The Silver & Black Now Fading To Simply Black

Decades ago the Bay Area of California was adorned with billboards that had two elements. The first was the logo of the Oakland Raiders. The second was the phrase "Commitment to Excellence."

Raiders owner Al Davis knew branding before ad agencies co-opted the term, and he still uses it on the team Web site. It once was applicable. But these days that claim is risking a charge of false advertising.

The Raiders have become the elephant's graveyard of the NFL. For younger players Oakland is where you work hard so you can escape through free agency. For veterans it is the only place that will offer a deal that allows deferring retirement.

Oakland was a charter member of the old AFL and where Al Davis made his bones. He was so savvy that he left the Raiders for a time to become commissioner of the league in 1966, and it was his aggressive pursuit of NFL talent that was a catalyst for the merger with the NFL.

The Raiders have been to four Super Bowls, winning three -- and let us not forget they also won the AFL title in 1967. But as every season rolls by all the good gets a little smaller in the rearview mirror.

The Raiders are the baggy-pants comedian of the NFL. JaMarcus Russell is no threat to unseat Peyton Manning on the AFC Pro Bowl roster. Head coach Tom Cable seems more suited to MMA or the WWE than his current posting. A squirrel in the road has more stopping power than the Raider defense.

But like a bad comic Davis won't surrender the stage. The one constant in the rise and fall of the Raiders is now holding on to his position with a grip that Queen Elizabeth must envy. And there is no force that can root him out.

So the result is Oakland is now a place to be avoided if at all possible. The acumen Davis once had in securing just the right draft pick is gone. The man who could find the diamond in the free-agent slag pile no longer exists.

Worst of all there are several generations of fans who only know the Raiders as a perrenially mediocre-to-awful franchise. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell must feel like the adult who can't get grandpa to surrender his car keys.

If there is something to commit to in Oakland it should be finding someone to clean the tarnish off the silver & black, someone not named Al Davis, before it's all just black.