A Brand New Day

Here's what Mark Davis said recently:

"It's a brand new day...The business part really wasn't there. It was all football. Just win. Over the years, it just grew and grew and grew, and I think the size of the league and the size of the organization and the different things you had to deal with, media and all those things, kind of dwarfed the capabilities of the organization. Instead of a clean start with the organization, there's been a lot of plugging holes. So at a certain point in the near future, after careful evaluation, there will be a more modern structure so to speak."

This is good news. For years, I've been getting yelled at for making the same observation. Now I'm off the hook. You can just yell at the owner of the Raiders if you don't like it.

I'll still miss Al Davis, and will forever embrace the countercultural heritage of the Raiders. Some say it will never be the same, and they are probably right. But it wasn't the same lately, anyways, was it?

My primary definition of the Raiders is "winning." Without that, everything else is just window dressing. After nine years without a winning record, the Raiders were really no longer the Raiders, were they? There was a time when Mr. Davis outsmarted the NFL. That was the Raiders. But the organization being outsmarted? That's not the Raiders.

Will these changes create a dynasty? Hard to say, impossible to predict, easier said than done.

One thing is for sure, you'll never see a repeat of what transpired in these years since 2002, the worst stretch of losing in NFL history, marked by a comedic coaching carousel and some remarkably awful personnel decisions. Only the issues outlined by Mark Davis could create a stretch like that, ie: an organization "dwarfed" by the modern demands of the NFL.

Mark Davis says it's a new day, and I'm ready to follow him into the sunshine.