Eagle091
November-13th-2005, 10:39 PM
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051111/NEWS/511110359/1010/SPORTS
Dear Mr. Davis:
I have a dream and, I suspect, many Raiders fans also are having this same dream.
We are dreaming of the boldest, most shocking, nerve-rattling, headline-grabbing, Paul Tagliabue-pulls-his-hair-out decision you will ever make.
It's so delicious, this dream, it needs to be absorbed in small quantities, so one does not become too bloated with delight. In other words, people still need to go to work in the morning, you know.
Sign Terrell Owens. Put him at one end of the line of scrimmage. Put Randy Moss at the other end.
Oh, did I mention this would make you money? Fire your marketing staff. Won't need them anymore. The product sells itself. Selling tickets to watch a team that has Moss and Owens would be like selling Girl Scout cookies to Girl Scouts. Even Raiders haters would become Raiders watchers. The very full, very rocking Coliseum would need a seismic retrofit.
Of course, it can't be done. Al, you already heard that. You have too much money already tied up in Jerry Porter and Moss. It would be folly to put the NFL's two most temperamental wide receivers on the same team. Team chemistry would implode. There would be bits of ego splattered everywhere; the team would have to be hosed down twice a day. You just can't do it.
Al, don't you love it when someone says you can't do something? You made your image as the guy who swims upstream, proving people wrong. John Matuszak, Ted Hendricks, Jim Plunkett, Bob Brown, Lyle Alzado - just to name a few of our favorite iconoclastic friends - thrived in Oakland. They were team cancers, screwballs or washed up.
But not after you signed them.
Defensive tackle Warren Sapp is the latest salvage job. He was finished when he left Tampa Bay and last year, his first season in Oakland. But in 2005, Sapp looks like he has fresh legs. Sapp's a player again, much to the surprise of many.
Of course, Owens is not a talent in decline but a personality that eventually rots a locker room.
Consider, for comparison, the silent transformation of Moss, seen as a punk who wore out his welcome in Minnesota, not to mention warning tickets from meter maids.
At the start of 2005, it was a dead heat - which wide receiver, Moss or Owens, would be the first to be the sand spur in his team's saddle? Moss in training camp said he had used, and may still use, marijuana. The word in the locker room was Moss was jealous of all the publicity Owens was getting in Philadelphia, slamming Donovan McNabb and the Eagles.
Notice, however, his closed yap. The last time Moss spoke publicly was Sept. 8, after the Raiders lost their opener in New England. Not that he didn't have reason to speak. Moss has not been the featured player in the offense as expected.
Coach Norv Turner has not been clever enough to design plays to get Moss open.
Quarterback Kerry Collins does not have quick-read capabilities. Moss has been hurt. The result: We are still waiting for that bolt-of-lightning game.
"My hat's off to the guy," Collins said Sunday about Moss after the Kansas City defeat. "You look at T.O., and what he's done and what he's said. Randy, I'm sure he's frustrated. But he remains positive."
Moss has learned the value of silence. It can be an ally. If Moss can play with his mouth shut, so can Owens. And after everything he's gone through these past seven days, Owens very well might duct tape that thing.
The money issue? Please. Al, you never said, "I wanted this guy but I didn't have the money." You're the Oakland Raiders. You're not the Oakland A's.
The compatibility issue? Owens and Moss could easily live together since each of them would be catching three touchdown passes a game.
Together they would be the greatest pair of wide receivers in NFL history. Imagine the spotlight that would follow them. That certainly would appeal to their egos.
And, I'm guessing, Al, to yours as well.
Al, Randy, and Terrell together. Yes, it would be a work of art all right. Please, Al. Please. Be Al Davis like you never have been Al Davis before.
Dear Mr. Davis:
I have a dream and, I suspect, many Raiders fans also are having this same dream.
We are dreaming of the boldest, most shocking, nerve-rattling, headline-grabbing, Paul Tagliabue-pulls-his-hair-out decision you will ever make.
It's so delicious, this dream, it needs to be absorbed in small quantities, so one does not become too bloated with delight. In other words, people still need to go to work in the morning, you know.
Sign Terrell Owens. Put him at one end of the line of scrimmage. Put Randy Moss at the other end.
Oh, did I mention this would make you money? Fire your marketing staff. Won't need them anymore. The product sells itself. Selling tickets to watch a team that has Moss and Owens would be like selling Girl Scout cookies to Girl Scouts. Even Raiders haters would become Raiders watchers. The very full, very rocking Coliseum would need a seismic retrofit.
Of course, it can't be done. Al, you already heard that. You have too much money already tied up in Jerry Porter and Moss. It would be folly to put the NFL's two most temperamental wide receivers on the same team. Team chemistry would implode. There would be bits of ego splattered everywhere; the team would have to be hosed down twice a day. You just can't do it.
Al, don't you love it when someone says you can't do something? You made your image as the guy who swims upstream, proving people wrong. John Matuszak, Ted Hendricks, Jim Plunkett, Bob Brown, Lyle Alzado - just to name a few of our favorite iconoclastic friends - thrived in Oakland. They were team cancers, screwballs or washed up.
But not after you signed them.
Defensive tackle Warren Sapp is the latest salvage job. He was finished when he left Tampa Bay and last year, his first season in Oakland. But in 2005, Sapp looks like he has fresh legs. Sapp's a player again, much to the surprise of many.
Of course, Owens is not a talent in decline but a personality that eventually rots a locker room.
Consider, for comparison, the silent transformation of Moss, seen as a punk who wore out his welcome in Minnesota, not to mention warning tickets from meter maids.
At the start of 2005, it was a dead heat - which wide receiver, Moss or Owens, would be the first to be the sand spur in his team's saddle? Moss in training camp said he had used, and may still use, marijuana. The word in the locker room was Moss was jealous of all the publicity Owens was getting in Philadelphia, slamming Donovan McNabb and the Eagles.
Notice, however, his closed yap. The last time Moss spoke publicly was Sept. 8, after the Raiders lost their opener in New England. Not that he didn't have reason to speak. Moss has not been the featured player in the offense as expected.
Coach Norv Turner has not been clever enough to design plays to get Moss open.
Quarterback Kerry Collins does not have quick-read capabilities. Moss has been hurt. The result: We are still waiting for that bolt-of-lightning game.
"My hat's off to the guy," Collins said Sunday about Moss after the Kansas City defeat. "You look at T.O., and what he's done and what he's said. Randy, I'm sure he's frustrated. But he remains positive."
Moss has learned the value of silence. It can be an ally. If Moss can play with his mouth shut, so can Owens. And after everything he's gone through these past seven days, Owens very well might duct tape that thing.
The money issue? Please. Al, you never said, "I wanted this guy but I didn't have the money." You're the Oakland Raiders. You're not the Oakland A's.
The compatibility issue? Owens and Moss could easily live together since each of them would be catching three touchdown passes a game.
Together they would be the greatest pair of wide receivers in NFL history. Imagine the spotlight that would follow them. That certainly would appeal to their egos.
And, I'm guessing, Al, to yours as well.
Al, Randy, and Terrell together. Yes, it would be a work of art all right. Please, Al. Please. Be Al Davis like you never have been Al Davis before.