Raider Take Reader Hotline

Raider Take is grateful for the various readers and commentators who email me with a variety of takes, tips and insights on a regular basis. Following are a couple of recent Raider Take Hotline items that the Raider Nation might find interesting:

CHARGUR FANS UNITE

Raider Octopus tipped Raider Take off to SuperCharger Tom’s blog and his corresponding Official Raiders Haters Universe web site. I noticed that, in the midst of a rather infantile rant on the Raider Nation, SuperCharger Tom makes a big point about Raiders fans not being able to spell…and then immediately misspells the word “accusing.” How’s that for righteous karma? Now, Raider Take does not profess to be a paragon of spelling and grammar, which is why I don’t go around saying that Chargers fans can’t spell (although I might say that the closest they’ve come to a Lombardi trophy is the Los Angeles Raiders). However, if I did say it, I'd probably run spell check, at least on the next sentence. Since our friend’s blog will likely be corrected once this take is published, I am providing the following screen shot for the sake of posterity:

SuperCharger Tom also says that Raiders fans “defend their pathetic football team and organization in spite of the current facts.” Here are some current facts that he might find helpful: AFC West titles won by the Chargers in this decade: one. AFC West titles won by the Raiders in this decade: three. AFC Championship appearances by the Chargers in this decade: none. AFC Championship appearances by the Raiders in this decade: two.

MIKEY (RAIDER) LIKES IT!

Raiderdecoachella from Palm Springs wrote to tell me about his son “Michael Raider.” Not as in nickname, but as in birth certificate. How cool is that? Michael, whose official middle name is Raider, is 15 years old…Do we have any other official “Raider” kids out there, and if so, what are their ages? Who is the oldest Raider, and who is the youngest?

I asked Raiderdecoachella how he managed to pull it off, and here is his reply: “When he was born I had to go to the administration office to give them Mikey's name and the girl looked at me and said, 'Are you sure you want to do that?' And of course I said yes, and he got the name. When I went back to my wife's room, I told her, and she was more like, 'I knew you were going to do something like that!'"

And how did the rest of the family take it? “My family is a blend of Spanish and English speaking. The elders find it interesting and the youngsters find it awesome, my whole family (because of me) are Raiders fans, and I know that most of my nephews and nieces would name their kids like Mikey. Who knows, maybe they will end up giving their kids Raider as their first name. Mikey is the proudest kid in the world when it comes to his name!”