The Evil Empire Strikes Again

While Raider Take played truant over the past few weeks, and while the Raiders Haters were hedging their bets by giving the Raiders some preseason props in the wake of Coach Kiffin’s early results (remember, the Raiders and Al Davis are always dead…until, like clockwork, they rise again to smite the Raiders Haters), the Oakland Raiders hosted a golf tournament last week to benefit the Special Olympics of Northern California. The event raised more than $200,000.

Following is a partial transcript of an interview on Sirius NFL Radio between Jill Osur, Sr. Vice President of Special Olympics Northern California, and two Sirius hosts, including Pat Kirwin:

Jill: I’m a former athlete, and I love the Raiders. Artie Gigantino and I have known each other for many years. We approached the Raiders and said, ‘Your players have been supporting Special Olympics for years, so why don’t we formalize this partnership and do something special.’ People don’t realize that the Oakland Raider players are so philanthropic. We work with a lot of the Bay Area sports teams, and these athletes from the Raiders give more back than any other team, and people need to know that.

Siruis Host: People don’t understand that the Raider family is very tight knit, past and present. People go, ‘They’re dysfunctional, they’re this and that.’ Listen, it’s tough to win games in professional football, but when you look at the family structure and the way these guys all take care of each other, it’s pretty amazing.

Jill: It really is, and today is a great testament to that. We’ve got over 78 Raider legends and players, so every golf group that comes out is going to have a chance to play with some incredible legends. That just makes the experience so authentic that they’ll keep coming back. And when they get to hear our (Special Olympics) athletes speak tonight, and see our athletes on the course, they know that when they come out, even though they’re with the Raiders, they’re doing something that’s tremendous for our community. And it truly will make a difference.

Sirius’s Pat Kirwin: As you all mentioned the things the Raiders do, there are other teams that also do a lot. But I will say this: Al Davis is a unique person. I just know back here in the East, Al flies out the high school coaches of the year out here that are going to work at either Boomer Esiason’s charity game for cystic fibrosis or whatever…Al flies those guys out and makes them honorary Raider coaches for a couple of days. It’s those little subtle things. I think he takes a good look at the power of the Raiders as it relates to community affairs and the things Jill has going on, but I think he also cares a lot about the grassroots of football. I know they run their big camps there for the kids in Oakland, and it’s really kind of impressive. I think that often when we say 'the Raiders' nationally, some people want to give us a negative or some image of them that’s not true. And I don’t know that we praise Al Davis enough for the things he does that nobody knows about.

Those evil Oakland Raiders and their selfish, heartless boss. They’re as bad as their fans.