Raiders Trapped in Black Hole

You know the old saying about bad news being good news? How infamous still kinda means famous?

How Jose Canseco calling out his ex-teammates’ steroid use actually sells millions of copies of his book?

Why Terrell Owens is a sports headline whenever he complains about not getting the ball enough?

Sometimes negative media exposure turns out to be a positive thing, drawing attention for reasons that weren’t originally intended.

In sports, bad news is something that fans are drawn to. Sometimes the media creates attention for the antagonists, thereby making them somehow popular.

This might result in selling tickets or jerseys. Other times, the antagonists draw attention to themselves by intentionally doing unpopular things (see: Chad Johnson touchdown celebrations).

For the Oakland Raiders, however, bad news has unfortunately meant just that: bad news.

The demise of the Raiders has been a slow, snowballing process over the past five years, since their appearance in the 2003 Super Bowl. They have made poor decision after poor decision, and this year the avalanche has buried them in a cesspool of mistakes.

Alas, these days, bad news for the Raiders means a horrifying demise, so sad to watch and hear.

With every story the Raiders make, it seems to get worse. This year, owner Al Davis made a wincing statement about the undermining of his head coach, Lane Kiffin, and promptly fired him after six games.

They then released prized free agent DeAngelo Hall eight games in, after signing him to a $60 million contract in the offseason, a headless move that chafed his teammates.

Shortly after, their other offseason acquisition, wide receiver, Javon Walker, had season-ending surgery, compounding his 2008 after having been robbed and beaten in Las Vegas over the summer. And of course on the field the team has been very anemic, going 15 quarters without scoring an offensive touchdown.

Truly, the Raiders need to climb out of this black hole. I mean, it can’t get any worse. Can it?

Unfortunately, the outlook is quite grim for this organization, and it appears that this is only the beginning of the end for the storied franchise. With Captain Davis steering the ship, this band of pirates will continue to sink, and surely his personnel will fling themselves overboard if they have to in order to escape. This team will not stay afloat.

This makes it exponentially difficult for whoever decides they want to coach this team.  I don’t know why anyone would want to be in a position that would ultimately force him to walk the plank. But someone eventually has to lead this team, I guess. 

Whoever has the misfortune of being chosen by Davis to be the coach is likely committing career suicide. Worse, fans will undoubtedly continue to abandon allegiance to the shield as well. What is there to really root for?

People don’t want to pay money to see a team make repeated mistakes. And when that happens, their games are blacked out on national TV—a blessing in disguise for those who can’t bear to see their team melt away.

For a proud and gloried franchise, it is too embarrassing to watch. It’s repulsive to watch Davis make poor decisions and then try to justify these moves by mudslinging.  It’s just...sad. Completely sad.

What do you say to a dictator in order to show him the light? You can’t say anything really, or else you’ll get obliterated, too. You can almost envision a Raiders insider questioning one of Davis' decisions, and then Davis making that choking motion in the air with his hand, like Darth Vader in Star Wars, thus ending the short-lived objection.

Unfortunately, that image is not as entertaining as it should be.  And the idea of the Raiders making headlines for all the wrong reasons is not entertaining, either.  Nobody wants to see their team in the media for being malcontent. Further, they don’t want to see their team become the laughing stock of the league, or worse, the pity of the league.

The Raiders have reached that nadir. They have become the most pitiful team in the NFL. Not just because of their losses. Or their ill-fated quarterback play. Or their porous defense. Or even their revolving door of coaches. It’s a culmination of all the terrible decisions that have been made over the past five years.

It’s cringing to see the Raiders make news for being so bad. Unlike other sports stories where bad news draws good attention, for the Raiders no news would be good news.