Dublin Down

Look who Jerry ran into at Safeway in Dublin. Dave, please tell me you got me some memorabilia! The fact that he has two rings means he must have recovered the one after his emergency dental work in Reno several years back. Great to hear Lester is still able to get into his trademark stance, and nice to see he's donating some cash to fight breast cancer.

PUT HIM IN THE HALL OF FAME ALREADY!

Lester for the Hall of Fame

It is a cause in which I believe no matter how many 11+ loss seasons the Raiders manage to string together: Lester Hayes deserves to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Last week, Lester was - once again - selected as one of the 25 semifinalists for the class of 2010.

This year, the marketing organizations for Van Heusen and JC Penney give us a way to express our frustration with Lester's snubbings over the years, allowing fans to vote through the fanschoice.com website. At this moment an impressive roster of Raiders - not all of whom are actually semifinalists (the voting started before the semifinalists were named) are all over the top of the rankings. Lester ranks #8, inexplicably behind Cris Crybaby Carter and mushmouth Shannon Sharpe, while Ray Guy sits third behind only Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith. Tim Brown ranks fourth, Jim Plunkett fifth, Cliff Branch ninth, Tom Flores tenth, and Todd Christensen eleventh.

Fittingly, today's Oakland at Pittsburgh game is the "Throwback Game of the Week." Perhaps that refers to Frenchy Fuqua illegally throwing the ball back to Franco Harris in the Immaculate Reception game?

If we don't have our bitterness, we don't have anything. Vote for Lester! Remember to opt out of receiving spam from them, though.

All Time Raiders

Raider fans love history, and we love looking back at the great players who have worn the Silver & Black through the years. It's become an even more popular pastime as we've suffered through record-breaking futility in recent years, and history always provides a handy comeback for Charger fans who troll the Raider blogs.

Side note: I've still never met a Charger fan face-to-face, the closest being our own Dobolina, who sort of had a curiosity about them growing up, and Unk, who never could muster enough emotion about them to hate them like he hated the Steelers, Chiefs, Broncos, and even the Seahawks.

Today Monte Poole weighs in with his list of the 50 greatest Raiders players of all time. Our four loyal readers will know exactly where my eyes first went on that list. And I'm pleased to agree with Monte, who puts Lester Hayes at #8. That ranks him ahead of Hall of Fame hopefuls Stabler, Branch, and Guy, and ahead of Hall of Famers Blanda, Casper, Howie Long, Marcus Allen, and Mike Haynes.

Why isn't Lester in the Hall of Fame? I've registered my guess here in the past. But I would love to hear it straight from the committee's often breathed-through mouth at some stage.

Speaking of the Hall of Fame, there's a "real" NFL game on tonight, and it's pretty cool to see the Titans in the old Houston Oilers gear. Maybe not so much for Houstonians, who still hate Bud Adams like we hate Mike Shanahan, but I always liked that Oilers franchise, particularly when I lived next door to Gary Brown during his 1000-yard season. The Oilers actually delivered his checks to our apartment, but my roommates and I faithfully delivered them to him each week. Too bad he didn't remember us when he cashed in with a big contract. In fact, in response to a question from the press regarding what he planned to do with his million dollar signing bonus, he replied, "Move." A note on tonight's game: reminding us all that Punters are football players, and therefore Ray Guy belongs in the Hall of Fame, the Oilers just pulled a pretty sweet fake punt that the punter ran 40 yards for a touchdown.

Anyway, back to Monte's list. Who is missing? The Tooz is a glaring omission. Alzado? I would put Eddie Anderson on my personal list.

More Dan Bait: Jerry Mac on Hall of Fame

While we wait for Training Camp to start, I was checking out Jerry McDonald's Sunday Notes blog item. He was asked by MediaNews to answer a Page2 "Ask the Experts" question. The question is, of the three, Ray Guy, Kenny Stabler, and Cliff Branch, which one is most likely to make the HOF? Jerry says Ray Guy and makes a compelling case, i.e. he's the Greatest Punter of All Time.

