Khalif Barnes Gets Me Pumped

David White catches up with new tackle Khalif Barnes and asks him five questions. My favorite question and answer:

Q: Tom Cable said you'll compete at left tackle, but some think you'll be on the right side. Your plans?

A: "I'm so determined to be this franchise's left tackle for the next nine years. I know that's a big challenge but that's my goal. What better place to be a dominant left tackle than with the Raiders? I get a chance to come in here and start I'm not going to let it go."

The next nine years? That's a nice commitment, seeing as he only signed a one-year deal. And showing his grasp of Raiders history by alluding to this guy (no, not that guy) shows he's doing his homework.

Huffing Paint is Almost as Bad as Missing Tackles.

I'm sure Dan will comment on this at some point, the Safety position has been the bane of his existence since the Derrick Gibson days. Anyway, Michael Huff, the #7 draft pick a couple of years ago, is being demoted and replaced by Hiram Eugene, who took over last year for Stuart Schweigert, which solved nothing because the defense still sucked.

Huff, remember, was "Art Shell's Pick."

Who the Fuck is Randy Hanson? Also, John's Picks.

Good job by Dan and Sllaacs keeping up the blog while I've been out of action. I think all of the stupidity of the last week made me sick.

Anyway, so just what the Raiders the morning of a game with a division rival: More controversy. Some guy named Randy Hanson was suspended by Lance after the Monday Night Debacle of September 8 after he was overheard saying, "It's a good thing that Shanahan didn't have our players, or else he would have beaten us 1,000-0."

So now he's the latest assistant coach to come out and call Lance a liar, and what with all the injuries, I'll be shocked if we keep the game within 30 points today. The only inflection we're likely to see or hear is in Al's voice when he speaks to the media this week, if he was telling Corkran the truth. on thisAt least that will be interesting. Chargers win, 42-10.

Jerry has more on this, saying that Kiffin's big mistake was in not talking to Al before trying to fire Rob, etc, which is the same shit Shanny did 20 years ago when he tried to purge his staff of Art Shell and Tom Walsh. We all know how that ended up.

Again, I'm not saying Kiffin is the 2nd coming of Bill Walsh. He's clearly not. He's also probably a hypocrite, as Peterson argues so persuasively. But anyone who thinks he's the only, or even the main problem, is in denial. Deep, crushing, unhealthy denial.

The 49ers are playing pretty good football. It could be a shoot out in the dome. I like the 9ers, actually, 31-28.

I like Tampa over the Packers, in a squeaker, 17-14. Maybe even OT. Raiders fans will watch, wistfully, remembering what it was like to have a well-coached football team.

Jets-Cardinals. Maybe there's something to this trade speculation of Jerry's. I would trade every receiver who is not a rookie, and next years (likely Top-5) for Anquan Boldin. Do it NBA-style, so the cap numbers match. But that's just me. I'm weird, I want JaMarcus to be successful.

Oh. Cardinals win after they return 3 Favre INTs for six. I'd a double-bagged.

Was Herrera Art Shell's "Fox in the Henhouse?"

There are a lot of good takes on what went on today. Kawakami, seen in the video almost getting punched by John Herrera. USF MFA in Writing professor Lowell Cohn (I know you'd never guess by reading this blog, but I'm a student in that program) has a good one, seeing as how he was being slandered by Herrera, too.

I first read about this, and saw the video, at Jason Jones' blog. But it was an earlier post by Jones that intrigued me more, where he wrote this:

There was some mention last week of a Raider employee handing out a copy of an article to writers that was critical of Kiffin.

You want to know why that's a big deal? Remember when Art Shell was mad a couple of years ago about a team employee undermining him? It's the same thing.

That was the Raider employee in question yelling "that's not true" when a question was asked referencing articles being passed out to writers.

So is he saying that Herrera was the infamous "Fox in the Henhouse?" I always thought he was talking about Lombardi. In fact, Bill Soliday wrote that Herrera was included on a list of people that Art was NOT talking about in November 2006. So maybe Art was bamboozled into thinking it was Lombardi (by the way, whoever it was doing the undermining, him and Tom Walsh deserved it; they were flat-out horrible) when really it was Herrera? Or does he just mean that it's the same type of deal: Instead of Lombardi leaking about Shell to the media, Herrera leaking dirt on Kiffin?

