Writing About the Oakland Raiders Helps Us Survive

Note: This article was originally published Aug. 7, 2009. Now that "media madness" has attacked the Oakland Raiders head coach Tom Cable, it is relevant.

The questions are storming through the sports community. History records other such stories of attacks.

Some men survive, others are broken. How will the Tom Cable story end? Only time will tell. One thing we know, the Oakland Raiders are at a critical point.

The team and its coaching staff need to be focused in order to survive a "hurricane" forming and heading in the Raider franchise's direction.

The Article, dated Aug. 7, 2009

Sometimes B/R writers get tired. In our emails, we share our challenges—sometimes sitting up late at night, tapping and typing on the computer.

A story forms on the screen. In the wee hours we edit, re-edit, and then watch for the editorial comments of others.

Somehow the entire process is uplifting, and even healing. Former memories and wounds are re-opened, and medicated with creative outpourings of colorful language.

My love for the NFL, especially the Oakland Raiders, is what got me into this cycle of writing, re-writing, and publishing. I can't get enough of it. It "makes my day", as one great actor said in a old movie.

The most powerful part of this writing journey is the output—the articles are often shared with others. Others read, they cry, they react, and then they too begin to write.

An older woman entered my class. She loved brown, bronze, and orange tones. She would read my essays and articles on NFL players, especially the seniors. One day she told me her story. She had a deadly disease, but now she is doing fine.

She asked if she could write about me. I was surprised. She said my writing, and my transparency, is what inspired her to believe that she could complete her collegiate studies.

She submitted her essay, describing me as her mentor. She won a prize and a scholarship. Both of us were honored at a banquet at the University of Houston in Clear Lake—near NASA, near Houston, Texas.

I had told her that I write because of the pain of remembering an old college friend who almost drowned in his own tears, regretting the mistakes in his past. I was transparent, for a moment.

I write because of the pain I feel when I think of my cousin. He was a roommate in college to a man (Aaron Brown, from Port Arthur, Texas) who became an NFL player, but my cousin never made it to the NFL. My cousin, in my opinion, symbolizes the many young men who can not adjust to the "dreams deferred" in their lives.

Something needs to be done for those whose dreams have been deferred, a phrase from a Langston Hughes poem. 

Sometimes a retired or injured NFL player never adjusts to his "dreams deferred." He may ask himself, "Would I have been greater if I had played longer? Would I have been happier if the media had been kinder?"

One reason I support the Oakland Raiders is because they have had a past filled with glory. Their struggle to get back on top is sometimes berated and "maligned" by others.

So, I write in order to spread a "balm in Gilead"—to heal the scraped and scratched image that others try to inflict on a potentially great team, the Oakland Raiders.

I have come to realize that there is more than one type of cancer in our society. Will our society survive this cancer, caused by the duress and stress of "media madness"?

Yes, our society will survive, and go into remission...because we, the B/R writers, tell another side of the story.

We peck, tap, type, and tell the NFL, NBA, and NCAA stories, in frank and candid terms.

That lady who wrote about me won a scholarship for recognizing me as her mentor. She is a cancer survivor. The stories I wrote, and shared with her, inspired her to write a portion of her story after experiencing an aspect of my story. 

My stories tell of my vision of the Oakland Raiders again getting connected to their former glory. They are the stories that inspired the lady in bronze, brown, and orange to aim for excellence, and to write so as to continue in the healing process.

I write so that I may heal. There are elements of our society that may appear to be benign, yet are malignant and debilitating.

Each article, in my writing experience, is a brick in my fortress for survival in a changing America.

I ask, Why do you write? Who have you mentored through your expressions and creative outpourings?

Let's just say that I also write because I want to see the restoration and redemption of the Oakland Raiders. As Oakland prepares to transcend the limitations vocalized by others, each of us who are a part of the Raider Nation also transcend, and aim toward victory.

So, as I write, I also believe that the Oakland Raiders will survive. They will be triumphant! They too will heal.