, We’re going to miss them.”

Hey Jon, we know you’re not to blame, but it’s the Raiders who are hitting the road, not those loyal fans.

Raiders management did its best to put a happy face on an unhappy occasion, bringing back many of the heroes of old — Jim Otto read a line from “Autumn Wind,” the team’s manifesto; Tim Brown ignited the memorial flame to Al Davis.

A ton of nostalgia, a spate of memories, and the undeniable fact that the team that put Oakland into the datelines, if not on the map, is being taken away.

Raiders quarterback Derek Carr (he was 22 of 36 for 267 yards, 1 TD, sacked 4 times) went over to the Black Hole before heading to the locker room.

“I saw a couple of people, a little kid, I’ve seen over the years,” said Carr. “I just said thanks. When I’m done playing, they can get mad as somebody else. That’s the quarterback. You know what I mean?

“There are too many fun memories I’ve had with especially those certain people. It’s our last time there. Such a cool moment to say thank you.”

Why don’t we let it go at that?

Raiders did what they could; Chiefs did what was needed

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By Art Spander
For Maven Sports

OAKLAND — That was the real world, the NFL. That was the team that came within an overtime loss of reaching the Super Bowl, the Kansas City Chiefs. That was the quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, who was the NFL offensive player of the year.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2019, The Maven 

Gruden takes a stand for missing Antonio Brown

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By Art Spander

OAKLAND, Calif. — Yes, Antonio Brown was listed as a starting wide receiver on the lineup card for the Raiders' opening preseason game Saturday night. No, he didn’t start. He didn’t play. He wasn’t even at the Coliseum.   

But these are the Raiders, for one last bittersweet season the Oakland Raiders, so issues and controversy never are far away — although when the team moves next season to Las Vegas, it will be plenty far away.

Yet that’s the future. Maybe so is Brown, the guy who wanted to be free of the Pittsburgh Steelers and came in trade during the off-season to the Raiders.

He brings a great ability to catch touchdown passes and, with his style (injuring his feet in a cryogenic chamber) and stubbornness (refusing to use the new helmet ordered by the NFL), a special independence.

After the Raiders' 14-3 win over the Los Angeles Rams in a quite normal first game of any season, especially one that doesn’t count except for the players trying to make the team, second-year coach Jon Gruden took a stand for Brown — hardly a surprise because he was very much in favor of the move to acquire him.

“I support this guy,” Gruden said of Brown. “I don’t care what anybody thinks. The foot injury wasn’t his fault.”

The story is Brown went to Europe for cryogenic treatment, in which a part of the body is subjected to temperatures far below zero for a short amount of time. But Brown wore flip-flops on his feet instead of shoes and incurred frostbite.

“It was a total accident,” Gruden explained. “A serious injury. People are smirking at it. He’s hurt. He hasn’t done anything wrong. And the helmet thing is a personal matter.”

Brown, 31, has worn the same type of helmet for 10 years and reportedly wants to continue, even threatening to quit instead of changing to a newer model endorsed by the league.

He had a two-hour conference call with an independent arbitrator Friday to point out why, according to ESPN, he should be allowed to keep the original helmet. Brown said the new helmet restricted his vision, and according to ESPN's Adam Schefter, he has filed a grievance with the league.

“It’s a personal matter,” said Gruden. “He has a strong feeling what he should wear on his head, and we support him. We understand the league’s position as well, so we’re in a tough spot.

“We hope he’ll be back here soon, because he’s exciting to be around. He’s one of the premier competitors I’ve ever been around.”

Before Gruden returned to coach in 2018, he was the analyst on ESPN’s Monday Night Football, studying players from every team.   

“He loves to play so much,” Gruden said, exaggerating a trifle, “he’d play with no helmet. Whatever his decision, we’ll stand by it. We have confidence he’s going to be a huge factor for the Raiders in years to come.”                                                    

The factors for either team Saturday, in what amounted to an exhibition game, were not those that would be apparent in September, when the regular season gets underway. Neither Jared Goff, who led the Rams to the Super Bowl, or the Raiders’ Derek Carr played a single down at quarterback.

Mike Glennon, who started, and Nathan Peterman were the Raiders' quarterbacks, Glennon completing 17 of 25 for 200 yards and Peterman 9 of 12 for 66 yards and a touchdown. Peterman also had Oakland’s longest run when he scrambled for 50 yards.

