Statement from Coach Kiffin on Raiders.com:"I was notified that the players union believes our total commitment to improving our football team has resulted in some violations of rules regarding practice standards. The union has complained about the high level of intensity, player aggressiveness and fast pace of our practices and, as a result, has taken away the final week of our offseason program."
So the Raiders get singled out, shafted again... hardly
Both Al Davis and Gene Upshaw have stated numerous times over the years that they speak with each other on a regular basis, at least once a month. Davis and Upshaw are friends and have a deep affection for each other... Hours before the old "Plan B" free agency was signed off, Union Boss and Raider Hall of Famer Upshaw spent nearly two hours in conference with Al Davis... can you see what I'm getting at?.... It is likely (slight sarcasm) that Davis and Upshaw spoke about this union "penalty" prior to it being made public.
What has been widely missed in this whole union thing is that it was likely planned... a clever misdirection that has fooled most everyone.
Penalty? the players can't work out at Raider HQ next week? Please, this is hardly a penalty.
I loved Kiffin's choice of words: "our total commitment to improving our football team" aka Commitment to Excellence.... "high level of intensity, player aggressiveness and fast pace"... hhhmmmmmm...
Al Davis, Coach Kiffin, with the help of an old friend, have sent a message to the NFL: "we will be better, allot better and we will be back, sooner than you think". And, as always Al Davis is cultivating the "us against the world" theme...
Maybe Upshaw asked Davis for a favour - "let me put out a message" so as to be seen as doing his job as leader of the union... Al said: "sure, and this is what we will say" ... its all very, very clever, and it worked to perfection!
All things being equal, if the Raider O can score 17-21 points per game and keep the Time of Possession 50/50 - how many games do we win? The exact number, I'm not sure, but that would make us playoff contenders.........
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2 comments:
Nice theory, I wouldn't doubt if it were true. It seems strange that they would post it all over Raiders.com and 'show off' being penalized.
The Raiders have always been image concious, and this very well may be some kind of plan to get that image back to where Al wants it. Personally I'd rather fly under the radar and just accomplish it by kicking ass again. It's a bold move to basically say 'We're back, we're good enough to kick your ass again, watch out NFL'. It's bound to make teams take notice and get a little fired up. Maybe the plan is for this to happen, and therefore fire up OUR players in response. We've done pretty well as a team during high-intensity situations historically. Now we just have to re-learn how to block!
Psycho
Wow, you are probably right!
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