Jeffri Chadiha is funny.

I know we haven't written anything in a long time, and it may have looked like we would never post again, but really, did anyone miss us? Not when Jerry McDonald at the Trib is writing the best blog on the planet, scooping everyone on Raiders news and insights a couple of times a week.

Surfing around today while bored at work, I saw a link on ESPN.com that said:

Chadiha: Mild-mannered coaches becoming the norm.

This hilarious for a couple of reasons. First, because I don't think it's an accident that the "norm" in the link reminds people of "Norv," because that's exactly what the article's about, how the Chargers are going to be awesome because they're loaded and Norv is a "Player's" coach. It also mentions some other well-known winners and champions, guys like new Cowboys coach Wade Phillips and the Bills' Dick Jauron. Chadiha's tenuous argument rests on the fact that Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith are coaches who took their teams to the Super Bowl last year with a "civil approach" and "don't rely on intimidation, ridged rules, and silly mindgames to motivate their teams."

Being non-intimidating might be the ONLY thing Smith and Dungy have in common with the retreads mentioned above. Not mentioned is that Lovey Smith and Tony Dungy are good coaches.

Seriously, ask any Raiders fan about the Norv era. He sounded like Lyle from Napolean Dynamite. Whenever Greg Papa would ask him a question about the week's practices and game planning leading up to Sunday, I half expected Norv to point to a spot out on the practice field and say, "Over there by the tackling dummy we found a couple of Shoshone arrowheads." (Check around 1:50 mark of this clip and tell that doesn't sound like Norv.")

But the funniest part of the article comes in this quote from Jeff Garcia:

"There is such a broad range of players coming into this league now that a good coach has to be able to deal with that. When you have a my-way-or-the-highway coach, not every player is going to respond to that. I haven't experienced playing for a coach like that, but I can honestly say I wouldn't want to play for one. It's pretty hard to play this game in a bad environment, and unfortunately, there are still some coaches in this league who can create a bad environment with that style." (emphasis added)

Guess what, Goldmember, you're about to find out. This is the same Jeff Garcia who just signed to play for Chuckie Gruden, who--now that Parcells is retired--has to be the ultimate my-way-or-the-highway coach in the league.

So save me the mild-mannered coaches are the norm crap. What teams need are good coaches. Hopefully Kiffin is one for the Raiders.