The Raiders Disaster: A Silicon Valley Perspective

John Lewin — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:55:51 -0500

I realized while reading a rant this afternoon between RaiderCardAddict and RaiderSteve that I've seen this before, although not in football. But first, a little background:

We Raider fans are learning that there is a big difference between not performing and imploding. The Bugel years we didn't perform. Watching Jeff George as our QB was an exercise in non-performance. Loosing Gannon started a skid of subpar performances that has culminated in what can be viewed as little short of disaster.

But in non-performance, there is always hope.

Over the years we've had Woodson, Brown, Garner, Wheatley, and some of the most dominant offensive lines in the game. And we've had the much maligned Al Davis who, for all his flaws, remains one of the premier coaching talent evaluators in football history (SB winners Tom Flores, John Madden, Mike Shannahan, and John Gruden are all Davis hires).

True, he's as good (better, even) at firing premier coaches than finding premier coaches, but he was our man and our leader, and we were with him.

A few years ago, about when the Raiders were starting down the path of one of the longest Super Bowl hangovers in history, I was learning in the professional world what happens when you lose faith in the vision of your leader.

We were the normal (boring at this point) Silicon Valley story; a few of us, fueled by the passion and vision of our CEO, set out to do something amazing despite the odds of success. We had good days, and bad days, setbacks and progress, good months and bad, but we knew where we were going and were ready to fight for every bloody yard, regardless of the score.

It wasn’t the bad years or the good years that mattered, it was the end zone.

Things broke for us, not when our competitors beat us to the market or when the market changed a little or when our expectations were not what we wanted them to be—we could always overcome that.

Things broke when suddenly we changed our strategy to get to the end zone. We had to adjust, make the mental shift, and try to rebuild the emotion. Our leader had wavered, and we needed to find a new core to rally on. So we did (we are stubborn, if anything).

Then he changed the strategy again.

When you don’t have leadership, everyone becomes a leader, which is the same thing as no one becoming a leader. We all started stabbing each other in the back, telling each of us that they were not holding the line. Some people left and joined the competition; others continued the in-fighting.

Many turned off and went through the motions like robots. As a company we were stuck, not moving in any direction, with equal forces fighting to pull is in opposite directions.

Just before the end, and when only disaster seemed an option, a wonderful woman saved it all. She suggested that our plan had failed, our strategy was broken, but we are not lost.

It’s not that different than this other strategy, and wouldn’t it be nice if we all decided that we'd give it a go, and fight, blood and tears and sweat and dreams for this strategy, and who cares if it’s not perfect or exactly right, we are going to fight for it anyway, and we are going to win.

We got together and told our leader this, and he turned out to be a better man than we expected. He embraced it, even to his own loss. He brought in new managers specialized for our new strategy, even at his own loss of equity and salary.

The next day, nothing was different, but everything was different. Nobody backstabbed, nobody argued, we just put our nosed down and drove it home. Two years later, with a totally different strategy, we crossed into that end zone.

That great, but even if we hadn’t, the best part of that experience wasn’t the end zone, it was when we got our @#@#$ together and started fighting together to get there.

Raiders: Our organization is broken, and we are stabbing each other in the back. I say no more. It’s not about whether we watch games live or via satellite in Dubai. It’s not about whether we like Al Davis or Hate Al Davis, whether our old history brings us pride, or our current history brings us shame.

It’s not about Kiffin, or Gruden, or Hall, or Shannahan, or even Al Davis. What it’s about is beating the tights off of the Bronco's, the Chiefs, and the Chargers every single year, and always being a contender for the postseason.

And it’s about us, as fans, the real force behind the Oakland Raiders, demanding leadership and organization. We want a general manager acting as a general manager, and a strategy to win football games that goes beyond individual players.

We still have the best fanbase on earth; we still have one of the best coaching evaluators in the history of the game; and we still have our history.

If we stop fighting with each other, and start fighting—in whatever way we think is right—for decent management, we'll be kicking the panties off of the Bronco's in no time.

This is something worth fighting for.

Raider Nation: We Are Responsible for This Mess

John Lewin — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 11:48:12 -0400

I'm a Raider for life; but let me tell you a story.

I knew someone once who partied all day long, but still held up at work and was on the fast track. But as it does with so many people, it got ahead of him. For a long time I supported him, helped him back to his feet, cheered his successes. But over time I came to understand that I was making this possible; I was what they call an enabler.

I'm still here for my boy, but now I understand there's a difference between supporting someone and helping them destroy themselves. He's got to accept his failures—no more excuses—and change the things he's doing that are destroying himself, and until then he can't count on me for support.

Well, here I go again. Al Davis is destroying his franchise and his well earned reputation. He says his mistake is hiring Lane Kiffin? 12 years of dysfunction in an organization always stems from one thing—the leadership. At this point it's not even Al's fault...it's ours. We've been supporting this, justifying it, rationalizing.

Having been through this with my friend, I know a lot of you will say I'm selling out. It's okay; come around in your own way. Just ask yourself what is the point when you realize that Al Davis is destroying the Raiders you love, and be prepared to act when that happens.

I'll be back, Raiders, and I sure as @#$% am not going to be rooting for some other team; but I can't support this anymore. Every cheer, every post in support of the Raiders, every ticket purchased or game watched on television justifies the coaching carousel, the dysfunction, and ensures we'll be watching it again.

And before you say it will get better, ask yourself this: Who is going to come in here and coach next? Which marquee player is going to want to get drafted by this team, when nearly every player who leaves talks about how horrible it is? This organization is in shambles.

Last year my buddy hit rock bottom. All of his friends had abandoned him, his fiance left him, and he lost his job. He had nothing, and there he was, willing to cut the BS and see his problem for what it was—a hole he dug for himself. When he called me to tell me about all of the failures he's made in life, and asked for help, I was there 100 percent.

He was down, to be sure, but it's never about winning and losing; it's about support, thick or thin. I had told him when he was ready to accept his life for what it was I'd be there, and I lived up to that promise. He got help, got his degrees worked out, just got a great job...

There's light at the end for those willing to take their failures to task. But you don't get there while people are helping you to fail. So Al, and the rest of the Raiders (and the whole NFL for that matter): I'm out, but I'm waiting.

When you are ready to accept how badly you've been running this thing, and are ready to get some proper help, I'm waiting on the sidelines to support you through every bad and good season ahead of you.

But before that can happen, you have got to accept that the problem with the Raiders is not the coach, the media, the league, the city of Oakland, or anything else.

It's the owner.

Bleacher Report - Articles by John Lewin

The Raiders Disaster: A Silicon Valley Perspective

Raider Nation: We Are Responsible for This Mess