Monte Poole's mystery buyers

Monte Poole has a great column up about the Message to Al Billboard that went up yesterday on 880.

What interests me is that there are people--Raiders fans!--who have a lot of money who would love to buy the Raiders. Local people, maybe?

More intriguingly, one multimillionaire sports figure who does not wish to be identified has several times over the past 18 months expressed an unwavering curiosity. A longtime fan of the team, he is displeased about its decline and, moreover, says he is in contact with one or more billionaires with a DEFINITE interest.

Oh my god. It's too much to even hope for right now. It makes me sick. But as the former player quoted by Poole earlier says

"I hate to say it, because the old man is a legend," the former player said. "But I think we're going to be like this as long as he's around to run things. And I really don't see him giving that up."

I don't, either, which puts us fans in an awkward position of watching our beloved team suck so much ass, and at times wishing ill on a legend. But the possibilities, especially if the Steve Young/Brent Jones team got control, are amazing. Maybe they do share a stadium in Santa Clara with the 49ers. Maybe they get a real GM who evaluates football players, instead of plain athletes. There's a difference, and it's obvious to anyone who sees the way Michael Crabtree runs routes and catches the ball on Sundays versus the way DHB sprints down the field and does jack shit on Sundays.

Or maybe they don't share a stadium with the Niners. Maybe they get a new one in Oakland, that they could call it Davis field. They could keep all of the slogans and traditions and the Raiders could still be the TEAM OF DECADES with PRIDE AND POISE and a COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE Al could still come out for press conferences and take credit for identifying great co-ownership and front-office talent. Or he could just put on his CLOAK OF IMMORTALITY and ride off into the sunset.

But they would have to guarantee that Herrera is never placed in front of a microphone again. That's the only deal breaker.

A fan can hope.

More JaMarcus

Not sure how I missed this, but there's a fascinating JaMarcus conversation going between Monte Poole, Tim Kawakami, and defending JaMarcus, Lowell Cohn.

Back story: The three columnists were sitting together at last weekend's Andre Ward/Edison Miranda fight at the Arena. JaMarcus showed up at the fight with a Gucci bag and an unlit cigar, leading Monte to dub him "Big Mellow," and Kawakami to conclude he looked fat and complacent.

Cohn retorts that JaMarcus wasn't in a strip club, and he wasn't acting disorderly, and to give the guy a break.

This whole thing is making me nervous. And it's only May. Last year it was Kiffin/Davis. I'm worried that we're looking at a repeat of the Leinert/Warner situation (which worked out pretty well, actually) or, worse, the Vince Young/Kerry Collins scenario.

If I think about it too long I want to puke. I know Raiders fans. I am one. And one bad quarter of football, that crowd will turn on JaMarcus and start chanting Garcia's name. I was there when we did it to Kerry Collins (TUUUUIIIIII!!!!) and I heard them booing Josh McCown.

Time for ginger tea.

The Drama Never Stops

First, Chris Mortensen says the Raiders are negotiating to sell off part of the team to some Greek dude who wants to move them to LA. Then Al sent Herrera out to call the report a fabrication, because, you know, Mort is a "serial liar."

Now, Jerry Mac has gotten in touch with Amy Trask, who says that they're not negotiating with anyone, that the Raiders aren't for sale, they're aware of the offer, etc, but no thanks. The money quote from Jerry's post:

Mortensen had a jaw-dropping response when contacted by Associated Press when asked about going with the story with no comment from the Raiders.

“The Raiders have lost the privilege with me of running stories past them for comment,” Mortensen, citing examples of past stories which “have proven to be true,” including his recent report of an interview with the Giants Kevin Gilbride.

(The Raiders claim it was Gilbride who contacted the Raiders, and not the other way around).

Wow.

Lost the privilege?

Guessing Mort won’t be covering the White House any time soon.

I sent an e-mail to the ESPN ombudsman just to see if this “privilege” policy actually exists.

It'll be interesting to see what the ombudsman says. You can email her here. And all this after the Raiders removed Lowell Cohn, Tim Kawakami, and Monte Poole from their reporter email list because they "write the truth." Lowell says anyone not on the Raiders enemy list, i.e., still on their email list should be ashamed. I wonder if that includes Jerry Mac, Steve Corkran, and Jason Jones, or if he just means the opinion columnists.

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.

Kawakami Embraces the Hate

I've been enjoying Tim Kawakami lately. His Sunday blog item was the one the everyone was talking about on TV before and during the game. His post about how the more people hate him the more they read his every word had me cracking up.

I'm enjoying him so much, I've added his blog to the links list. He also has a follow-up post to Monte's column about Bruce Allen with some added details of his own. What he doesn't note is the irony of the rumor that Lance may end up in Syracuse if/when he's fired:

Al Davis, Syracuse alum.

Bridges to Nowhere

Monte Poole makes the case for a strong GM, if for nothing else to mediate between Al and other parts of the organization. Coming as it does after Treu's excellent blog item yesterday, we're getting a clearer picture of what goes on this decaying, once-great operation. It's worth revisiting, as Poole does, the collapse of the Gruden era. I wish that Lombardi would open up and really give a complete account of his experience there, instead of just making the occasional sarcastic remark about "The Hotel California."