|
|
It is so tempting to project the demise of the Raiders, this brooding franchise with its paranoid owner and obsession with greatness and slights, real and imagined. You can hear it now, the way they will proclaim ad nauseam their virtues and achievements, ignoring how they haven''t been to a Super Bowl since the 1983 season--a lapse that threatens their self-labeled "team of the decades" boast.They will drag with them the worst fans adult alice in wonderland costume football, weirdos who buy tickets for the right to act as if they come from some faraway planet covered changes babies in costume silver and black. these strange folks are reason enough to wonder about a raiders win.yet win they will. there is something to how planets align at times, falling nearly into babies in costume place even in the nfl universe. this is the batman raiders'' time, the costume next step in their progression. beaten by changes and in the ravens in the afc title game after the 2000 season, by the infamous tuck rule in last season''s playoffs, they have cleared away all but one obstacle this season. and it just happens to be, of all folks, jon gruden, the admired chucky whose national persona, of course, was molded as the coach of these very same raiders. and the victory will elevate the raiders'' owner to the top of the league once again, where be can sneer at the commissioner''s office and snicker at those who thought he had lost batman his fastball years ago. it was davis, and no one else, who put together this unusual costume roster of youngsters and plus-30 stars. and it is he, and no one else, who saw in gruden''s replacement, bill callahan, the mettle of a championship coach. "you look at how al fixed up his roster with these older guys and you think, `this guy has gone off the deep changes end,''" says bills general manager tom donahoe. in "but when you study these guys, they still could play. and to me, this is their last shot. they are supposed to be way over the salary cap next year. and he even changes coaches and they still make it this far. amazing."but of course, davis never has had much use for coaches. "he has always thought players win championships," says ron wolf, the former packers general manager who started his nfl career under davis in oakland. "that is what he will think about all this." batman and costume and that is why he let gruden bolt to the bucs last offseason, but only after extracting a king''s ransom: four draft choices and $8 million.
|