I'm a sucker for these kinds of things

Check out Jerry Mac's latest. I agree with him that Seymour "guaranteeing" a playoff spot is 8,000 times better than "things are fishy around here."

But what got to me was the talk of the pigeon. We've all seen this video:



In fact, my daughter loves it. But this almost made me choke up:

“You see that pigeon?,” Green said to teammate Sam Williams. “That was Marquis.”

Indeed, even the mother of Marquis Cooper, the Raiders linebacker and special teams standout who was lost at sea on March 1 and presumed dead, thought the same thing.

Williams checks in with Donna Cooper regularly.

“She said, `That was Marquis out there with you guys,’ ” Williams said. “That was something else. I just saw it on the field, wondering why it was there. Once I saw it with us, covering the kick, it was special.”

So here's the deal. I've been a hater. And I don't take any of it back. I'll hold Tom Cable to his standard of three wins a row before I start thinking this team has turned a corner. But you'd have to be heartless not to be touched by the pigeon story.

Donkeys vs. Cutler: BWAAAHAHAHA!!!!

You can get all the details on the Denver/Jay Cutler debacle on Bill Williamson's ESPN Denver Broncos Blog, er, AFC West Blog.

Anyway, what it has me thinking about is how different this Raider Season is from previous years. Other than the tragic Marquis Cooper story, an accident that nobody on Harbor Bay Parkway could have had anything to do with, the Raiders' off-season has been drama free.

Sure, there's Cable's "critical" comments about Jammy, but look at the contortions people have to go through to even make that news.

Here, it's been nothing but Nmamdi, Lechler, and Al Davis hagiography at the Owner's Meetings (feel free to ask Nmamdi what "hagiography" means. Anyone who uses "apocryphal" in a sentence correctly and nonchallantly can tell you what it means).

Maybe Sllaacs can comment on Ray Ratto's Psalm to Jay Cutler.

For Sllaacs

While the search continues for Raiders Special Teamer Marquis Cooper, finally getting a chance to answer Sllaacs' request to do a post on Alex Smith.

Hey Mikey - 21' center console fishing boat in 6-10' waves?

I guess if Matt Maiocco can do a post on Tom Cable, I can lob something out there on Alex Smith. So I see that while Alex Smith is on his honeymoon, he's been asked to take a pay cut. Still doubtful that this will bring him under the line for Obama's tax increases, but might keep him from adding to the unemployment numbers.

All this Hill-Smith talk reminds me that I watched an NFL Network special on the top 10 QB controversies of all time. Montana-Young ran away with that one. And the other special they showed was top 10 controversial calls of all time. The Raiders were involved in 4 of them. I guess the only question was going to be which is #2 and which is #1:

#2 - Tuck Rule
#1 - Immaculate Reception

But this special was far more satisfying than the last I watched on the Tuck Rule. Jon Ritchie, one of the more intelligent dudes ever to play in the NFL, pointed out several of my favorite anti-Tuck Rule arguments, including the question of how the rule can apply when Brady's left hand touched the ball before he fumbled, and wondering why all QBs don't just run around pump faking and never bringing the ball fully back to their bodies because they would be immune from fumbling. Excellent.

Unfortunately, I've just mentioned the Immaculate Reception on Unk's birthday. Oops! I'm sure Unk could provide a dissertation on Frenchy Fuqua, trapping the ball, and referees consulting with stadium security before ever making the TD call.

Happy Birthday, Unk!