Two Minutes of Hate: Oakland Raiders

That a team in this day and age so reflects the personality of its late owner is rather quaint and almost charming. I say, "almost" because that owner was a bit of a world class prick. Al Davis*, late owner of the Oakland Raiders, was one of the more important and successful personalities in the history of the NFL. He did great things, like take football teams away from the cities of Oakland and Los Angeles, but he also did truly unforgivable things, like provide football teams to the cities of Oakland and Los Angeles.

Raider fans are some of the most devoted and passionate fans in sports. Unfortunately, their devotion is for treating every day like Halloween and their passion is for crime. Local MTS security didn't choose the Raider game to strike by coincidence. Assuming they actually have demands, nothing will make people take notice of their absence quite like a mob of silver & black wearing degenerates. I'm actually not convinced that security is striking to accomplish anything. I suspect they just don't want to get stabbed tonight.

Now, some people will tell you that these violent criminals aren't real Raider fans. They'll try to tell you that they're gang members who have appropriated the team's colors. These people are indisputably wrong. The gang-affiliated hoodlums stabbing fans of opposing teams in the parking lot are the true Raider fans. The people that merely watch every game, live and die with the team, and pull for them in good times and bad are the impostors.

The team itself isn't that unlike its fan base as they, too, have little to no respect for the rules. The Raiders are consistently among the most penalized teams in the league. This isn't just because of officials paying special attention to a team that has a history of breaking the rules, either. It's because they're a bunch of lousy cheaters. They always have been and likely always will be. They're such prolific cheaters, in fact, that the rules have had to be changed to make illegal tactics that previously no other team thought to use (Editor's Note: I miss the fumblerooski).

To fully appreciate how loathsome the Raiders are, you have to realize that a substantial number of Chargers fans on any given Sunday would be happier about a Raiders loss than a Chargers win. You can't say that about any other team in the AFC West or even the NFL as a whole.

I apologize for the quality of the preceding post and I apologize even more for saying anything nice about the Raiders, their fans or Al Davis.

*I seriously already miss Al Davis. It's just not the same without him.