“I though both quarterbacks in their opening possessions had beautiful touchdown drives,” said Gruden. ‘That’s what we want. We want quarterbacks to take control of the game and get us on schedule. You take the opening drive 80 yards and score.

“Credit to both those guys. Mike had two interceptions. The one in the red zone can’t happen. He got fooled on the other one. I thought Glennon did some good things in the pocket. Nathan showed his athleticism. He can run. As he continues to gain command, he’s going to be interesting to watch.”

So, presumably, will Antonio Brown, if he ever gets on the field.

Gruden has a list of regrets, but not the one you might think

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By Art Spander

ALAMEDA, Calif. — His regrets? “I’ve got a list of things,” Jon Gruden told us Tuesday. And, he suggested, so do the rest of us, because none of is perfect.

But the rest of us are not the head coach of an NFL team with a 1-5 record. The rest of do not have a multi-million-dollar contract as that coach has.

With rare exceptions — Bill Walsh leaving, George Seifert being elevated — winning teams do not change coaches. Gruden may have arrived in a swirl of fame and anticipation, but the head coach is only as good as his players.

And it has become obvious that many of the players on the Oakland Raiders are not very good. Especially on defense, where games are won — or, mostly, lost.

If, apropos of nothing but pertinent to everything, you choose to believe one of the reasons for the Raiders’ mess was the absurd trading of Khalil Mack, who not only was their best defensive player but arguably their best player, you are permitted that belief.

Does Gruden regret that transaction? Does Gruden regret returning to the Raiders after a departure some 20 years earlier? If anyone did chance to ask him either question, especially on leaving ESPN to rejoin the Raiders— and none of us has the temerity to do so at this juncture — he wouldn’t respond candidly. And who would blame him?

So instead, the questions deal with injuries (the Raiders have many, but so do other NFL teams). With Derek Carr’s quarterbacking. With opponents (did anyone doubt the Seattle Seahawks still have a solid team?). And with the bye the Raiders have this weekend.

Gruden still has that sly look we’ve come to know over the years, on the sideline, in the TV booth. He hasn’t become disagreeable as, say, Pat Shurmur of the New York Giants has.

In the better old days, the late 1990s and early 2000s, Gruden was known for his work ethic. He came to the office early (really early, as in 3:30 or 4 a.m.) and stayed late. Presumably he still keeps long hours — although at age 55 are they as long as they were at 35? — and he still keeps his enthusiasm.

He wanted this job. At least the job offer, with the huge salary, with the opportunity to follow his muse, was one he couldn’t refuse. What he didn’t want was a roster that seems to be spending days in the training room, a roster of older players being replaced by younger — if inexperienced — new ones.

That trip to and from London for a game at Wembley Stadium is one against jet lag as well as an opponent. Gruden on Sunday in the locker room said he enjoyed the journey. “Unfortunately,” he added, “I’ll always remember it in a bad way.”

There haven’t been too many good memories this return season. That game against the Seahawks wasn’t even entertaining, Oakland down 27-0 until mercifully kicking a field goal midway through the fourth quarter to lose, 27-3.

The London Daily Telegraph headline described the Raiders as “limp,” and the story promised that the next NFL game at Wembley, on Oct. 21 between the Tennessee Titans and San Diego Chargers, “looks likely to be more competitive.”

Hard to say if the Raiders next game, on Oct. 28 against the Indianapolis Colts at Oakland, will be, but it couldn’t be any worse than the most recent.

“We’re trying” said Gruden. “We’re working hard. I’m not going to never throw the ball on first-and-goal again. All my friends in the league do it. I don’t really think it’s living dangerously, either. When it’s intercepted and it’s ugly like it was, it’s going to be magnified.”

That was the previous week against the Chargers, in San Diego. He took a chance, but that’s what coaches are supposed to when they know down deep their team is not as good as the other one.

“You just have to continue to go with your gut feeling,” said Gruden. “Go with your preparation. Be true to your gut. That’s what I’m going to continue to do. There are going to be some mistakes, and I’ll take responsibility for all of them.”

