Nancy Gay is Right.

Normally, I would write a post joking that this is the kind of column that made her the "Hater of the Week" namesake.

But I was at the game the other night with Dan. And at some point, when the score was 27-0 (maybe it was just before then), Dan turned to me and said, "You know, we're just going to have to wait it out until Al dies."

And I hate feeling like this. Every year--and I have the email archive to prove it--Dan and I and a couple of other Raiders fans we know get ourselves all worked up into an optimistic lather. And every year we're disappointed. You'd think we'd learn.

But we love this team. That's why we spend $81.20 for nosebleed seats, where the most exciting action in the game was the fight in section 324, causing the Professor to coin a new term, "Silver-on-Black Crime." It's why we spend hundreds of dollars at the Raider Image, leading Mike Ditka to say, "These have got to be the greatest fans in the world, putting up with this."

What we have to put up with is a defense that can't cover anyone, but makes up for it by not being able to tackle. An offensive that can't block, and receivers that can't catch. JaMarcus Russell, I'm convinced, could be an all time great. He has all the tools. But I'm terrified that Kiffin will be fired, replaced by someone else who will the change the system and lose 13 games, to be replaced by someone else, etc., etc, until JaMarcus and Darren McFadden are considered busts because they never got to play in the same system with the same coaches for longer than a season and half.

It's bullshit.