Michael Crabtree has been this close.
He has been the butt of Richard Sherman’s jokes, and then fired back. He has been the No. 1 receiver on a Super Bowl team. He has been compared to Lenny Kravitz because of his jean jackets, leather jackets and sunglasses he wore to press conferences during the height of his popularity as a 49er—and the similarities went beyond wardrobe or physical resemblance.
At that time, Michael Crabtree was a rockstar. He has been in the NFL for eight seasons, but it feels so much longer than that. It feels even longer ago since he has on the tips of our tongues and object of our attention. As if Crabtree’s exit from San Francisco in 2014 was the end of his significance.
If you believe that, you are wrong.
Just ask the Oakland Raiders, who signed Crabtree to a one-year, $3 million deal on April 14, 2015. If Crabtree’s remaining presence as a Raider in 2016 after earning a four-year, $32 million contract extension in December 2015 doesn’t convince you of his persistent worth, kindly look to Crabtree’s game-winning touchdown reception against Baltimore on Sunday. Listen to what those associated with Crabtree and the Raiders have said.
After Oakland’s win in Baltimore on Sunday, Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio told CSN Bay Area reporter Scott Bair that Crabtree “has been a great leader for us. … We’re getting a guy who is a great teammate, who works hard every day and is very friendly for our quarterback.” Del Rio went on to tell Bair that Crabtree has “sure hands” like Hall of Famer Cris Carter.
Bair later wrote that Crabtree is experiencing a career renaissance in Oakland, and that is exactly what’s happening.
Crabtree was the No. 10 pick overall in 2009 out of Texas Tech. Crabtree played quarterback in high school at David W. Carter High School in Dallas, where he grew up. No, Crabtree didn’t play quarterback; he starred at quarterback. He also received scholarship offers to play college basketball. But, as reported in Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian’s 2013 book titled The System: The Glory and Scandal of Big-Time College Football, his future coach at Texas Tech Mike Leach convinced him to transition to wide receiver.
According to the book, Crabtree said: “i didn’t want to stay in college that long. I wanted to get on to the NFL. If I played quarterback, I’d be at Tech for five years. I figured if I played receiver at Tech, I would tear it up. I didn’t want to go to Texas or OU and just be another guy. I wanted to go somewhere to make a name for myself.”
In two seasons at Texas Tech, Crabtree amassed 3,127 yards and 41 touchdowns. He made a name for himself. And so, onto the NFL he went. His best statistical season as a 49er came in 2012 where he caught 85 passes for 1,105 yards and nine touchdowns. Fitting that Crabtree was responsible for Oakland beating Baltimore on Sunday, seeing as Baltimore is responsible for Crabtree’s lonely ring finger.
Crabtree’s best statistical season as the same year San Francisco bulldozed into the Super Bowl under then-head coach Jim Harbaugh and came up just short against, yes, the Baltimore Ravens.
You know, Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans where the lights mysteriously went out and delayed the game after Beyonce blew our minds at halftime? The lights in the SuperDome that night were dark for 34 minutes before coming back on, and it seems a lot of people expected Crabtree’s lights to remain dimmed forever from that loss forward. Sure, it’s taken a little longer than 34 minutes and a move across the bay for Crabtree to recapture his shine. But make no mistake about it, he has.
Michael Crabtree is only 29 years old, and he has a real shot to finish in Oakland what he started in San Francisco.
His quarterback Derek Carr believes the same thing, according again to Scott Bair and CSN Bay Area.
“When he became a free agent after my rookie year, and he came to visit us, I tried everything I could to make sure he left our building a Raider,” Carr told Bair. “I know the kind of talent he is. I’m so thankful that he chose to stay in the Bay Area. The guy is a game-changer, and one of the best receivers in this league. … I didn’t promise him catches or touchdowns, but I said that, if we worked hard and grew together, we could do something special.”
In Crabtree’s first season as a Raider in 2015—Carr’s rookie year—he almost duplicated to the exact number his best numbers from 2012 with 85 receptions for 922 yards and nine touchdowns. Maybe Carr is the quarterback Crabtree didn’t know he needed. Maybe the other side of the Bay Area is where Crabtree belongs. Maybe Crabtree looks across the huddle, looks at young phenom Raiders receiver Amari Cooper and sees himself. Maybe a premiere athlete just simply reemerged as a premiere athlete, regardless of what color is on his uniform. But none of this is random.
This isn’t about an NFL receiver fighting for relevance or approval from millions of strangers. This is about a man with an unbridled passion and unfinished business.
There’s a telling Crabtree anecdote from his days at Texas Tech that appears in Chapter 1 of Benedict and Keteyian’s book mentioned above. The passage reads as follows:
It was after midnight when [Mike Leach] stood up to stretch his legs. He parted the blinds on his office window that overlooked the Texas Tech practice facility. That’s when he spotted a shadow moving across the field. It was a human shadow. “Who in the hell is that?” he mumbled.
The facilities were locked, the lights off. The place was deserted. Leach wondered if it was a prowler. He headed downstairs to have a look. Approaching the field, Leach spotted tiny orange cones. They were arranged in rows. Someone was darting in and out of them. Suddenly the figure came into focus.
“Michael?”
“Oh, hey, Coach.”
It was Tech receiver Michael Crabtree, considered the top wideout in the country.
The excerpt goes on to describe what Crabtree was doing out there by himself: working on his corner route. Benedict and Keteyian poignantly end the scene with this perfect observation: “The most talented wide receiver in college football was alone in the dark.”
Any time Michael Crabtree’s name is mentioned, which is less and less as time goes on and our attention spans grow cruelly shorter, I remember this passage from that book. I like to believe that Crabtree is still that same young man Leach caught putting in extra work back then—that he has been this young man all along when the spotlight amplified and then waned.
That Red Raider is now an Oakland Raider, still working relentlessly in the dark while nobody else is watching.