I saw this post at the Oakland Tribune's site, which would not have seen the light of blogsphere -- given the Trib's design -- day were it not for this effort. Jerry McDonald of the Oakland Tribune points to Raiders Senior Assistant Mike Lombardi -- on the left in this photo -- as the cause of the organizational back-stabbing problems Art Shell pointed out on Wednesday. The link is here.
The weirdest place on earth
Posted by Jerry McDonald - NFL Writer on Wednesday at 8:15 pm
There’s an informer in the ranks.
That’s what Art Shell wanted to get off his chest Wednesday, the day after he reluctantly demoted his close friend Tom Walsh and made John Shoop his offensive coordinator.
With no prompting other than a question about the difficulty of making the change, Shell began a lengthy monologue in which he blamed a person in the Raiders organization for trashing his tenure as coach and Walsh’s work as offensive coordinator.
Shell defended Walsh as a man and as a coach before launching into his indictment of an insider he wouldn’t name.
He talked about “bleeding silver and black'’ and named others who feel the same way such as CEO Amy Trask, Mr. Raider, Jim Otto, and executive John Herrera.
Then he got to the point.
I’ll edit these quotes only a little because it’s pretty remarkable stuff:
“There has been an attack on my family. And when I say my family, I mean the Raider family. When the fox is in . . . your hen house, under the guise of football sources in the National Football League making statements and not being part of this thing, not just making statements about me but ownership, how can you accept a paycheck from somebody that’s given you a job and given you an opportunity to try and excel in life,'’ Shell said.
“Then (you) turn around and call your cronies around the league and it gets back to me and I’m tired of it. It’s coming back to my desk. I’m a fighter. I sit back and I watch things happen and then it gets to the point where you cross the line. That line has been crossed and I won’t sit back and allow it to happen any more. When you root against me, you’re rooting against the Raiders. When you root against Tom Walsh, you’re rooting against the Raiders. And for someone to do that is unconscionable. It’s detestable and I think it’s an outrage. But that’s what has happened since I’ve been here. Tom has taken a lot of the brunt of that.
“You know when you . . . leave fingerprints and the law finds your fingerprints, you can tell who they are? When you make statements with your voice and your words you can also tell who’s making those statements because you know the people. I wanted to say something because I’m a fighter and I refuse to allow anybody to try to take away from what I’m doing here.
“I’m trying to win football games for the Raiders and I expect everybody in this organization to be on teh same page with me. Right now, everybody is not.'’
Shell said he has not confronted the mystery snitch,but may in the future. When asked if he had spoken to Davis about it, Shell said, “I have talked to people, and I’m going to leave it right there. I just wanted to make that statement, I wanted to get that off my mind, because it’s been bothering me for awhile now, and I wanted to say something.'’
It was suggested to Shell it sounded a little bit like 1994, when he and Walsh were fired by Davis, and he said it did except the problem that year was on his coaching staff and “I don’t have that problem on my staff now.'’
That year, Mike White ended up with Shell’s job when the team returned to Oakland.
Then there was a line that will make Davis’ head explode.
“Every organization should be here on the same page, from the bottom up, from the groundskeeper up . . . I went to Kansas City, that’s the way it was. Every individual was on board. Atlanta, every individual was on board. And it should be like that here.'’
Ouch.
The Raiders need to be more like the Chiefs.
Let’s attempt to sort out the latest bit of dysfunction from Raider Central.
First, it’s pretty clear Shell thinks the informer is personnel executive Mike Lombardi. It was Lombardi who lobbied hard for Bobby Petrino as head coach. Davis thought enough of Petrino to offer him the job, Petrino turned it down.
When Shell was hired, Davis made it sound as if the whole Petrino offer was Lombardi’s doing _ as if anyone else but Davis would hire the coach of the Raiders.
Lombardi is rarely with the team anymore when the Raiders come off the field. Instead, it’s Sean Jones who has Shell’s ear. Lombardi is usually out taking a walk on the streets iin the area of the Raiders facility around practice time.
I was told in the offseason that it was Lombardi who brought in guard Tonio Fonoti to be signed, with Shell sending him away, flunking him on his physical because of excess weight.
Shell also said it wasn’t a former player who was doing the talking, so that leaves out Tim Brown, Rich Gannon and Lincoln Kennedy, all of whom have been critical of their former team in their new roles as media analysts.
It isn’t anyone on the P.R. staff. Mike Taylor would drink poison from a Mike Shanahan mug before he said anything negative about the Raiders.
Admittedly, you couldn’t convict Lombardi in a court of law with any of that evidence. If Shell believes it’s Lombardi, he should meet the issue head on and talk to him directly and with purpose.
The fact the Shell has to make his case the media at all underscores one of the fundamental flaws with the Raiders. The organization is in constant chaos because there is no clear chain of command after Davis in terms of football.
If Davis really wants Shell to be the man to return the Raiders to something respectable, he should give him the power to do it. Short of Amy Trask, he should be able to say the word and fire anyone he suspects of failing to get with the program or telling secrets to the media.
The Raiders aren’t run that way.
It’s great to be a player. Davis loves the players, pays them well, puts them on a pedestal. As for coaches, front office and support staff, Davis is capable of the act of kindness for someone truly in need. But as daily work environments go, it’s tough. You talk to some people who get out, find other jobs, and they act as if they escaped a mental hospital and joined the real world.
What a strange place.
Wednesday’s news and notes
– Offensive players seemed genuinely excited by Shoop’s ascension to offensive coordinator, believing he will bring a sense of energy and tempo to a unit that sorely needs it.
More on that Thursday.
– Place kicker Sebastian Janikowski as seen walking stiffly to his car at practice time. Shell announced he had a sore back and the Raiders will look at place kickers in case Janikowski can’t play.
– LT Robert Gallery did not practice and will not play, missing his third game with a dislocated elbow.
– LG Barry Sims got in some limited reps, but isn’t expected to face Houston.
– C Adam Treu was placed on the injured reserve list and is out for the season. Chris Morris was elevated from the practice squad and will handle long-snapping duties.
Just in case Morris looks shaky, Joe Condo, a long-snapper with NFL experience in New England and Dallas was signed to the practice squad. QB Kent Smith was released from the practice squad.
– The Raiders announced a “significant'’ amount of tickets remained for the Houston game. It was a departure from their weekly announcements expressing optimism about selling out and having the blackout lifted.
Bottom line? If you don’t have at ticket, you’ll be listening on the radio. The Raiders were spared the indignity of becoming the first team to have a blacked out game when a Buffalo home game was blacked out last week.
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