Oakland Raiders Aim To Be Better Than the Best, Like Cliff Branch or Lamonica

Seven of us are traveling on the Pennsylvania Turnpike headed toward Reston, Virginia. Our goal is to be in place to watch the game between the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders.

A stop was made along the way, and I purchased a USA Today Sports Weekly. It had an article on the positive and negatives of each of the 32 NFL teams.

It mentioned that Jason Campbell was "yanked" from the start position. It did not give the best comment on the performance of Bruce Gradkowski. It did not even give the most positive comment on the feats of Rolando McClain.

Many of us who are Raider fans don't expect too many positive comments from the media. We do, however, like it when we get any little recognition of the improvements in manning the team.

The commitment to excellence keeps us focused on the criteria and not the competition.

The criteria for excellence should be to match or exceed the performance of the Oakland Raiders of the past.

Players like Jim Otto, Daryl Lamonica, George Blanda, George Atkinson, Cliff Branch, and many others set a standard for this generation of Oakland Raiders.

Comparing the Oakland Raiders with the Detroit Lions, Buffalo Bills, or Carolina Panthers is like focusing on a standard of survival, rather than a standard of excellence.

Those teams had a 0-4 win-loss record for the first quarter of the 2010 season.

If you look at some of the other teams and do not look at the criteria for excellence, you lower the ceiling of expectation.

It's more like a student who says he is glad he didn't fail, rather than saying he missed the mark of making an "A" for excellence.

Go Raiders! Reach for the standard set by former stars of the Oakland Raiders.