Oakland Raiders
There was a time when the Raiders too their motto of "A Commitment to Excellence" literally. They qualified for the second ever Super Bowl, and then won three Super Bowls in a span of eight seasons from the mid-1970's until the mid-1980's. They seemed to field a competitive team just about every year for a long time, too. I remember some of those Raiders teams in the earlier portion of the 1980's, when they took down Washington, the defending Super Bowl champions, in what was then a record lopsided Super Bowl of 38-9. Two seasons later, they were among the elite teams once again, finishing 12-4, and earning a playoff bye as the AFC West champions.
Since then, there was a bit of a resurgence in the early nineties, and then again in the late nineties and early 2000's, culminating in Oakland appearing in Super Bowl XXXVII, although once there, they got hammered by Tampa Bay, and lost in a 48-21 blowout.
The Oakland Raiders enjoyed quite a bit of a success a couple of seasons ago, finishing 12-4 and qualifying for the playoffs for the first time since that Super Bowl loss in January of 2003. In the process, this team was looking very much not only like a talented team, but like a team that would make some serious noise in the future.
Things went south last season, as the Raiders struggled once again. Then, after Jon Gruden agreed to return to coaching the Raiders organization, Oakland has sun all the way to the bottom. They are tied with the New York Giants for the worst record in the league, with both teams at 1-7. And the Raiders latest loss, on a nationally televised Thursday night game, was a crushing 34-3 blowout loss to their local NFC rivals, the San Francisco 49ers.
Indeed, a lot of things have gone wrong for the Raiders in recent years. They announced their imminent departure to Las Vegas, but the stadium that they will play in is taking some time to be built. Meanwhile, they needed to stay put in Oakland, at least for a season or two. Or now, possibly, three, although they have no contract in place to stay in Oakland, and there has been wide and wild speculation about where the franchise will be playing their home games next season. They are also beginning to get rid of some of their better players, and appear to some to be flirting with getting rid of all of them in what might be a total overhaul.
Whether or not this proves true, there can be no denying that the Raiders, once a very proud and accomplished franchise, have seen better days.
Yet Gruden remains upbeat. After his team got blasted by the 49ers, he told Fox Sports:
“I got a cell phone just like you and everybody else. I get a lot of phone calls from people that are dying to come play here. I’m just telling you. They’re dying to play for the Raiders.”
Yes, he insists that some very good football players not only want to come to play for the Raiders, either in Oakland or in Las Vegas or elsewhere, but that they "are dying" to get there. Then, just in case anyone was unclear of what his own expectations are for his renewed coaching career, he feels that the organization is currently building itself up to be nothing less than a championship team:
“I’m just trying to get people excited about the Oakland Raiders. The Oakland Raiders is a great organization. I know it’s not looking pretty right now. … But we’re going to build a championship football team here. I know a lot of people as players, as fans, just in general, want to be a part of this.”
Either that's a tremendous amount of confidence, or Gruden is guilty of hubris. If he fails, than those words will come back to haunt him. However, if he succeeds - and we should note that he had a considerable amount of success coaching both the Oakland Raiders and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, winning Super Bowl XXXVII over his former team - he will look like a genuine genius.
Time will tell. It will be interesting to see what happens there in the next few years.
Gruden: We’re Building a Championship Team by Shaun Ranft, November 2, 2018:
Jon Gruden: 'No doubt' several players want to play for Raiders, November 2, 2018:
http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/25152200/jon-gruden-says-no-doubt-players-want-play-oakland-raiders
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