Change is coming. “We’re still looking at the roster,” said Gruden. “We’re looking around the league to find means to get better. Reggie (McKenzie, the general manager) and I had a long meeting Monday. I know that’s a shock to some people. They don’t think we have any meetings. I’m telling you, we’re working hard to solidify this roster every day and improve ourselves and get the right people on the field ... We’re going to stay on the gas pedal and go as hard as we can.”

And hope the road doesn’t run into a mountain.

Niners, Raiders get necessities, not attention or quarterbacks

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By Art Spander

OAKLAND, Calif. — Let’s see, the Raiders took Kolton Miller and the 49ers Mike McGlinchey. Or was it the other way around?

For sure it wasn’t Baker Mayfield, the instigator, or Josh Rosen, Miller’s verbalizing teammate from UCLA, and that’s the disadvantage of having at least a decent team.

You don’t get glamour guys or the attention when you’re competent. What you get are necessities, players who block, who open holes for runners, set up pockets for passers and, even though they are usually the most perceptive and smartest players on any football team, rarely get mentioned until they miss an assignment.

The Niners and Raiders have their quarterbacks. Or so we think, Oakland having Derek Carr and San Francisco, after that seemingly brilliant deal during the 2017 season, Jimmy Garoppolo.

The Cleveland Browns, with one victory in their last 32 games, didn’t.

That lack of success and signal caller enabled them to have the No. 1 pick, and on day one of the draft that’s big stuff.

TV loves a train wreck. The stories were whether Sam Darnold of USC, a quarterback of course, or Josh Allen of Wyoming, a quarterback, or Rosen, a quarterback, would be the first player selected.

It turned out to be Mayfield of Oklahoma, a quarterback. Yes, Saquon Barkley of Penn State, a running back — and is he terrific — went second, but as we were reminded by the guys on ESPN and NFL TV, this was all about quarterbacks. Even the last pick of the first round, Lamar Jackson of Louisville, was a quarterback.

It’s understood that in the NFL — in football at any level — you must have a quarterback. He handles the ball on every offensive play, run or pass. And you also must have a defense, otherwise you’ll be receiving kickoffs from start to finish.

That said, the late Al Davis, who led the Raiders to championships and then in his declining years with draft selections such as JaMarcus Russell, a quarterback who just happened to look like an offensive lineman (the man could eat), led them to mediocrity, always believed the most important part of a team was the offensive line. You do remember Art Shell, Gene Upshaw, Jim Otto, Bob Brown and Dave Dalby, right? All but Dalby are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Whether McGlinchey, a 6-foot-8, 315-pound tackle from Notre Dame taken with the ninth pick, or Miller, a 6-9, 309-pound tackle from UCLA taken with the 15th pick, turns out like those guys, we’ll learn over time.

Whatever, they fill a need for each team. And if drafting offensive linemen is not as entertaining as drafting QBs or running backs, that’s the way it has to be.

When you get your quarterback, you’d better keep him healthy and happy. When he was with ESPN, once and current Raiders coach Jon Gruden ran a “quarterback camp,” which was as much a TV show as a football test. He understands a quarterback needs coordination, arm strength, quickness — and an offensive line.

He passed that understanding to Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie, not that McKenzie didn’t already feel the same way.

“What Kolton can do,” said McKenzie of his No. 1 pick, “when you talk about pass protection and staying in front of the guy, that’s what he does. He’s got the length. He’s got the great feet. And when you talk about the second level, pulling, this guy has a lot of talent.”

Surely so does McGlinchey, who was taken by San Francisco but was admired by McKenzie and Oakland. “We would have upgraded with either one,” said McKenzie.

O-linemen are somewhat obscure. Except to the coaches, players and front office.

Niners GM John Lynch said McGlinchey “has a special presence to him. He’s real. He’s authentic. And he’s a badass. We like that.”

Similar comments before the round would have made for great theater.

Rosen said a few things when he finally was chosen with the 10th pick — that Oakland had traded to Arizona — and they were explosive. And captivating.

“There were nine mistakes ahead of me,” said Rosen about the players taken earlier than he was. “I thought I should have been picked 1-2-3.”

The draft is all about opinions — and this year was about quarterbacks.

Gruden: ‘I’ve got something to prove’

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By Art Spander

ALAMEDA, Calif. — It was part Las Vegas, of course. Have to plan ahead. Part Hollywood. Part pronounced humility. Jon Gruden had arrived with all the flash and fame expected of, and for, a prodigal son who, with a reputation and recognition gained elsewhere, is ready to show us he can go home again.

