Lance Kiffin Update.

Because it's a slow news week, Raiders-wise. Lance filed his grievance yesterday. Al's response:

The Oakland Raiders received Mr. Kiffin's grievance today. It is a short letter that:

_ Completely ignores the fact that Mr. Kiffin repeatedly made reckless statements that attacked players, assistant coaches and the owner of the team and were damaging to the Raiders organization.

_ Does not dispute that Mr. Kiffin made a number of false statements to the media that were damaging to the Raiders organization.

_ The grievance attaches Mr. Kiffin's signed contract but ignores the provisions that explicitly stated that all of his duties were "all subject to the direction and supervision of the general partner" of the Raiders and also ignores the provisions of his contract that required him to avoid any conduct "which would embarrass, discredit or disgrace" the Raiders. Mr. Kiffin failed to honor his contract.

_ Ignores completely an NFL resolution that was expressly incorporated into every coach's contract and that states that every coach: "Shall have an obligation to communicate openly and candidly with the principal owner and/or his designated representative to ensure that club ownership is informed on a complete and timely basis of all matters affecting the club's operations, to respect the authority and responsibility of ownership to make decisions on behalf of the club and to avoid actions that undermine or damage the club's reputation or operating success." Mr. Kiffin violated each and every provision of this resolution through 2008.

_ Mr. Kiffin's false statements to the media were conveyed to the fans and the team further damaging the reputation and good will of the Raiders organization.

Mr. Kiffin was terminated for cause. The grievance is without merit.

I like that the contract stipulated that no actions be taken that could "embarrass, discredit, or disgrace" the Oakland Raiders.

So tell me, again, why Herrera is still working for the Raiders?

Now What?

So last week happened. Lane Kiffin is still texting JaMarcus, and he appreciates it. I wonder if Al will have John Herrera text JaMarcus Lowell Cohn's blog post about Kiffin being a poor judge of the real estate market. He should.

I saw John Clayton on SportsCenter this afternoon. I can't find a link, because I'm exhausted. But he said that we should get to see Jammy unleash that gun a little more, like we saw when he struck downfield to Zach Miller against the Chargers. He said it has to do with Greg Knapp. He called that play while Lance was drawing up 76-yard field goal attempts.

I can't wait to see that. I especially can't wait to see Jason Whitlock choke on the 37 'Lil Debbie Football Brownies he's just jammed in his big, fat, mouth when he sees JaMarcus unleash his first of many 300 yard, 4 TD passing games. What dickhead.

Al is NOT Senile

After listening to Al Davis yesterday, I must say - he certainly sounds like a man with full use of his faculties, and the Senile Old Bastard that some people seem to have thought he was is just a myth.  He made a mistake, a bad hire, and he thought he could salvage the coach.  He couldn't, Kiffin is gone - the Raiders move on.  

Like Dan said (according to Sousa)  "Fuck you, It's Al's team."

Sllaacs

Out of the ER.

I'm out of the hospital, although you may not hear from me for a while because the Professor has me on strict bed rest until the infection in my gut is gone.

So check out this column by Lowell Cohn. It's really an amazing piece of writing. And that letter is straight up brutal. You can see Al read it here.

I got a text message from Dan, who is in Raleigh, saying that watching Al on TV in the bar, a part of him said to himself, "Fuck you, it's Al's team."

And I know what he means. It's like killing an ant with a sledge hammer.

What a Day

I'm traveling for work and headed to dinner, but with Johnny's ER visit, Lane's firing, Cable's hiring, Al calling Lane a liar in his press conference, Kiffin telling ESPN that he had to endure a lot of lies from the Raiders and that he's embarrassed for Al based on how he acted during the press conference...it's been a hell of a day.

As I type this I got a text from Johnny: "I'm out. Not appendix. Cable interim."

That's good news.

Sllaacs is Half Right.

Of course Lance Kiffin was not qualified to be more than an assistant coach.

And of course, Big Al has every right to fire Kiffin.

Those are not really relevant questions any more. The main questions, as articulated most recently by both Monte Poole and Lowell Cohn, are whether or not Al Davis still the physical and/or mental wherewithal to run a credible NFL franchise, and if not, can anyone do anything about it.

It's pretty clear he doesn't, and there's not a god damn thing any of us can do but watch and feel sick about it.

Jerry throws some gas on the fire for the "saps" by pointing out that Al Davis was in Alameda before noon today, contrary to Kawakami's assertion in a Deadspin interview that Al doesn't get to the compound before 4:30 in the afternoon.

