Silver and Black Report

Has it really come to this?

Do the Oakland Raiders feel so immune from criticism, that they will actually keep one of their past greats, now an analyst out of their building?

The current losing slide the Raiders are mired in is well documented. Everyone knows that this football organization from top-to-bottom has been unstable and the product on the field has showed the consequences of this.

But this has been a prideful organization regardless. One that still tries to cherish its past and many times, to their own fault, masquerade a little of the ineptitude by embracing those that made the history of the Raiders what it is.

What they attempted to do to Rich Gannon this weekend, how they did not want Gannon to attend Saturday’s television production meetings prior to Sunday’s Raiders-Broncos game, is just appalling.

“Rich Gannon is not welcome here,” Raiders executive John Herrera commented Friday when questioned about the ban. “We told CBS we did not want him in our building, we did not want him to be part of our production meeting, and that’s where it sits.”

The same Rich Gannon who helped alter the course of this organization, helped bring back respectability to the Raiders, helped the Raiders win back-to-back-to-back AFC West crowns, who took them to two conference championship games and one Super Bowl. The same Gannon who now, is doing his job, as good if not better as he did with the Raiders, analyzing, giving his observations of team’s around the NFL and carving a very creditable career as a booth analyst for CBS Sports.

Gannon has done more on the field for the Raiders that any current player has ever done. Gannon has continuously said what he feels; good and bad about the current state of the Oakland Raiders. And for that, he gets treated like just another person who Oakland feels takes shot at them unnecessarily; the good ole’ ‘everyone is against us’ bit, the media hates Oakland shtick.

“Rich Gannon is an objective and analytical broadcaster and he will be broadcasting the game as assigned by CBS,” said LeslieAnne Wade, senior vice president of communications for CBS Sports.

For years many have said what Gannon has said. For years many print, radio and web journalist have bashed the Raiders more unmercifully that Gannon has. Heck, Raider fans have showed more disdain for this organization than any single media member. Why don’t John Herrera and the Raiders organization lock their gates and keep them out as well?

“He’s attacked us on a regular basis since becoming a member of the media,” Herrera said. “After affording him the opportunity to establish a career here, he has since gone on to attack us in a way that’s totally unacceptable.”

No, what is totally unacceptable is the way Oakland handled this situation.  You just alienated more fans by trying to ban one of their favorites of the past that donned the Silver & Black. You just showed how much of a baby this organization can be when it comes to how they are perceived, something that was once a strong aspect of this organization when they pillaged and ran through the NFL, had castaways and other misfits that made a mark within the organization and they did not care one bit what anyone said about them. The oversensitivity act was taken too far, and they picked the wrong guy to make an example of.

Oakland believes in the mantra, ‘Once a Raider always a Raider.’ And they probably feel that if you were a Raider once, you have to abide by their rules, play nice and not bash the team you once played for, even though you may be saying the truth. Well, what they just did is heightened Gannon’s career, giving him more credibility and showed that the Raiders will not be able to make their former quarterback a pre-programmed robot.

Herrera reiterated Gannon’s comments about how the Raiders should just “blow up the building and start over.” Gannon’s words were picked apart and then the Raider brass literally took them as a concrete saying, while then throwing a cheap shot in at a player who played with pride and poise while in Oakland: “We think in a post 9/11 world, that’s not a very proper thing to say,” Herrera stated. “It’s uncalled for. He seems to be a guy who can’t get over the fact that he played the worst Super Bowl game in the history of the game and he wants to blame everybody but himself.

“I guess it’s our fault he threw five interceptions.”

No, but Gannon is right. He won’t blame the Raiders or anyone else for what was the worst game of his career in the grandest stage of his life, but he is absolutely correct in saying that the organization is at fault for the mess they are in. It is their fault, because of their faulty drafting, poor free-agent decisions, inept trading and horrid staffing decisions along with poor coaching methods that have this team one of the worst operated franchises in all of sports.

Something that never would have happened when he was a Raider. Maybe it is fitting he is not allowed in the stadium during these days. Why should he be in attendance to watch such misery when he contributed to glorious football as a Raider?

Maybe it’s a good thing then that the game is blacked-out. Many won’t here what he has to say…

Heck, fans could’ve been at home just agreeing with him as they’ve had in the past.

(The views expressed are solely those of the author/speaker and do not reflect the views of SBReport.net, other contributors to the site or those of any affiliated parties)

Contact Author: Victor Cotto – SB Report Columnist