Will this be the Raiders year? Probably not. Are the Raiders on the right track? HELL YES! Here's my breakdown heading into the 2008-2009 season:

While I don't agree with all the moves and signings made this off season I can at least conjure up some cautious optimism heading into this season. I will start with the negatives: I don't think too many Raider fans will argue that we paid Tommy Kelly and Javon Walker WAY too much money. Kelly, while a very effective DE, is not a proven DT and will be expected to fill the void left by Warren Sapp. Walker will be expected to step in and establish himself as Jamarcus Russell's go to guy. Both players are coming off serious knee surgeries that could have an impact on their level of play. De'Angelo Hall, while NOT over paid, is over rated in my opinion. I will be happy with this move IF he is used as the number two corner. I have seen Hall get burned WAY too often by WAY too many number one receivers and he has a history of not being able to keep his emotions under control. If Nnamdi Asomugha is left in the primary corner spot then I will not object to this signing at all as the two of them will be one of the best corner duos in the league. However, I want Asomugha to be defending the opposition's best receiver on every play.

Now on to the positive: Our defense is going to be sick AGAIN. We were horrible against the run last year, and a pessimist will point to the D-Line and immediately ask how we expect to be any better. Well, there's a two word answer to that question: Gibril Wilson. This kid is the real deal. Having him in the SS spot with Hall and Asomugha manning the corners allows Huff to move to FS where he is better suited to play anyway. With that trio in coverage Wilson can stay in the box and help defend the run. While I will miss Stuart Schweigert, I liked Huff enough to have wanted him to stay. We also have the youngest and fastest group of linebackers in the league (Howard and Morrison are both WAY under rated and are beasts) to help backup that questionable D-Line.

The offense SHOULD be much improved. The O-Line was playing great at the end of last year. The Raiders were 5th in the league in rushing and Fargas averaged 5 yards a carry. We resigned the line coach and made very little change when it comes to the line players. Russell will get the nod for the starting position from the beginning of the season. The plan is to keep his job simple - lots of hand offs to the backfield and lots of check down passes to his receivers. This works in our favor both ways as our backfield is LOADED and our receivers excel in a west coast system. Walker (provided his knee is healthy), Curry, Higgins and Zach Miller all provide big, quick targets who can shed defenders in a west coast system. While I have not been impressed with Drew Carter's tenure in Carolina, he does serve as a big, speedy receiver who can stretch the field if Kiffin wants to test the vertical passing game. In the backfield, Fargas, McFadden and Bush should serve as a three headed monster. I hope to see Fargas pull the brunt of the running work while McFadden and Bush get used as the change of pace backs. I would also like to see McFadden and Bush lined up as receivers and H backs just to give the AFC West a taste of the New Orleans Saints style of offense. Both backs are proven and effective receivers and having that level of versatility will keep defenses guessing.

All and all, I am optimistic going into this season. The Chargers will still be the team to beat and they SHOULD win the division. Their window of opportunity is closing, however, and with the Chiefs stuck in rebuilding mode and the Broncos suffering from what seems like an identity crisis the Raiders time is NOW. Al Davis needs to leave the coaching staff in place (I don't care how much Kiffin and Ryan hate each other - let them work that out!) and let them ease Russell and McFadden into the offense. We could easily finish 2nd in the AFC West, but I believe the AFC South teams will snatch up all the available wild card spots so the playoffs are still another year away for this squad. However, if the coaching staff remains in place and this team gets the benefit of some consistency (something that has been lacking for five years now) there is no reason the Raiders won't be competing for a divisional title every season. The light at the end of the tunnel might be swallowed by the black hole, but it's still there!

Update (8/26/08): O'Neal is out for the season (ouch) as is Drew Carter (no big deal). However, Russell and Miller seem ot be able to find each other all over the field, so there is still optimism surrounding the offense.

Major league baseball needed help. America's past time had taken a brutal public relations beating with the steroid scandals. The congressional hearings were painful for any diehard baseball fan to witness. Players that some of us grew up describing as heroes were (deservedly) stripped of all honor and dignity in front of the nation. Next, the greatest record in baseball fell to the man many believe to be the greatest cheater of all. And if the Bonds fiasco wasn't enough to turn most casual fans away from baseball then Roger Clemens surely served as the nail in the coffin. Yes, Major league baseball needed some serious help...