But why is Lester Hayes left out of this discussion? (Jerry also points out, in his further discussion of Stabler on the blog, that Al is pushing for Jim Plunkett, hard, and I can't say I blame him.) But Dan has made the case for Lester Hayes, and I think it's a good one.

Bait

Have wanted to do a proper post for some time...somehow not finding the time. But it is only fitting to take the bait while in Wisconsin. Everywhere you turn people are fishing around here. Or grumbling about how much they wish ESPN would quit talking about Favre.

The only good thing I can say about the Wildcat is I'd rather have McFadden run it than a sick freak who tortures dogs. And sure, I can argue for any of these five too, but Lester is just such an obvious choice it is ridiculous.

• Super Bowl Rings (note the "s") - check
• Best at his position at some point in his career - check
• Sustained greatness - check
• Stats - check
• Outplayed Hall of Fame peers while they were in their prime - check
  
• Made the game more entertaining by his presence - check
• Nike deal - check
• Plenty of air time on NFL Films - check
  

What other criteria are there?

Dan Bait, Part 2

Paul Gutierrez, who has taken over pretty spectacularly for Jason Jones covering the Raiders for the Bee (see this column on the passing of JaMarcus' Uncle Ray), has a week-old blog post up talking about the Raiders who are, in his estimation, have been snubbed by the Hall of Fame. His top five list:

1) Tom Flores
2) Jim Plunkett
3) Ray Guy
4) Cliff Branch
5) Ken Stabler

Of course, there are arguments to be made for all five of those guys. But there's a name missing. Who could it be?

Please do Not Stand Too Close to Dan

As he may decide to suicide bomb the Hall of Fame after Lester Hayes (and Kenny Stabler and Ray Guy, but it's Lester that has pushed Dan over the edge) did not make the cut in the voting. Again.

But Shannon Sharpe?

I just threw up in my mouth

Every Day Is Like Sunday

The dreary catchiness of the edited NFL ad version of that song rings in my head every week, the relevance of Johnny's explanation to this Raider season reinforcing its power in my head.

It's depressing.

Desperate for a reason to keep watching this year - beyond the obligation I have to our four loyal readers - I may have found it co-anchoring sports news tonight with Raj Mathai: Nnamdi Asomugha. The fact that he has not yet been voted as a starter at the Pro Bowl is beginning to look a lot like the fact that Lester Hayes is still inexplicably absent from Canton.

Warren Sapp, continuing his hate-him-and-love-him relationship with me, had some incredible things to say about Nnamdi on NFL Network. And suffering through Raider "highlights" tonight it seems that Nnamdi's stop for a 7-yard loss was one of the only high points of the game. So I'll watch for Nnamdi.

And there will probably be quite a few more depressing Sundays.

I Mean, Wow.

I mean, how the hell did I miss this? I realize it came out when they were in LA, plus, my parents were going through this weird holy roller phase during which we didn't have a television. But still, you would think some hater like Sllaacs would have dug it up and emailed it to me to embarrass me.

I'm not sure Dan can handle who comes after Millen.

And after hearing Tom Flores spit lyrics, I think every MC out there should just hang up their mics. He just broke hip hop.

Tales from Camp

Thanks to the distractions of work-related travel last week, I missed much of the hoopla surrounding the start of camp. It has taken me until now to catch up with all of the information posted on the CLOAK and associated links. And now I can't help it. I'm excited.

As John alluded to, this midsummer excitement is nothing new. But with the 19-wins-in-five-seasons statistic headlining every Raider article, is this optimism turning to stupidity? Even Unk, a loyal reader and the man responsible for my lifelong Raider obsession, insists that he is taking a "wait and see" approach in 2008 - for the first time in 40 years.

