Silver and Black Report

Today in Oakland, Raiders cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha spoke to the media about many of the happenings surrounding the team at the midpoint.

 Reacting to DeAngelo Hall’s departure:

 I’m obviously disappointed. I don’t agree with what happened. I don’t agree with what’s going on. But I am just a player so I can’t speak on it. I don’t make the decisions. All I can do is play but I don’t agree with what happened at all.

 

I don’t know exactly what went into the release but he’s been playing, he’s been getting better with each game. He’s a good player in this league, I think we all know that. We all know it’s probably the most difficult place to play if you’re a corner, no matter who you are, no matter how much you get paid. He came in and the first game was rough but he got better since then. A lot of blame went to him. I just didn’t think it was right.

 On Hall’s improving play prior to the total quit job versus Atlanta:

Yeah, absolutely. They were throwing at him and he was playing. He had eight games to prove himself, which is what really got me. I was sitting at home last night, watching the election and all that and excited, and then he calls me, hurt. Because he wanted to finish out the season here and he told me he was getting cut and it was just shocking. I couldn’t make any sense of it. He had eight games to prove himself. I don’t think that was enough.

 Was Hall’s style a fit in Oakland?

Well you don’t have to be a big guy to be able to do that stuff. Fabia had success at it when he was here. Phillip had some success at it and he went back and forth, those sorts of things. but he was getting to the point to where he was establishing himself as a man corner. In Atlanta he didn’t play as much man as he had to play here. That’s why it was a little different. I knew he didn’t play as much man so it wasn’t shocking to me when he had to adjust. To everyone else it was a big deal to them but he was getting better.

 Does this effect your desire of being here next year, to sign a long term deal?

 Yeah, uh, I won’t comment on that on what will happen next year, what will happen with me as far as the contract. I would say all those types of questions I’ll just say no comment.

 On the Ronald Curry & Michael Huff benchings:

 Curry again. I still can’t make sense of that one either. That’s why I said there’s been some things that have been going on, some shakeups, that I haven’t agreed with. Like I said, I’m not allowed to speak on it because we’re just supposed to shut up and play. But you ask me if I agree with it? I don’t agree with it. Ronald Curry has, since I’ve been here, been my best work on the field. Without question of any receiver that’s come through here. He hasn’t played. Now he’s inactive. I don’t know what’s going on. Now with Michael Huff, he’s still a developing safety who got his position changed. I don’t know if he got enough time to develop. I guess it’s the nature of what’s been going on here. If you don’t perform within an allotted time, they you move on.

Where does this season rank in terms of turmoil in your tenure here?

 This would actually be No. 1 as far as what’s been going on and I’ll tell you why, because it’s been eight weeks. It hasn’t been 16 weeks. Even though it’s been eight weeks of all the back and forth. The first half of the season this has probably been No. 1 as far as things that can be perceived as distractions aside from football.

How do you move forward into the second half?

I don’t know if we’re done with the shake-ups and the move-ups. But everybody has been promised things would happen. As far as moving on, you can only move on. Like I said, you can only bite your lip and play football. That’s what we’re here for, that’s what they pay us for. You get paid to deal with these problems and to make the best of it. With everything that’s going on, none of us are blind to it. We talk about it

as players. We understand the nature of what’s been going on. But we still have to perform on Sundays. People are still watching. We still have to show ourselves fit for what we’re doing.

Are the shake-ups taxing on the players and does it make it harder to play with these things on their minds?

There are a lot of guys that being honest have played on their heels here at some point within the last eight weeks. There are a number of guys who are like, ‘If I mess up once, I’ll be gone.’ Or, ‘If I mess up once, someone else will take my spot.’ It’s a difficult thing to do as a player. You want to go out and have that confidence that you can go out and make mistakes and still get better. But when it seems like you’re on a time schedule it’s kind of difficult to always play up to par and not be hesitant like a lot of guys have shown that they’ve been.

On Hall, and why he thought he was cut:

He said it was just a matter of his play wasn’t up to par so far with what he’s being paid I guess. He reached his eight-week mark and he couldn’t go forward. He said that he wanted to come back and at least finish out the season. That’s what he told me but they said they didn’t want to continue on with him. He was hurt. He was disappointed when I spoke to him because he wanted to at least get to 16 games. He has a lot of pride. What he put out on tape in those first two weeks, he wanted to prove himself from that type of stuff and he doesn’t get the chance. But he’ll go somewhere where he’ll be able to redeem himself.

Was he a scapegoat?

When you’re losing there’s a lot of finger pointing. I don’t think he’s the one scapegoat. There’s fingers pointed everywhere. I don’t think it’s just him. He was kind of singled out in regards of let’s cut someone. Let’s find him. Guys have played much … I don’t want to say that guys have played much worse because I don’t think that he’s played that badly given what we do and what we have to do in this defense. I don’t care who you bring over here; it’s going to be difficult. You see it with him.

How is the situation since Tom Cable took over?

There has been more issues in the last four weeks. The first four weeks was [Lane] Kiffin, and it was non-stop. Then the second four weeks, it has been a number of things, from a new coach, to certain players, and changes. There has been a lot. So, I don’t think it has gotten worse, I just think that it has been a bigger variety of things to pull from.

 About Chris Johnson: 

Well, Chris is a fast player. He’s the fastest player on the defense, maybe on the team. He’s also a quick player. He played well against San Diego. You love his heart and his toughness, and he does study, which you also love about a corner. Stanford [Routt] has done all those things, but Chris has shown himself ready to play.

 Teammates reactions to the news:

Yeah, and it’s true. I don’t know how they reacted to what happened, specifically, but I do know that guys, after seeing that, it’s not one of those things that is making guys go out and want to play harder. It’s one of things that guys are looking like, ‘I could be next, so let me not make a mistake.’ That’s a difficult thing to play with on Sundays.

 Did Huff get short-changed?

You never know if Huff was even in the plans to begin with. Maybe that might have had something to do with it. It could be a number of things that went on with him.

How do you preserver?

I have a lot of people that I talk to actually that keep me involved, as far as family and friends. Like Charles, I talk to him. I talked to him last night after I found out everything. He said, ‘Keep pushing.’ As a captain for the team, I always just try to keep pushing. I don’t know how else to explain it.