Gannon, Woodson right to rip Raiders ‘Commitment to Mediocrity’
The Raiders are a damn shame. An embarrassment to the league and the City of Oakland, plain and simple.
Charles Woodson said it after their embarrassing loss to Houston in the home opener and after their 0-4 start, putting them en route to another losing season (their 12th since losing Super Bowl XXXVII to Tampa in the 2002 season), former Raider quarterback Rich Gannon rightfully put the Raiders on blast as well.
The last of the great Raider quarterbacks, Rich Gannon went on a five-minute radio rant on SiriusXM Blitz on Wednesday about the team that turned him from a journeyman quarterback to a four-time Pro Bowler (1999-2002) an unlikely MVP award winner (2002: 4,689 yds, 26 TDs, 67.6% comp.) and a 2015 Pro Football Hall of Fame nominee.
“You got this sign in front of the building out there – I don’t know if you’ve ever been out there, Bruce – it says, ‘Commitment to Excellence.’ They ought to take it down,” Gannon vented. “It’s false advertising right now. There’s a commitment to mediocrity right now and that’s the problem.”
“The product on the field is terrible, and when you lose like that, how can you go to the bank and cash the check? You should be embarrassed. And that’s the facts!”
Three weeks ago, Charles Woodson said “we suck” after the team’s loss to Houston in Week 2.
Both Gannon and Woodson were a part of the last great Raiders teams of the late 90’s and early 2000’s that saw Oakland dominate the AFC West. Gannon was the last Raiders player to gain that Raiders mystique of becoming a bust of sort to one of the league’s best players.
Nowadays, players’ careers go to Oakland to die. Going to Oakland has become a vacation of sort for some players looking for an easy paycheck. Let’s be honest, given the Raiders recent history of losing and all of the instability within every part of the organization, players aren’t going for a chance to win, they’re going for the easy check every Tuesday.
Since losing the Super Bowl Oakland has not had a winning season. They’ve been 4-12 five times in the stretch, 5-11 three times, 2-14 once and are currently 0-4. The closest this team has been to winning is going 8-8 in 2010 and 2011 behind head coaches Tom Cable and Hue Jackson respectively.
This year, Oakland is 26th in passing yards (208.5 ypg), dead last in rushing yards (61.5 ypg), 31st in rushing yards allowed (158.3 ypg allowed), 20th total yards allowed per game (365.2 ypg allowed) and that’s mainly due to a pass defense ranked 4th in the league (207 ypg allowed passing).
The Raiders front seven has allowed quarterbacks to complete about 70 percent of their passes, let alone made Ryan Fitzpatrick and Ryan Tannehill look like actual franchise quarterbacks in the blowout losses to Houston and Miami in London last week.
Gannon and Woodson’s words haven’t gone on deaf ears within the Raiders.
Current Raiders fullback and captain Marcel Reece took some offense to Gannon’s rant on Thursday.
“He’s talking about the leadership on the team and the vets on the team and I am a leader on this team,” Reece replied.
“My question to Rich is, when is the last time Rich actually came to watch us practice and watch the work that we put in? And for Rich to be a guy who people love, Raider fans love him, the organization has showed him a ton of love and he’s talking about the organization that gave him a chance and let him do his thing here and now he’s just bashing us.”
But Marcel, he’s rightfully bashing you.
“You’re not winning because you players and coaches and people in the building that have become comfortable with the process of losing. It’s OK to lose out there. It’s OK. It’s not a big deal,” Gannon added in his rant.
Lost myself in my Raider rant yesterday. Pains me to see the team struggle. They do have some good people who care about winning.#Frustrated
— Rich Gannon (@RichGannon12) October 2, 2014
If there weren’t issues within the organization, or even a better sense of leadership, Oakland may not be 0-4 and now looking for a new coach, let alone looking toward the end of the season.
Forget thinking about a turnaround when the team returns to the field for Week 6, this team is already looking toward free agency. If it counts for anything, this free-agent class that came is hasn’t done a thing. So why not try again?
You almost have to feel bad for guys like Gannon and Woodson. Both were the last of a dead breed: the dominant Raiders.
Both should end up in the Hall of Fame in the future, however it’s sad that both players careers ended (in Woodson’s case will end) with the embarrassment of being a post-2002 Raider.
If Oakland is going to try anything, they should try this: take a page out of the Raiders book of past, have some damn pride and demand excellence out of themselves. Maybe then and only then will they get a win.
More from FanSided.com
NFL Power Rankings Week 4: Cowboys rise
College Basketball: Preseason AAC power rankings
NBA Power Rankings: 2014-15 training camp edition
Derek Jeter and MLB’s 20 richest players
All 30 NHL franchises ranked by all-time greatness