Across the Pond by Dave Wilson
Two Steps Forward, Three Steps Back? Tom Cable Released...
The feel good factor for the Raider Nation didn’t last long in Oakland. After a dominating win in Kansas City on week seventeen, the Raiders got back to 8-8 for the first time since their Superbowl year in 2002/3. They aren’t losers any more. It didn’t last long because the man who got them there and gave the Raider nation a reason to believe in 2010 is no longer the Head Coach. Tom Cable was informed on Tuesday that the team would not pick up the option on his contract for 2011.
This was despite the unanimous support of his players, and a real feeling on the team that they were on the verge of something big. The team had just come off its best record in seven years, and its best draft in recent memory.
So the question has to be asked, has the removal of Tom Cable fatally fractured the morale and spirit of the team that he built? And further than that, will this move further anger an already disaffected fan base that has only given the Raiders one home sell out in the last 2 years?
Team captain Nnamdi Asomugha was fully behind Cable, and Shane Lechler is on record this week as saying that he just didn’t want to go through another head coach.
The only logical step for Al Davis now is to promote Offensive Coordinator Hue Jackson to Head Coach. That would at least provide an element o continuity with the players and staff. But Jackson has already interviewed for the San Francisco 49ers head coaching job, and he may choose to go across the bay instead of a job that would clearly give him less control over the roster and other important decisions.
Football is a business remember.
If Hue Jackson takes over and makes the Raiders a true Superbowl contender again, then down the line this may prove to be a good move. If that doesn’t happen, or Hue Jackson jumps ship for another head coaching job, then it may well have doomed the Raiders to another period of irrelevancy in the NFL. Just when the Raider Nation had something to believe in at last.
It also may impact on which players the Raiders bring back, or which players are willing to return next season. Robert Gallery, Michael Huff, and Richard Seymour are all free agents and had previously expressed a wish to see Cable return. If the morale of this team has been badly hurt, you may not see those players, or many others, in the Silver & Black again.
Time I guess will tell.
But for now I want to express my thanks, and I believe the thanks of many in the Raider Nation to Coach Tom Cable. He took the job that nobody in the football world wanted after the Lane Kiffin debacle in 2008. He took it because he loved the Raiders and he wanted to be here, not because he wanted to fill in his CV or coaching resume.
Tom Cable is a straight shooter, and a decent, straight forward guy. I also think he was a good coach and certainly a good motivator. He may have needed good coordinators under him, but every head coach does, and what Tom cable brought to the Raiders was a belief in themselves and an identity.
An identity that we have been missing for a long time. We now know we are a run first team that pounded the rock, but had big play potential and could score from anywhere. The Raider type of player became a high character, hard working, team first guy with a ‘can do’ attitude. No room for Randy Moss or DeAngelo Hall. Lets all hope that identity isn’t lost in the shuffle. If it is, then its a long way back from here.
Keep those e mails coming.
Dave
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