What a production on Tuesday, at a facility the Oakland Raiders will flee in a couple of years for the Vegas strip. There in the huge barnlike building called the performance center, which in season is full of athletes pumping iron, we were awed by a video that must have reminded Gruden of his most recent employer, ESPN. Do they have an Emmy category for Team Hype?

Then, after introductory remarks by owner Mark Davis, gloating as if he were the one getting the $100 million and not paying it, out stepped the Savior, his own self, Gruden, telling us, “I’ve got something to prove.” Which he does. Which he doesn’t.

He’s a football coach now, again, at age 54, because — and you’ve heard this before — that’s what he feels the need to be. For the previous nine years, including through last Saturday night, he was an analyst/commentator for ESPN, in the broadcast booth, not down on the field.

That looked like the best job in sports, picking apart the game plan of others, for $7 million annually, rather than have others pick apart his. And he did have the satisfaction and glory of coaching a Super Bowl champion, the 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who obtained Gruden from these very same Raiders in a trade.

It wasn’t that he did a poor job at Oakland in the four seasons, 1998 to 2001, he was, well, not in charge, because it was Mark’s daddy, Al, who was the power in those days, but at least the head coach.  

As the story goes, Al was somewhat pushed out of shape because Gruden, with his winning ways, charming personality and photogenic looks — hey, TV knows what sells — became the Face of the Franchise. Tsk, tsk. Off with his head, said the Red Queen, uh, or rather the silver-and-black knight. 

After the ’01 season, the one climaxing for Oakland with the NFL snow job, i.e. the Tuck Rule, conveniently called after the New England Patriots lost a fumble to the Raiders in the playoffs.

“For my career to end that night in New England, it still ticks me off,” Gruden said. “I’m so thrilled to be back here. I hope people understand the emotion inside.

“I feel there’s unfinished business. I feel a lot of loyalty and responsibility to get the Raiders going again. It’s been a while since the team has consistently performed at a high level. I’m going to do everything I can to help this team get right again.”

Gruden’s first season in Tampa ended with a 48-21 win over Oakland in Super Bowl XXXVII, but he never won another playoff game in the next five seasons. Not that it matters, or maybe it matters greatly, but no coach — Lombardi, Parcells, none of them — has won a Super Bowl with two different teams.

“I haven’t changed all that much since 2008,” said Gruden. The game has changed, but Gruden, announcing, conducting that ESPN QB Camp, maybe knows more about the players and changes than he would have as a coach. He has been to every one of the league’s 32 training complexes. He has worked Derek Carr, the man who will be his Raiders quarterback.

And if Carr wasn’t on site Tuesday, numerous former Raider players were, including Mike Haynes, Tim Brown, Jerry Rice, Charles Woodson, and the QB Gruden beat in the Super Bowl, Rich Gannon. Remember how critics said Gruden knew what was coming because he knew the Raiders, his former team. 

Woodson worked for ESPN this season, on field at halftime. He also is involved in a Napa winery carrying his name. In 1998, he was the first draft pick of a rookie coach named Gruden. 

“All of us want to know,” said Woodson, whose playing career went from Oakland to Green Bay to Oakland, “is there a no-trade clause in your deal?”

Gruden laughed, “You’re going to make me want to go home, Charles.”

But this is home, isn’t it?  “I’m glad to be back,” Gruden conceded. The Raiders, at $100 mill, are glad to have him back.

Newsday (N.Y.): Raiders show respect for Eli Manning as they prepare to host Giants

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

ALAMEDA, Calif. — His brother, David, was the backup to Eli Manning on the Giants who rarely played. Now, as fate and fable would have it, Derek Carr of the Oakland Raiders will be the first to play quarterback against the Giants since Manning was replaced as starter.

“I know this about Eli,” Carr said. “He’s a great person. I was able to learn from him a couple of years ago at the Pro Bowl. I was fortunate and blessed to be on that same team as him. Just learn from him, ask questions, all of those things.”

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2017 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Raiders did so much to lose and just enough to win

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By Art Spander

OAKLAND, Calif. — The Raiders did so much to lose this one. Then they did just enough to win.

