Idiots Write About Sports

Here in Alameda County, we await the verdict in the Oakland Raiders’ lawsuit against the City of Oakland with bated breath, so long as your definition of “bated breath” is something along the lines of “record levels of indifference bordering on near-lethal apathy.”

The case — which went to the jury a week ago — hinges on the Raiders’ contention that wily Oakland officials duped and cozened them into returning to The Other City By the Bay. Slick, fast-talking Oakland negotiators wooed the naive and trusting Al Davis with talk of sold-out-stadiums and then failed to deliver… or so the argument goes.

I have no idea which way the jury will lean in the case. But if it turns out the Raiders win the day and convince the jurors that Oakland pulled one over on the franchise, it’s my contention that Al Davis and his partners should be stripped of ownership immediately. This is a city that has mismanaged its finances so poorly that its public library system had to go hat in hand to beg for books. Last fall, as its murder rate skyrocketed toward Ruthian levels, the city asked voters, in two separate measures, to approve both the hiring of 100 new police officers and the tax hikes to pay for them — voters OK’d the former but rejected the latter. And earlier this year, after Los Angeles Clipper-esque levels of mismanagement, the state of California assumed control over Oakland’s nearly bankrupt school district.

The point? City of Oakland officials would have a hard time selling booze on a troop ship. If they managed to hoodwink Al Davis, that means the Raider owner is either brain-damaged or senile and shouldn’t be allowed to drive a car, let alone run a football team.

You have to wonder if the Raiders’ very public attempts to free themselves from the franchise’s Oakland commitments might be turning off the team’s usually rabid — and I don’t just mean metaphorically — fanbase. Only 37,341 showed up for last Friday’s exhibition opener against the St. Louis Rams — the Coliseum holds a little less than twice that for football. And while the poor attendance is probably more a reflection of the NFL’s insane policy of charging full price for scrimmages, I can’t help but wonder if the fans read about the Raiders’ obvious desire to play anywhere else and wonder why they should bother to pay high ticket prices.

Of course, that would assume Raider fans can read.

IHAVE NONE REALLY TO SAY JUST THAT ALL OF YOU RAIDER HATERS NEED TO JUST BACKUP!CUZ YEAH I'LL AGREE WIT YOU YEAH THEIR A LIL OLD BUT THEY STILL KNOW WHAT THEIR DOIN!
AND THEY JUST STARTED OFF WRONG WATCH THEY'LL GET BACK UP AND KICK SUM A@#