Either way, what's lost in all of this is Kiffin's answers in the press conference about whether or not he's quitting. I know Jerry wrote about it (while leaving out the fight; maybe he wasn't there, although Herrera seems to complain about him, too). Here's the quote:

“There’s no way I’m quitting, and that’s got nothing to do with money, at all,” Kiffin said. “That has to do with our players. I talked a lot of these players into coming here at some point - obviously, money has a lot to do with that - in free agency over the last two years. A lot of our coaches, I recruited them and their families to come here and build this thing together. So the last thing I’m ever gonna do is quit, the way that you guys are talking about quitting or even quit behind closed doors, as far as my energy or my passion towards getting this thing turned around.

“Because I believe we can turn this thing around. And there’s a lot of good things going the right direction, and I think we’re gonna turn it around.”

Watch the video. Tell me he's not sincere.

UPDATE: I swear, I was going to title a post "As the Raiders Turn" before Nancy did, only when I went to blog about the video, Dan was already all over it. Why would she say "a Raiders employee," when the video is everywhere, and everyone knows it's Herrera?

Kawakami Predicts.

Tim Kawakami of the Merc says Davis will fire Kiffin in the bye week, and Ryan will be gone next season, and the debacle will continue.

Interesting comparison to the Art Shell/Mike Lombardi feud of '06.

Speaking of Lombardi, he touches on the feud this morning as well. The more I read of him, the more I read his rips on the Raiders as sadness, not bitterness. I think he really loved working for the Raiders, and wanted to make things better, and couldn't. I don't know enough to comment on his skill as a football executive, but I do know bitterness. And this doesn't sound like bitterness to me.

I Know It's Over. It Never Really Began.

All over the internets, people seem to be piling on after Monday night's debacle.

Warren Sapp: "...they have unrealistic ideas about what their people can do.." "They're going to suck."

Adam Treu: "There are a few things I miss about playing professional football, but getting beat 41-14 is not one of them."

Kurt Snibbe: Replace Randolph Scott with Buccaneer Bruce.

And then in his conference call with the Chefs' beat writers yesterday, Kiffin:

"You have to look at the history," Kiffin said. "History is what it is, that he doesn’t keep people very long. We don’t have a general manager. Everything goes through the owner. That sets up a difficult situation at times.

"Knowing who the owner is, you know from day one there’s no job security."

Just fire him. Promote Lofton or Knapp, or whomever. Either way, lock Knapp and Cable up so they can't just leave for Seattle next. Or, shit, I don't care, bring back Art Shell. One of the funnest parts of the game the other night was seeing Dan's Art impersonation, where he made his hat 4 sizes too small and rested it down on his forehead, and scowled.

I wish to revisit my post about NFL.com using Morrissey's "Every Day is Like Sunday" in their commercial. They should make a Raiders-specific ad using a different Morrissey song, something even more depressing, like "I Know it's Over" by the Smiths.

That one even has Spanish subtitles, perfect for Fiesta Latina 2008.

Nancy Gay is Right.

Normally, I would write a post joking that this is the kind of column that made her the "Hater of the Week" namesake.

But I was at the game the other night with Dan. And at some point, when the score was 27-0 (maybe it was just before then), Dan turned to me and said, "You know, we're just going to have to wait it out until Al dies."

And I hate feeling like this. Every year--and I have the email archive to prove it--Dan and I and a couple of other Raiders fans we know get ourselves all worked up into an optimistic lather. And every year we're disappointed. You'd think we'd learn.

But we love this team. That's why we spend $81.20 for nosebleed seats, where the most exciting action in the game was the fight in section 324, causing the Professor to coin a new term, "Silver-on-Black Crime." It's why we spend hundreds of dollars at the Raider Image, leading Mike Ditka to say, "These have got to be the greatest fans in the world, putting up with this."

What we have to put up with is a defense that can't cover anyone, but makes up for it by not being able to tackle. An offensive that can't block, and receivers that can't catch. JaMarcus Russell, I'm convinced, could be an all time great. He has all the tools. But I'm terrified that Kiffin will be fired, replaced by someone else who will the change the system and lose 13 games, to be replaced by someone else, etc., etc, until JaMarcus and Darren McFadden are considered busts because they never got to play in the same system with the same coaches for longer than a season and half.

It's bullshit.