Those complaints about the NFL, that it’s dull, that the anthem protests have ruined the game, that the fans don’t care? Well, the head coach of the Raiders, Jack Del Rio, certainly cares. The sport enthralls him.

For the very reasons that were present Thursday night at the Coliseum, tension, passion, frustration and then, with 0:00 left on the clock, exhilaration.

“That’s why we love this game,” said Del Rio. “We talked about love, loving each other, loving the opportunity to compete, loving the challenges that are part of what we do. Love to be in the theater when you’re putting your neck out there for the whole world to watch.”

At least the part of the world that included the 55,090 in the stadium and the millions in front of television sets.

The winning play was the last play of a game that early in the fourth quarter seemed like Oakland’s last chance.

But headed for a fifth straight defeat, the Raiders turned things around and headed elatedly to the locker room with a 31-30 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.

Derek Carr, who had completed 28 passes for 415 yards, completed his 29th for two more yards and a touchdown to Michael Crabtree just across the goal line, and then Georgio Taveccio kicked the extra point.

The Raiders somehow managed to get the victory, despite having allowed KC to go 99 yards in three plays for a touchdown — so much for field position. Despite being thwarted when, inexplicably and stupidly, hometown guy Marshawn Lynch left the bench, shoved an official and was ejected. Despite being burned by scoring pass plays of 64 and 63 yards.

The win was absolutely vital. “Yeah,” said Del Rio. “It’s been vital. It was vital last week. It was vital the week before. It’s vital to win in this league.”

Especially when the Raiders appeared destined to lose to a team they rarely beat.

The closing sequence was chaotic, offensive pass interference against Crabtree that nullified an apparent touchdown with three seconds to go, defensive holding with time expired, defensive holding again and finally the completion for the touchdown.

The purists tell us the only thing that matters in a sport is the score, but that would be like only watching the final act of “Hamlet” where they’re carrying him. Sure, getting the victory was paramount, but the way this one played out, with excellence and mistakes, with leads that couldn’t be held and passes that could be held, was so much a part of the tale.

The Raiders go in front, 14-10, their punter Marquette King kicks a ball that is downed on the Chiefs’ one and almost before anyone knew it, three plays, 1 minute 32 seconds to be exact, KC was ahead, 17-14.

Then there was Lynch, Beast Mode. He hadn’t done much, two carries for nine yards, when midway through the second quarter there was an unnecessary roughness call on KC that seemingly kept alive an Oakland drive. But Lynch, from the sideline, dashed onto the field and into an altercation. Next thing you saw, he was manhandling an official, the Raiders had first and 25 and he had a seat in the locker room.

“I was disappointed,” said Del Rio.”We were in good shape. Next thing I knew he was being tossed.”

It was the tossing by Carr, his second game after returning from a broken bone in his lower back, that meant more. He passed for three touchdowns including the game winner.

“We’re going to find a way,” said Del Rio of the Raiders' grit. “Our guys came in with a great mindset, and we were determined to leave here with a victory.”

They did. “It was huge,” said the said the coach.

And incredibly exciting.

Raiders' defense hasn’t been good for a month

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By Art Spander

OAKLAND, Calif. — The season is coming apart, shredding, disintegrating. To think a month ago they — we — were talking about the Raiders going to the Super Bowl. What a laugh. What a mistake.

Four losses in a row now for Oakland. On Thursday they play the Kansas City Chiefs, who finally lost their first game Sunday, the same day the Raiders dropped their fourth in a row. Nobody this side of the ’72 Dolphins wins them all — and K.C. usually owns Oakland.

What the Raiders own is a 2-4 record. Which is exactly that of the Los Angeles (yes, I keep wanting to refer to them as San Diego) Chargers, who edged Oakland 17-16 on Sunday, on a field goal by Nick Novak with 0:00 on the clock at the Coliseum.

The time remaining is irrelevant. The Raiders' inability to move the ball when necessary, or to halt the Chargers when necessary, is very relevant.

The Raider locker room was full of platitudes. You’ve heard them all. We’re going to keep fighting. We just to correct the little things. We need to take care of the details. We’re better than that.

Derek Carr, starting once more at quarterback, made that last observation. Then after a moment, he suggested, “Maybe we’re not.”

Never mind the qualification. They’re not.

