Coop: Worse than Art Shell Year.

Jarrod Cooper is on Dan's favorite post-game show (by the way, the Raiders lost, although congrats to Seabass on breaking Blanda's record). He just said that he's in contact with a lot of guys in the locker room, and that what he's hearing is that it's worse than 2006, because at least then there was some consistency. Consistently bad, but it was consistent. When O'Donnell asked about the Harbaugh rumors, he said, sure, Harbaugh's a great coach, and Al Davis loves him, but Al loved Lance Kiffin when he hired him, too. If nothing else changes, Harbaugh doesn't stand a chance.

By the way, Kawakami thinks JaMarcus should tank along with the rest of the Raiders good players, and scoops Sllaacs by coining the phrase, "blown to alexsmithereens."

Michael Vick

The MediaNews papers are all full of "What if" stories about the possibility of Michael Vick joining the Raiders if and when Roger Goodell reinstates him after he gets out of prison.

I guess these stories were inevitable, with the Falcons in town and so many of Vick's former teammates and coaches now with the Raiders.

I always thought, in the immediate aftermath of Vick's arrest/conviction/sentencing, that people who said, "Well, now Vick's ready to be a Raider" were stupid and lazy. They were falling back on that whole "criminal element" stereotype that's been a part of the Raiders since the 70s (and yes, I'm well aware that there's no small amount of that stereotype that's been cultivated by the Raiders and their fans).

Corkran's article and Monte Poole's column focus mainly on the football possibilities, with some quotes from DeAngelo Hall, Justin Griffith, and Ashley Lelie enthusiastically endorsing bringing Vick to the Raiders. Hall even offers to re-do his contract.

I have to admit that the fantasy backfield scenario, with JaMarcus standing back there looking at McFadden on one side and Vick on the other, is intriguing.

But there's only one way it work if Vick came to the Raiders:

Jarrod Cooper.

If the Raiders put Cooper on the staff (as a special teams assistant, community liason, whatever) and assigned him the main role of mentoring Michael Vick, it could work. Included in that mentoring would have to be taking him to the shelter and helping him clean out cages, patch up rescued dogs, etc. People in the Bay Area love dogs, and his first game at the Coliseum would be guaranteed to see pickets from the SPCA, PETA, and, since this is the Bay Area, probably the ALF.

But Cooper could help smooth all that out, and Vick could show his remorse is sincere.

Good Bye, Coop, and Good Luck

According this blog post by Jason Jones, Jarrod Cooper wasn't so much cut as he retired.

Money quote:

Here's Kiffin on Jarrod Cooper's decision to retire this morning:

"Cooper came in this morning and just decided that it was time. He played (seven) years in the league, has had three knee surgeries, he's never regained his speed on this last surgery, that was obvious in the preseason games. Whether we would have released him or not, that is really irrelevant. He came in and was just done playing and wanted to retire. He said bye to everybody. We wish him the best. He's a really neat guy who has done a lot of things here, has a lot of relationships with a lot of the players here. It maybe even something that we keep him involved during the season, coming in on Wednesdays during the special teams meetings, being around the guys and working with the young guys as well."

I'm glad to hear that they'll keep Coop around in some fashion. The guy played balls out every time he was on the field. Off the field, he was as good a guy as you'll hear about in professional sports, as this Jason Jones story about his work rehabilitating dogs showed.

If you can read that story and not like the guy, then, as Tommy Lasorda might say, you don't like Christmas and Easter. The Raiders are a better organization for having a guy like him on the team, and the Bay Area is a better place having someone like Coop living here. (Yes, I know he was serving a suspension for violating the substance abuse policy. But I've never read a story about Koren Robinson or Leonard Little--who actually killed a person driving drunk--where they did something positive on their suspensions. Coop showed accountability and class and became a better person.)

Good luck, Coop. If you ever do become a veterinarian, you've got a customer.