Here are just a few of the reasons why I'm excited:

The defensive backfield. This is my favorite part of any team, and the Raiders have invested here for 2008. Sure, the Hayes-Haynes comparisons are wildly premature, but not since Nike was hanging "No Passing" posters in the early '80's have the Raiders had four DBs who look so good on paper. Reports seem to indicate that Gibril Wilson is the real deal, while Michael Huff sounds reborn. No complaints about Hall, and Nnamdi...what can you say about Nnamdi? He just wants to win. Awesome. Even good ol' Coop is making his presence known at safety while keeping the one-liners coming.

Young offensive stars. Another major investment area for the Raiders. By all appearances JaMarcus has taken on his role as a leader and indeed can make all the throws. Jerry McDonald even invoked the name "Jeff George" to describe one JaMarcus practice throwing clinic. McFadden sounds as fast as we imagined but without the fumbles. And Zach Miller is picking up where he left off last year as a TE worthy of playing in the AFC West. I'm buying into this group.

Kiffin in command. After an offseason of drama, Kiffin is wearing Raider gear and even making the players eat whole wheat pasta. That's a hugely welcome sight.

For the counter-argument, we can always look to Tim Kawakami. Have we really not gotten around to giving him the Nancy Gay treatment yet?

The Hall

Tuesday was another bad day for this Raider fan. It was then that the NFL announced that Lester Hayes did not make the cut from semifinalist to finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Despite Jeffri Chadiha recently declaring Lester's 1980 season the ninth best individual season in NFL history, Lester was again snubbed. Why? Maybe voters actually believe that he would have been a "mere mortal" without Stickum. Perhaps the fact that he overcame stuttering by speaking like a crazy backwoods preacher has them worried about sending him to the podium. Or it could be punishment for the fact that Lester once pawned his Super Bowl ring in Reno for some "emergency dental work." Hey, he had a spare anyway.

Making matters worse, the list of finalists who knocked Lester aside include some real insults. Paul Tagliabue when he has barely had time to shred the evidence of his disdain for the Raiders strewn about his office? Yuck. Triple-C, Chris Crybaby Carter? Horrible irony to see a guy who made his career out of complaining for 10 minutes every time a cornerback covered him knock the greatest CB ever out of contention for the HoF. Art Monk - legit, but head-to-head Lester shut him down long after Stickum had been banned to try and limit Lester's dominance. There are even two Broncos on the list. Broncos don't belong in the Hall of Fame.

The good news is that Ray Guy is a finalist. I really think he deserves it. A real highlight of my week was watching the one reason to turn the channel away from NFL Network, Jamie Dukes, give the standard meathead reply when asked if Ray Guy should get in. "A punter? Are you kidding me?" Jamie Dukes commenting on the Hall of Fame? Are you kidding me? Ray Guy dominated at his position, and last I checked, Punter is a spot on the player roster. In fact, the sport is called FOOT-BALL, and he's one of only two individuals on the roster who actually connects the two syllables of the sport's name.

Well, taking a cue from my NFL idol Lester Hayes, I'm going to learn the complete destiny of forgiveness. I'll keep wearing my #37 jersey to every Raiders game. And meanwhile, I'm going to enjoy the very good fortune I had this boat racing season that got me into the American Power Boat Association's Hall of Champions. On February 2 I will realize a life-long dream and be inducted in Detroit, which is the same day that a bunch of non-Lester Hayes jokers will be elected to the Pro Football HoF.

It also means I'll be on a plane during the Super Bowl. But I think I can live with that.

Jeffri Chadiha Makes Amends

One way to get off the CLOAK OF IMMORTALITY's shit list?

Kiss Dan's ass, that's how.

Actually, that's probably not fair, but all four of our readers know about Dan's crusade to get Lester Hayes into the Hall of Fame. And Chadiha breaks down his 1980 season showing why it was one of the top 10 best individual seasons by a player, ever.

Congratulations, Jeffri. You're no longer the Hater of the Week.