The Raiders have gone from the top, all the preseason predictions, the early season self-assurance, to the bottom. They started out making plays. Now they’re making errors.

Now they can’t get the first down on third and short. Now they can’t stop the other team on third and short. Or long.

Carr, who missed the last two games with a lower back injury, wants to take the blame, and a couple times he was at fault, overthrowing a ball that was intercepted two minutes into the game and then missing Marshawn Lynch early in the third quarter, the ball bouncing off Lynch’s outstretched hands and being picked off by Hayes Pullard on the San Diego 11-yard-line early in the third quarter.

Still, how to do you stick it to one man, if the most important man, when you have the ball almost 11 minutes of the third quarter and score zero points? Or when the Chargers move 78 yards on 11 plays in four minutes for that final, painful field goal?

The Raiders' defense hasn’t been any good for a month now. “Comes down to the end,” said Oakland coach Jack Del Rio. “Which team makes the plays. We had our chances.”

And squandered them, which is what losing teams do, or they wouldn’t be losing teams.

The best player on the field for the Raiders was the punter, Marquette King. He kicked four times and averaged 55 yards. Fantastic. And of little consequence when you can’t keep the other guys from running or passing.         

Well, make that passing. The Chargers rushed for only 80 yards. They threw for 268. Philip Rivers, their quarterback, kept connecting on third and short. And third and not-so-short. Rivers sure is over the hill, isn’t he?

“You get them pinned back,” said Del Rio of King’s punting effectiveness, "we have to get a stop. We didn’t get it done. They milked it.

“They won the game. They earned it. So we’re on a short week.”

Up next are the Chiefs on Thursday night, three days after a defeat. The Chiefs, who inevitably find a way to beat Oakland. Or is it Oakland that beats Oakland?

Hard to knock Del Rio for going for it on fourth and two on the Chargers 41 in the fourth quarter, even if the Raiders couldn’t get the two yards. All that great punting wasn’t worth much, so might as well gamble.

Asked what’s missing from the offense, Del Rio wouldn’t deal in specifics. “Just productivity,” he answered. Well, no kidding. If you can’t gain two yards on fourth down, can’t score a point when you’re controlling the ball most of the third quarter, you definitely are not productive.

On the last offensive series, before King punted 58 yards (whoopee), the Raiders had an illegal formation penalty followed by three go-nowhere plays, including the hook and lateral.

“We’re working hard,” said Del Rio. Our team is a proud team.”

Right now, however, it is not a very good team.

Newsday (N.Y.): Marshawn Lynch enjoys himself in home debut with Raiders

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

OAKLAND, Calif. — He scored a touchdown. He pitched back to the quarterback for a touchdown on a flea-flicker pass play. He blocked. He jumped around in what some might call a dance — the “Beast Mode Boogie?”

He left the field with 29 seconds left and climbed the steps to the Oakland Raiders’ locker room while his teammates still were on the field.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2017 Newsday. All rights reserved.

S.F. Examiner: Stars without home vs. home devoid of stars

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By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

This is pro football at the moment in the Bay Area: The 49ers are looking for a quarterback while the Raiders — like that song about the boll weevil — are looking for a home.

You hesitate to predict which team has a greater chance of success, although that billion-dollar-plus figure being tossed around for a new Raiders facility across the state border certainly grabs your attention.

Read the full story here.

©2017 The San Francisco Examiner

Newsday (N.Y.): Super Bowl LI: Don’t expect confrontation if Patriots win

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

HOUSTON — The question is what will happen if the New England Patriots win Super Bowl LI on Sunday and — a laugh is permitted — quarterback Tom Brady and team owner Robert Kraft receive the trophy from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

Nothing out of the ordinary, if history means much. It would be an old production with new performers.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2017 Newsday. All rights reserved.

SportsXchange: Goodell dishes on Raiders' situation in press conference

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By Art Spander
SportsXchange.com

HOUSTON — The Raiders still are in Oakland and may be for a while despite attempts to move to Las Vegas, San Diego or Los Angeles. That is one way to interpret the words of the man in charge, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, at his annual Super Bowl news conference. 

Goodell, for the first time tieless but certainly not clueless, at a session held on Wednesday instead the traditional Friday, said there is work to be done before the Raiders plan to shift from the East Bay to Vegas could become a reality.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2017 SportsXchange