Raiders Tough Guy PR Approach Is Backfiring

“Hey you!  Yea, that’s right, I’m talkin’ to you.  See, I’m a tough guy.  I get to wear a Raiders shirt, back slap with Al Davis and crack the heads of all youse media types writin’ nasty tings ‘bout us heah in Raiders HQ”

Isn’t it funny how John Herrera has made a career of being a shoe shine boy for Al Davis? 

What’s even more funny is the authority this guy is allowed to wield with Raiders activities.  He contacts newspaper editors and tries to get Raiders beat writers fired.  He tries to bar Raiders beat writers from covering the team and even tried to bar a former Raider player turned broadcaster from meetings broadcasters are entitled to attend.

It is easy to speculate Herrera is just a thinly veiled veneer for the real voice of the Raiders, Big Daddy Al Davis.  Though it is John Herrera providing the machismo muscle so therefore he is worthy of ridicule. 

Herrera makes his living doing the dirty work, trying to control everything said publicly about the Raiders.  It would not be surprising if he is shaking the tree at whoever calls the shots at Bleacher Report to try and get anything said here removed as well.

See how predictable the Raiders public relations strategy is?

John Herrera’s job is to stick his mug into every situation we are interested in with the Raiders and attempt to manipulate it.

He cuts interviews short.  He suppresses information and does not release even the most common of details concerning the team unless it is a league rule to do so.

Most laughable is he tries to intimidate reporters with his pseudo mafiosa attitude.

Raider fans who complain about the media ripping on the Raiders only have to look as far as the shoe shine boy to get an idea of why they write what they do.

Then of course there is the ugly performance on the field which does not help matters.  Next, there is the refusal of the organization to accept reality and a further refusal to try and improve things by changing their approach.  Clinging to the past means the organization is dying with the past.

The Raiders organization’s lesson to be learned is that it does not control anything except short term annoyances (such as reporters asking questions).  We all know the truth anyway, regardless of Herrera’s attempts to block information flow. 

The walls are coming down.  The Raiders are the worst organization in professional sports.

Of course, fans are catching on to the joke.  They realize Raiders HQ is full of baloney.  Look no further for evidence in the plummeting values of the franchise, coming in 31st out of 32 NFL teams according to Forbes 2009 rankings.

You can blame the economy but you can also blame the organization for their ignorant and backwards policies and showing the fans an unispired product on the field.   Failure in all this, including mafiosa style handling of routine matters, translates to fan disgust and abandoning their team loyalty.