It's pretty obvious that Kawakami was being ironic. I don't know if Jerry is just passionately pursuing the truth or throwing some red meat for the fanatics that post in his comments section.

Either way, the Raiders are screwed.

Schefter: It's All Rumors

So now the Raiders tell Schefter that Lane's not fired. At least not until next week. But then again, maybe even then he won't be.

Or he might be fired. Or maybe not.

It reminds me of Christopher Walken as the Man with the Plan in Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead, where he tells Jimmy the Saint that his crew is getting Buckwheats. "Buckwheats, Jimmy." Or maybe not.

Either way it involves a shut-in weirdo insane person with way more power than sense.

The (Managing) General (Partner) in his Labyrinth

Lance called Kawakami to apologize for Herrera's meltdown. He also answered some questions, said he's still the coach, and that he thought they "were trying to have a professional news conference."

Ouch.

Elsewhere, Lowell Cohn sticks up for TK, and calls out Raiders fans who show up on their blogs and call them "girls" and "bitches" in the comments. I used to participated pretty heavily in the comments section of Jerry Mac's blog. But it got boring: either you're an Al Davis apologist who is too blind to see that he should be in a nursing home, wearing depends, and has no business whatsoever running a team, or you're a hater who doesn't recognize that the greatness of the Raiders is in it's Future, and that includes Al Davis, who already wears THE CLOAK OF IMMORTALITY.

I've spent time in both camps, actually. I kind of lean towards the "Al Must Go" variety now, but I also feel sorry for him. It's like reading The General in his Labyrinth, Gabriel García Márquez's novel about Simon Bolivar's last trip down the river, still fighting his old battles, paranoid, feverish, constipated. The "labyrinth" of the title is his own dementia. Can't you just see Mr. Davis roaming the halls of the Harbor Parkway with his walker, shouting at Pete Rozelle and Marcus Allen, or cursing Wayne Valley?

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?

AP: Kiffin Split Second Late on Shanahaning Bills.

They also refer to us as the "hard-luck and dysfunctional."

Anyway, is Kiffin gone or not?

I'll be watching NFL Network to see what Schefter hears.

Wha? 6-0 Us After 1.

I don't know what's going on. Johnny Lee opened with a 68 yard kickoff return. Javon Walker caught two straight passes to open the game. The defense has two sacks, one by DeAngelo Hall.

Yes. Cornerback DeAngelo Hall, with Gibril Wilson, a Safety, blitzing with him.

Lane Kiffin was right, they need to blitz.

Keep Kiffin?

Jason Jones has a link on his page to keepkiffin.com, where you can sign a petition urging Al Davis to keep Lane Kiffin as the head coach.

I like the idea of the fans ensuring their voices are heard, and I'm not even necessarily opposed to boycotts to force Al to stop being an idiot. I'm just not sure that keeping Lance Kiffin is a cause worth fighting for.

I know he said the other day that he doesn't want to be here. But do you really think if Al called him into the office, put a 5-year, $15 Million contract extension in front of him with hiring/firing power and every thing he says he wants, that he'd sign it?

I don't. This well is poisoned. It's a tribute to Kiffin's personality that so many of these young players (I'm thinking specifically of Nmamdi and JaMarcus--as much as I love Kirk Morrison, he's the Baghdad Bob of the Raiders defense) have bought into his system, and played through the distractions last week. I know the Chiefs are garbage, but this team had every reason and excuse to show up and get blown out. The Norv Turner Raiders of 2005 might have. The Art Shell Raiders of 2006 definitely would have. These guys didn't. Still, after all of the ridiculousness of this past week, there's no way Lance can remain the coach of this team. At some point, the players will be forced to choose, and they will choose the side that signs their paychecks.

Growth?

Kawakami has an excellent column this morning, asking if Al and the Raiders will learn from this mistake.

It's important to remember that Lance Kiffin wasn't exactly qualified for this position when he got it. Everybody else, from Bernard Petrino to Mike Martz to Dan and I were interviewed for this job, and while not all of us were offered the job, we all took ourselves out of the running for various reasons. But once Lane got here, I thought he did a pretty good job of trying to change the culture of the locker room. And according to Steve Corkran on KNBR the other day, all of this started when Lane fired Rob Ryan in January. Ryan went upstairs to say "Peace Out" to Al, and Al said, "Let's not start sucking each other's dicks just quite yet, Lance doesn't have hiring and firing power." (These are not verbatim quotes. Listen to the podcast.) Al wrote up a letter of resignation, said "Sign it, you little punk." "Fire me."

