Tuesday Morning Running Back Week 5: I Pity The Raiders

Pride in your organization is a precious commodity in the NFL.

If you've got it, odds are you're successful. You represent the benchmark that all of the bottom feeders in the NFL only wish they could attain.

Ages ago, when the league preached toughness and a win-at-all-cost mentality, that team was the Oakland Raiders.

The Raiders were a team that personified smash-mouth football, with such luminaries as Jack Tatum and George Atkinson anchoring their defense during the glory years of the 1970s.

Those players were able to pass on the wave of success to people like Howie Long and Marcus Allen.

Sure the Raiders had an owner who looked like a crypt keeper and loved to thumb his nose at the establishment, even going so far as to testify against the NFL in an anti-trust suit brought against it by the USFL.

But they still won consistently, and going into the the Oakland Coliseum was like going into Death Valley, as the stadium always looked like it was swarmed by rogue pirates ready to pounce on the opposition.

But when Al Davis let Jon Gruden get away, it was the start of a organizational free-fall.

In recent years, the Raiders have been blown out in a Super Bowl, hired a coach that was too young for the job, and have even had coaches come to blows during a practice, in which one coach suffered a broken jaw.

In short, the Raiders have become the laughingstock of the NFL.

That image more than manifested itself on Sunday in East Rutherford, N.J., where the Giants feasted on the Raiders even without Eli Manning at full strength and blew them out 44-7.

The pitiful Raiders offense was no match for the No. 1 defense in the NFL, and it showed.

So for Tom Cable and his dysfunctional team, it's back to the drawing board yet again.

Forget trying to save the season and work on salvaging what little reputation you have left.

How could such a proud and successful organization become such a sorry one in a relatively short time?

Sad, just sad.

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