Oakland Raiders and the Rule of Thumb: Everything Is Denied, Until Proven

Let's compare today to a roller coaster, shall we?

First things first, about two hours before ESPN "broke" the story of a source claiming that the Raiders have decided to keep Tom Cable for his last year, the word was already filtering up from other sources.

One said source, coming from Florida, was a connection from Facebook, that happy colony of devoted fans, players and media locals.

One such source, from an account set up as a "fan page" for Bruce Gradkowski was already lit up:

"Listen Up Raider Nation, and ALL fams of this page, Bruces page, BREAKING NEWS: The whole Raider coaching staff is coming back! and Mr. Davis told QB Coach Hackett and Head Coach Cable: JUST WIN w/ BRUCE! YESSSSSSSSS!"

When pressed on the source of this news flash, the admin for this page had replied with this tidbit:

"Source: Bruce Gradkowski Sr. "Big Bru" , my friend and buddy"

So, about eight hours prior the Raider Nation on Facebook was celebrating.

Then, ESPN breaks the story, via everyone's favorite anti-Raider, Adam Schefter. From an unnamed source, Tom Cable is going to be retained, for various reasons, and a small audio clip was found on ESPN, reporting from a pool reporter.

This is all fine and dandy.

Then the Raiders threw some sand on the fire, by denying the action EVER OCCURRED.

John Herrera, in denying the information, had this comment:

“We’ve never made any statement that the head coach would not be back, that has been media speculation from the beginning,” senior executive John Herrera said in a statement to The Associated Press on Saturday night. “We’ve consistently stated that we’re going through an evaluation process to determine the direction that the organization needs to go. The process is ongoing and has not reached a conclusion.”

This little tidbit showed up on Yahoo servers about two and a half hours ago.

So, at the present stage this is what we know.

By contract, Tom Cable is still the coach of the Raiders, until he is terminated by the club.

As things stand, the only thing being discussed, is if Tom Cable wants to work with JaMarcus Russell, with a couple new coaches, or if he wants to try and see if Lane Kiffin wants to employ him in the college ranks.

To this end, Al Davis could still cut loose Tom, use Hue Jackson as a stand-in replacement, as he should know Tom's style of coaching from his past employment. Hue would also have the benefit of working directly with quarterbacks so in Al's mind, it's a good fit

The downside is Hue Jackson has no experience in being a head coach, unless he played it on Madden football.

Al Davis already has his first pickup, in the rehiring of Mike Waufle. It also calls into question, was this a choice Al Davis made, or Tom Cable elected to do, feeling past history could help the club again?

Or is Al Davis counting on making things difficult enough that Tom Cable becomes uncomfortable and elects to simply leave the team, before his second year is up?

Most of these questions would exist even if Al Davis had not elected to quash the rumor of Tom's staying for another year.

But it does fly in the face of Adam Schefter, that until the Raiders put it in the media, nothing will be confirmed, by anyone.