Silver and Black Report

Why would JaMarcus Russell need any help?

His impeccable 65.2 rating and pinpoint 52.1-completion percentage are good enough! :sarcasm off course:

Well, the Oakland Raiders see it that way. How child like are the Silver & Black with their approach in this matter that they won’t allow a past great to help out?

Oakland’s juvenile behavior was further displayed when Rich Gannon attempted to aide the Raiders and lend his services to facilitate some development in their young passer and help the team he once played proudly for get back on track.

Gannon like many Raider fans is gloomy about the status of the Silver & Black. And since he has emotional ties to a team that he helped build into a winner, why not help out in any capacity?

The former league MVP offered his services to the troubled franchise and their bust to be passer and they not only denied it, they piled on impudence to the genuine offer.

Said Gannon on Sirius Blitz on Satellite radio:

“You know, it’s amazing. You try just to reach out to somebody and say something, that maybe you can help a young guy, and you get criticized for it. … I’m not looking for work. I have plenty of jobs that keep me busy. … People think I’m looking for a job. I’ve been offered jobs to get into coaching and to get into management. I have no interest in doing it.”

Then Al Davis’ crony John Herrera piled on stating, “It’s Rich that needs the help.”

He continued, “When he goes on a radio show offering Mr. [Al] Davis help, Tom Cable help, the Raiders help, maybe it’s Rich that needs the help.”

You would think that a team that has gone 29-83 and has lost 11 games or more during that seven-year span would be opening their arms for any help. Especially from arguably one of the greatest passers in their history; a player that helped the Raiders win back-to-back-to-back AFC West crowns, who took them to two conference championship games and one Super Bowl in bringing them back to respectability.

But who needs the help?

Herrera pontificated, “What does Rich Gannon think he has to offer that Paul Hackett can’t contribute, when he himself said Paul Hackett is the best quarterbacks coach that he ever had?”

This silly behavior by the Raiders goes back to September of 2009, when there was a report that the organization no longer embraced Gannon in their building and wanted him banned from partaking in his pre-game duties as a CBS analyst.

“Rich Gannon is not welcome here,” Herrera commented. “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.”

Why?

Because Oakland was hurt when Gannon stated facts about the fledgling club.

“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.”

So all the hurtful things he stated, which so happen to be truthful were too much to handle by the renegades of football. The so-called team of the decades that has been bashed apart by almost every opponent over the last 10-years is now immune to critique. And even if it means insulting a past great for doing his job – a job Gannon does very well I might add – and denying him the chance to sincerely help his former club is just another reason to believe that this team is not ready and will not be able to raise from the dead.

Their archaic way of operating, whether it be off the field, as the owner continues to handle football operations instead of handing it over to more qualified personnel, or on the field with their schemes that are out-dated due to the owner’s strong hold over the staff, are just the tip of the ice-berg and turning your back to help when there is a dire need for it is a sign of foolishness and thoughtlessness.

A simple no would have sufficed.

That at least would have been the more mature way of doing it.

But again, who needs Gannon’s help. I guess he was wrong when he stated back in October, “I just think that this is another situation, another season you are going to see the Raiders lose 11 or more games.”

I guess he was wrong when he said, “Obviously, they got to make a change, they wont, because the owner is very involved in that decision as you know. And they feel like [Russell] is the future of this organization. Right now, he’s not playing well, I think, certainly, his weight has been an issue in this whole thing, his footwork is atrocious and you know, he has a ways to go.”

And he was totally wrong in forecasting this:

“But I think right now, to sit him down would be a good idea so he can really re-evaluate things and sometimes taking a seat and having to watch can really help you get re-focused and reenergized.”

Something the Raiders did and when Russell was benched, the offense looked more professional.

He stated on Sirius:

“ I just was really looking at a young guy that’s really struggled and just thought that I could reach out to help him out. Listen, I’m not all the king’s horses and I’m not all the king’s men. I can’t put Humpty Dumpty together again. I can’t do that. But I was just looking to figure out a way to go out there and share with them some of the things that helped me as a player and prepare and get myself ready not only for the season but for games each week. I’ve done it with Aaron Rodgers and I’ve done it with quarterbacks in Tampa and Minnesota. But, hey, trust me, I won’t make that call again.”

And you shouldn’t Rich. You went out of your way to make the call. And since they have all the right answers, let them deal with their mess at quarterback.

Gannon stated last year: “I’ll say this; I wish that when I was playing that they would have been as lenient with me as they were with this guy. Honestly, heck, if I ever completed 30 or 40 percent of my passes in a game, they would try to run me out of town, I went to four straight pro-bowls.”

But they are committed to excellence. They just want to “Just Win, Baby!”

So they say…

Well I say, “Just prove it, baby!”