Tag Archive: al davis

Al Davis Prints His Own Money

February 25, 2011 Adam Thomas

Well so much for owners being cheap skates who won’t spend any money on their players.  How about Mr. Al Davis?  Coughing up chunks of coin on the players he wants to keep.  This has GOT to piss off the rest of the NFL owners.  While they are scraping and clawing to cling to every last nickle that they’ve can squeeze out of their product and their players, Davis is saying, “Hey.  Stanford Routt.  Here’s 30 million dollahs.  Hey. Richard Seymour.  Here’s 30 million dollahs. Hey, Kamerion Wimbley, the NFL says that 4 million dollahs is too high of a raise, so here’s a franchise tag and you know what you get? TEN MILLION DOLLAHS!”

Holy shnickeys that is a lot of bread to be spending, especially when we’re not even sure that there is going to be an NFL season next year. But I love it.  It’s not my money.  And I liked all those players and wanted to keep them.  Who cares what he had to spend?

I also don’t understand how this recent spending spree somehow makes it “impossible” to re-sign Nnamdi Asomugha.  If Davis is willing to spend 30 million on Routt, what will he be willing to spend on Nnamdi?

And, keep in mind, when the Raiders had Nnamdi, they went 2-14, 5-11, 4-12..all sorts of crappy records.  So it’s not like having him makes them exponentially a better team.  Nnamdi may put a contender like the Jets, Pats or Green Bay over the top, but he really isn’t going to help or hurt the Raiders all that much. The reason?  Nobody throws at him!

If the 2010 NFL playoffs taught me one thing, it’s this: turnovers are paramount.  If the Packers don’t get that fumble recovery, they may not win the Super Bowl.  If they don’t get that Vick INT, they may not even make it to the Super Bowl.  What good is a cornerback who doesn’t get any turnovers?  Remember, Nnamdi is only a free agent because of incentives that HE failed to accomplish.  If he got ONE INT, he stays.  ONE fumble recovery and he stays.

Nnamdi is great, but keeping him or losing him won’t make the Raiders a great team.

(See how easy it is to rationalize losing your team’s best player?)

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The Original King of Comedy

January 19, 2011 Adam Thomas

Gah! Just look at that picture…I hope you weren’t eating.

Louis CK, Chris Rock, Daniel Tosh…these men have one thing in common: They are comedians.  Good ones.  Great ones.  But unfortunately for them, they have nothing on this man: Al Davis.

Holy God was yesterday’s press conference a thing of comedic beauty.  It lasted from 4:15 until about 6 p.m.  I don’t know if any comedian except Cosby can go for that long.  And it wasn’t just the length, it was the material.  Davis kept me constantly bagging up the entire time.

Whether it be from his rancid yellow rat teeth, his fingers (da fingaz!) that inexplicably point upwards, backwards and sideways all at the same time, or his just total “I don’t give an S because I am old and can say whateva I want” attitude, that press conference was a thing of beauty.

I was on Raiderfans.net afterwards to see what other Raider fans thought of the press conference and one of them put it perfectly: “Are all press conferences like this?  If they were, I’d watch every one.”

Exactly!  Unfortunately, they are not.  Because the other 30 teams (Bengals excluded) are run by sane people.  But that’s what makes it great and that’s what makes me love the Raiders: Their owner is completely off his rocker.

Let’s look at some highlights shall we?

(more…)

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