Now enter the 2008 season! The league is currently enjoying a plethora of good, CLEAN story lines to keep fans intrigued - the Tampa Bay Rays, John Lester, Ken Griffey Jr., Rick Ankiel, Cliff Lee. However, as good as these story lines are none of them can compare to the greatest comeback story of this century - the story of Josh Hamilton.

I won't bother retelling his painful tale. You can Google the man's name and come back with hundreds of pages that detail his rise to the top and his fall from grace. The sad thing is that we have all heard this story before. How many star athletes have risen to the top only to see their potential flushed away due to questionable life decisions? We hear it time and time again - Mike Tyson, Barry Bonds, Travis Henry, Darryl Strawberry, Chris Henry, Ricky Williams - the list goes on and on. However, we rarely get to witness the rise back to the top. Hamilton has provided us with a heartwarming story fit for a Hollywood film studio. Even more impressive is the fact that he has done it with an amount of modesty and humility that should make even the most polished braggart feel guilty.

Hamilton's return to the top and his amazing start to the 2008 baseball season were capped off by his unbelievable performance at the Home Run Derby. The last real celebration in Yankee Stadium was already feeling a little underwhelming with A-Rod opting to not participate in the derby.  The news of the scandal involving him and Madonna was not helping matters much either. Add Reggie Jackson's timely comments to that and MLB seemed to be heading into an All Star break that was going to be labeled as a publicity nightmare. Yankee stadium, the fans in New York and baseball fans everywhere needed a feel good story for a change. Luckily, Hamilton came through.

 I felt bad for Justin Morneau. He is probably going to be remembered as the Home Run Derby champion that nobody wanted to see win. Hamilton stole the show - not only with his 13 straight 1st round homers, 28 total 1st round homers or 35 total dingers. No, he stole the show with his sense of community and modesty. Hamilton honored a promise he had made at the age of thirteen and brought his former batting coach - the 71 year old Clay Council - all the way from Raleigh, NC to pitch to him. The look on Council's face when he took the mound will forever be etched into my memory. I don't think I have ever seen a grown man smile that big! Council and Hamilton looked like two twenty year olds just having fun in the park. The two of them were smiling, laughing, joking and having a good time with the other All Stars. Most importantly, though, was seeing Hamilton interact with the kids who were on hand. He was the only participant who took the time to speak to, laugh with and sign autographs for EVERY kid he came into contact with -even between pitches! To see an athlete with his kind of talent and baggage put on that kind of performance with an air of humility about him is a rare sight indeed.

We should all be thankful for what we witnessed at this year's Home Run Derby. Hamilton managed to put on a fantastic show at (essentially) the closing ceremony of one of the most storied stadiums in sports history. He also managed to give hope and inspiration to teammates, athletes and young kids around the country. He also managed, if only for one night, to make baseball fans nationwide forget about the problems that have plagued Major League Baseball for the last ten years. Is Josh Hamilton the savior that MLB has been looking for? Probably not. However, when his story is combined with all the other feel-good stories of the 2008 season there definitely seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel. Luckily for all of us that light brightened just as the beacon of Yankee Stadium began to fade...

First things first I am NOT a Patriots fan. Let's just clear that up right off the bat. My wife is a Patriot's fan, mostly because of Tom Brady. If that weren't enough of a reason for me to dislike the Patriots you can add in the fact that I am a lifelong Raiders fan. Remember Tom Brady and the Patriots versus the Raiders and the infamous "tuck rule" play? Well, if you don't I can assure you that Raider Nation does. Raider fans have become very adept at holding grudges (as opposed to trophies). With all that being said I'd like to give you my two cents on the Spygate scandal and the possible repercussions from it.

