Raiders calm spoiled as quickly as knockout

By JOSH DUBOW
AP Sports Writer

NAPA, Calif.(AP) — Just when it seemed as if the Oakland Raiders
were in for a training camp devoid of controversy and
distraction, the news came out as jarring as a punch to the
face.

Head coach Tom Cable allegedly got into an altercation with an
assistant that sent Randy Hanson to the hospital. And just like
that, it was back to the usual ways for the Raiders whose
consistency of losing on the field over the last six years is
only matched by the team’s ability to make bizarre news off of
it.

This once-proud franchise that has lived on owner Al Davis’
mantras of “Commitment to Excellence” and “Just win, baby” has
become a laughingstock of the NFL.

About the only time the Raiders register on the national
conscience these days is for something negative: an embarrassing
loss, a feud between owner and coach, disgruntled players
griping and now, it seems, the latest – coach-on-coach violence.

“It’s definitely been interesting,” defensive end Jay Richardson
said. “I haven’t been here long. This is my third year, and it’s
never a dull moment out here. You have to love it. It keeps you
on your toes.”

The details of what happened Aug. 5 between Cable and Hanson
might never be clear to those who were outside the meeting room
that day. Did Cable punch his assistant or just knock his chair
over? Did Hanson provoke the attack by launching a verbal tirade
against defensive coordinator John Marshall?

But a few things are clear.

Hanson ended up in the hospital with a broken bone in his jaw
and has not been seen around the team since. Hanson told police
he was attacked by an unidentified member of the coaching staff
and Cable has been fingered as the culprit.

Cable said “nothing happened,” but the NFL and Napa police are
investigating the situation.

The players are taking it all in stride. They responded to the
reports by breaking into a chant of “Cable, bumaye, Cable,
bumaye” – translated as “Cable, kill him! Cable, kill him!” – in
reference to the crowd chants heard by former heavyweight boxing
champion Muhammad Ali during his 1974 fight against George
Foreman.

“It hasn’t made it to a distraction yet,” Pro Bowl cornerback
Nnamdi Asomugha said. “It hasn’t been like one of the things in
the past where it’s something that’s talked about all the time.
I guess because it’s so fresh.”

It’s the second time in less than a year that Hanson has been
involved in the craziness. After criticizing the coaching staff
during a meeting following a season-opening loss to Denver last
season, Hanson was suspended by coach Lane Kiffin.

Davis intervened on Hanson’s behalf and later fired Kiffin.
While players now admit that the long-running Kiffin-Davis feud
made it difficult to prepare for last season, they don’t
envision this latest controversy to set them back this year.

But controversy and losing have gone hand-in-hand for Oakland
over the last 6 1/2 years.

Asomugha joined the AFC champion Raiders in the 2003 draft,
excited to be part of a winner. Little did he know that one of
the worst stretches in league history had already been launched.

This run of odd stories and bad football began just before the
Super Bowl in San Diego in 2003 when Pro Bowl center Barret
Robbins disappeared on a bender in Tijuana. Robbins was
deactivated for the game after showing up incoherent the night
before kickoff, and Oakland went on to lose to Tampa Bay 48-21.

What followed is one of the worst six-year stretches in NFL
history. The Raiders are the first team to lose at least 11
games in six straight seasons. Their 24-72 record over that span
is the worst in the NFL and two losses shy of Tampa Bay’s
ignominious mark for most in a six-year period.

Oakland has had five head coaches in that span, plenty of
botched draft picks, free agent busts and shoddy play. But what
has happened away from the playing field has truly set apart the
Raiders.

There was linebacker Bill Romanowski shattering teammate Marcus
Williams’ jaw with a punch in practice in 2003. Or coach Bill
Callahan calling the Raiders the “dumbest team in America” later
that season.

Norv Turner came on the next year and ran off longtime star
receiver Tim Brown, and ended Jerry Rice’s consecutive games
streak with a catch at 274, angering the future Hall of Famer
and leading to his trade to Seattle.

Things truly turned bizarre in 2006, when Art Shell was brought
back to replace Turner for his second stint as Raiders coach. He
hired Tom Walsh away from a bed and breakfast in Idaho to be his
offensive coordinator, leading to an immediate feud with
receiver Jerry Porter that led to Porter’s eventual suspension
for insubordination.

Before the season even started, star receiver Randy Moss
complained on his radio show that things were “fishy” in
Oakland. Moss essentially quit on the team, failing to run out
patterns he didn’t like and setting back an offense that was
already inept.

Late in a 2-14 season, Shell accused team executive Michael
Lombardi of being a “fox in the hen house” for anonymously
criticizing the team and its coaching staff to reporters.

That led to the firing of both Shell and Lombardi, and Lane
Kiffin took over after Davis was spurned by Kiffin’s USC
colleague Steve Sarkisian. Kiffin quickly realized that Davis
was in control and there were arguments over who to draft No. 1
overall – LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell was chosen – and
other personnel decisions.

Later that season, Kiffin angered Davis when he expressed
interest behind the scenes in the Arkansas job, and the feud
only grew in the offseason. Davis refused to allow Kiffin to
change defensive coordinators, leading Kiffin to dare Davis to
fire him and Davis to dare Kiffin to resign.

Neither side blinked and things grew tenser throughout the
offseason, with Davis hiring an assistant without telling
Kiffin, and Kiffin publicly badmouthing Davis’ offseason
acquisitions and complaining that he had no control over the
roster. Finally, Kiffin accused Davis of making the defensive
game plan after a humiliating opening night 41-14 loss to
Denver.

Kiffin was fired a few weeks later in a surreal news conference
that featured Davis posting a letter detailing Kiffin’s failures
on an overhead projector, and an intermission between the
one-hour discussion of Kiffin’s firing and the announcement that
Cable would take over.

The Cable era has been relatively quiet in off-field news until
this most recent report.

“It’s just another day around here,” running back Justin Fargas
said. “Things wouldn’t be normal if there wasn’t some
controversy.”