Jack Del Rio ethers ESPN in post-game tweet
By Jim Cavan
The Oakland Raiders head coach had some salt to spare following his team’s 35-34 barn-burner win over Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints
There are few things 50-something coaching types loathe more than that bastion of millennial nonsense and insufferable Monday morning quarterbacking known as Twitter. To hear some headsets say it, the social-media platform has come to represent everything wrong with “these damn kids today,” who seem more interested in finding just the right blushing kissy face than studying their Spider 2 Y Bananas.
Which makes it all the more refreshing when a NFL coach surfaces on the Twittersphere — less than two hours after his team’s Week 1 game, no less — to ether a certain multinational media conglomerate with a single, devastating click:
I hereby propose a new nickname for the Raiders’ square-jawed skipper: Sassy Jack. Say it a few times. It works.
For those unawares, Del Rio made the gutsy-ass call to go for two late in Oakland’s 35-34 win over the New Orleans Saints Sunday afternoon. Following a 10-yard touchdown strike to Seth Roberts, third-year quarterback Derek Carr connected with Michael Crabtree to give Oakland a 35-34 lead with 47 seconds left.
Minutes later, Wil Lutz’s 61-yard game-winner sailed awry, securing an unlikely win for the Raiders and rendering moot Drew Brees’ 423-yard, four-touchdown opus.
Carr was sensational in his own right, completing 24 of his 38 attempts for 319 yards, no interceptions, and that late go-ahead score.
Albeit over a Saints squad once again trending dangerously towards defensive-dumpster-fire status, it’s the kind of statement win that should’ve been its own exclamation point for the young-and-hungry Raiders.
But that was before ESPN Stats & Info (bless their stats-loving souls) decided it would be a good idea to raise Del Rio’s ire.
Next: Del Rio, Raiders get gutsy win over Saints
However unwise his decision might’ve seemed at the time, credit Del Rio for understanding that momentum — not to mention one of the league’s flat-out worst defensive units — was squarely on his side.
The only thing that would’ve made this already epic re-tweet even better? A “/mic drop”, of course.