The Raiders Are Great At Being Bad

For DHB, this position is more dangerous than being inside a lion's mouth

I think we can all agree that the Raiders’ Al Davis is closer to being dead than to being a competent NFL owner, right?  Oakland has been laughably bad for the past 5 seasons, but there could be improvement on the horizon.  They’ve stockpiled potential stars like JaMarcus Russel and Darren McFadden and they have one of the league’s best DB’s, Nnamdi Asomugha or something, well you know who I’m talking about.  Of course, possibly being on the cusp of a turn-around  means nothing after Raider fans heard these words: “with the 7th pick in the draft, the Oakland Raiders select Darrius Heyward-Bey.”  Hear that?  That’s the sound of a guy with silver and black face paint impaling himself on his spikey shoulder pads.

Heyward-Bey wasn’t projected to go until much later.  That’s probably because he never had a 1-thousand yard season at Maryland and guys with hyphenated last names generally don’t end up being NFL stars.  I could be wrong, obviously, but wasn’t Kareem Abdul-Jabar the last NFL player to achieve any kind of success?  And he barely counts because he stole an already great name.  Also, I don’t count London Fletcher because he’s London Fletcher, not whatever name he’s tacked onto his jersey.  You might say Maurice Jones-Drew is a star with a hyphenated name and you’d be right.  See, I forgot about him until just now.  Does that spoil my argument?  No.  It’s my word against yours. 

Back to Heyward-Bey, he caught Davis’ eye by blazing through his 40 at the combine.  People who know say that Davis loves fast receivers and proving people wrong, like when they said the Raiders were a storied franchise that wouldn’t be bad for long. 

Hey, have I mentioned that DHB injured his hamstring because, as he says, he was “running too fast”?  That’s kind of an integral part of this story.  This kid might turn out to be one of the all-time greats, but a speed receiver who gets injured for running with speed doesn’t sound like a successful formula.  Actually, it sounds like the Raiders- a football team that’s not good at football or being a team.

Tags: Al Davis, Darrius Heyward-Bey, football, NFL, Oakland Raiders

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