Picking Favorites: Why the 2002 Oakland Raiders are NOT My All-Time Team

The most exciting part of the AFC Championship may have been Metallica's impromptu parking lot performance, as the game was just a countdown to something the Raiders should have had years before—an AFC title in the modern era.

The Raider Nation also had something else it'd never seen before—a bandwagon. Suddenly, there were Raiders fans all over California who'd never even watched football. The jersey they'd been wearing because it looked cool now meant they liked an awesome team.

Most of these people didn't even see the tuck rule game the year before. They hadn't experienced the lows, just the highs. They assumed the Raiders had always been good, and front office drama, relocation, poor drafting and continuous shifts at the head coach position were not a problem with this team.

They weren't prepared for a fall, and when it happened, they slowly packed their silver and black gear back into the closet and bought Chargers jerseys.

Which brings me to the final point—was the entire 2002 season not just one giant scripted karma-bash for Jon Gruden? Al sends him to Tampa Bay for two first-round picks, two second round picks and $8 million in cash, and looks like the smartest man in football 20 weeks.

The results of that trade are now as follows: one humiliating Super Bowl loss, a whiff pick on CB Phillip Buchanan (with Javon Walker and Ed Reed on the board), OT Langston Walker (who is now starting for the Bills as the Raiders struggle to find a consistent OT), DE Tyler Brayton (with Anquan Boldin, Osi Umenyiora, and Rashean Mathis on the board), and LB Sam Williams.

In other words, Al Davis wasn't being punished with a bad season... that would be easy and humane...the gods couldn't do that. For his crimes against football, Al was made a modern-day Sisyphus. He wasn't just going to climb to the top of the mountain only to fall a step or two; he was going to spend a decade chasing the rock back down.

AD didn't realize what he was messing with. The signing of Rice and the trade of John Gruden upset the balance of the NFL. Like a jolt in the space-time continuum, it thrust pro football into a bizarre world where nothing worked like it was supposed to.

And that's ultimately why the 2002 Raiders aren't my favorite team of all time—the whole thing felt fake!

Jerry Rice in silver and black, Bill Callahan taking a team to the Super Bowl, Rich Gannon morphing into Joe Montana, then back to Rich Gannon a year later, the Gruden trade, the silent spite of Tim Brown, the uneasy nature of the Bay Area...Bill King's call at the end of the 1978 "Holy Roller" game could have been the soundtrack for the 2002 Oakland Raiders—"there's nothing real in the world anymore!"

And truth be told, I liked the 2001 team a lot more. They had the perfect Raider combination of cast-offs and physical specimens, and won with them!

Gruden roamed the sidelines screaming at his team...and it was HIS team. Players played for him, if only to prove they could match his intensity. The gods didn't hate the 2001 Raiders, the refs did, and that's why I don't have a 2001 World Champions t-shirt.

But I can argue with the refs all I want. Gods? I'd like to wake up with my limbs tomorrow. Therefore, I could never call the 2002 Raiders my favorite team of all time, just the best my team has ever been.

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