Anyway, at this point, Lane has to go. He just has to be fired. The Raiders, instead of acting like a merely incompetent organization and just firing their coach, are passing around notes saying their coach is a bad kid. This is ridiculous. I don't even remember the Bengals doing shit like this. The Clippers never acted this way. The closest thing I can think of is the maybe the way Steinbrenner treated Dave Winfield by paying a mafia gambler for dirt on him. But he was a player.

Getting back to Kawakami's column, I think the answer to the question "Will Al/Raiders learn anything?" is no. Sadly, depressingly, hilariously, no.

Treu Insight

Today Adam Treu offers his take on the Kiffin situation on the National Football Post. It's a must read, and is a reminder that while Kiffin may be doing a splendid job sparring with Al Davis, ultimately the players - and the fans, I might add - are getting screwed. And if there was fire where there was smoke surrounding the Arkansas rumors, then Treu's "pit stop" comment rings especially true.

Great "Tom Brady's shiny white teeth" comment, to boot.

Speculation Nation

The only word on Kiffin's status that came out of Alameda today was from Kiffin himself, although you wouldn't know it from the Monday Q&A posted to raiders.com.

"He (Al, a.k.a. "the owner") has a decision to make. It does me no good to worry about it right now."

But after Corkran dropped the "He's not the guy I hired" report and Nancy added a little "He (Rob Ryan) took responsibility - Unlike the head coach" to the fire, we await the news.

Will he be fired by morning, Al having long ago made up his mind and finally satisfied that he has the goods to claim breach of contract? Will it be during the bye week, after two difficult games that might provide both football cause and an extra week to make the transition? Or will this morph into some crazy Al power trip whereby he figures he's taught Lance a lesson?

Corkran's next bit of insight is this: "He (Al, who else) isn't bound to anyone's timeline." Will he really fire Kiffin after a big win at Arrowhead? Did Ned Yost think he would be fired today?

Javon Walker is an Idiot.

Really?

You think it's funny, Javon? What I think is funny is the way you're stealing Al's money by not being able to play.

Gallo Yucks it Up

A couple of funny Raiders-related entries. I really like the Lance/Seabass drinking buddy caption.

Jason Jones: Kiffin and Davis to Meet Tonight.

But he thinks Lance will skip it if he's just going to get fired. Maybe he figures he could be fired over the phone. He also hears it will be Lofton promoted to Head Coach.

At this point I just want him to get it over with. The major question is, what the hell was Al's rush? He could have fired Kiffin at any point in the past 10 months.

Keep the Drama Coming.

We should be talking about Darren McFadden's coming out party and how badly we pummelled the Chiefs today.

Jerry McDonald has a must-read column about Kiffin's week and how he's unfazed by the questions of his job description, and how even after all the hullabaloo, the defense played some Kiffin ball, bringing blitzes and pressure all day.

Jason Jones writes in his wrap-up that he has a source telling him Kiffin would keep his job if they won today, but he still can't guess what will happen. He has a great quote from Nmamdi calling the talk "redundant," since he's had four head coaches in his six years. He's got to be the smartest player since Steve Young.

And then here comes Nancy Gay throwing a big bucket of gasoline on the fire. Apparently Rob Ryan will be the coach, maybe by the end of next week. The defensive staff has circled the wagons and wants Lance out of the building, pronto. And she predicts that Davis is going to give Lance a good assfucking, Shanahan-style, by citing insubordination and claiming breach of contract due to his sassy mouth. She also rounds out the Nmamdi quote; needless to say, he doesn't approve. Isn't that why he came to camp on time, because he liked the direction the club was headed?

"I think it would hurt us a lot. We're just starting to gel and starting to do things well, so I think that would kind of mess things up. I hope that's not the talk. Is it?"

Stay tuned...

Nothing beats being a Raiders fan, huh?

Kiffin Mocked on CBS.

At halftime of the Jets/Pats game, they showed an interview of Kiffin after the game, where they asked him about the dissension this week. He looked less than pleased and said "We can't control that" and looked really sour.

The entire crew, led by Horse Face, laughed, with JB saying "He doesn't look like he wants to get in there," and Marino saying, "Why'd you ask him such a tough question?"

Pricks.