There has been no shortage of Patriot haters in the last seven years. However, this amount seemingly tripled overnight when Spygate came to light. As if the sports message boards weren't full of enough idiots already we had a sudden mass infestation of morons with nothing to add but intelligent and witty gems such as "Cheatriots" and "Belicheat". Now while I understand how the evidence from this infraction can easily give the Patriot haters a soap box to stand on I still find it hard to believe that anyone would attribute the team's success over the last seven years to cheating. Does anyone really believe that taping another team's offensive or defensive signals gives a team a SERIOUS competitive advantage? The game still has to be played, right? Just because you know a play is coming does not mean you can stop it! Let's take this example: Brady is behind center and notices the defensive signal called in from the Pittsburgh Steelers' sideline. From that signal he KNOWS that Troy Polamalu is coming on a safety blitz. Now what? What can be done now? Does Brady put a receiver or a tight end over to block him? Does he call an O-Line blocking scheme audible? Either option is going to free up someone else on the Pittsburgh defense that can now get to Brady easier. So instead does Brady call an audible for the entire play or for the blocking scheme? Either option would probably get an immediate defensive audible called by the Steelers. Does the chess game just continue in this fashion until the play clock expires?

A lot of Patriot haters have pointed to the fact that the signals being taped were probably analyzed throughout the game and then used in the second half. Doesn't a team make half time adjustments? If the Pats come out in the 2nd half and proceed to light up the opposition's defense don't you think the opposition would make adjustments? A baseball team can change signals between innings, and believe it or not an NFL team can too. My middle school football team would shift the signals used for each playbook up or down at the half. Even a complex NFL playbook can benefit from this simple adjustment without confusing the entire team. Example: "Mr. Roethlisberger, when we call a play you are to look at your wrist coach and run the play listed immediately above the play we indicated." Simple, right? With the large amount of coaches and players saying that signal taping has been occurring around the league for years I would imagine some form of this practice already exists. A team's signals aren't static. They need to be changed when teams lose or change players and coaches, both of which can happen in the middle of the season. Flexibility and adaptability are neccessary traits for a coaching staff to posess, so a team that was being dominated would attempt to make a radical adjustment even in the middle of a quarter. Besides, if the taping of these signals was really that effective would the Pats have needed to win 2 Super Bowls with last second field goals?

Let's not forget that the evidence turned over to the league office consisted of the defensive signals recorder from the Dolphins, Browns, Jets, Bills and Steelers sidelines. The Steelers were the only one of these teams to be a true challenge to the Pats during their playoff runs, but the only Steelers game that had been filmed was the AFC championship match. Did the Pats noticeably start playing better against Pittsburgh in the second half of that game? Actually the opposite happened - Pittsburgh scored more points and held the Pats to fewer scores in the second half. Hmm...I guess either the tapes weren't that effective or an adjustment was made by Pittsburgh... 

Now for those of you who still want Belichick's head on a platter: was a suspension, or as some of you have suggested, a ban really necessary? Shawn Merriman gets busted for steroid use - a REAL competitive advantage - and he gets a 4 game suspension and a slap on the wrist. So in addition to Belichick getting a huge fine (huge by the precedent that has been set, not by the standards of his bank account) AND having the team's #1 draft pick stripped you also want him suspended? Come on people, stop the hating! I don't think Belichick is the second coming of Lombardi and I certainly wasn't impressed with his work in Cleveland. You can't even give the scowling, fashion challenged Belichick credit for Tom Brady's discovery - that was put into motion by the injury to Drew Bledsoe. But you have to admit that given the way the Pats scout, draft, develop and retain talent in recent years that they would have won two or three Super Bowls with or without any tapes! The sheer number of nobodies that organization has turned into superstars and sent packing is staggering. Likewise, so is the number of these same players who have gone on to return to nobody status once away from Belichick and his staff.

Just like all the other great sports dynasties (Yankees, Reds, Spurs, Lakers, Steelers, etc.) the Patriots are widely despised by those who would rather see their own team win. These people will look for any and every excuse to explain why their favorite team lost to the big bad dynasty. Unfortunately, taking a close minded stance against the Patriots and hurling accusations of cheating not only hurts the status of their dynasty, it also hurts the entire league. Lots of people are predicting the Pats to fall flat this year. Let's all hope that does not happen. If the Patriots somehow manage to miss the playoffs it will leave a bad taste in the mouth of almost all of the NFL's casual fans. They will basically assume that the last seven years of football were all a lie. The conspiracy theories and rumor mills will fire up to full force again and the league's carefully polished image could be tarnished. The NFL is a finely tuned marketing and money making machine. The last thing the front offices (and us die hard football fans) need is to have it dragged down to the level of creditability that the NBA and MLB are currently enjoying. In other words, even IF Spygate directly led to all three Patriot Super Bowl victories it would be better for everyone to just look the other way...

Again, keep in mind that this is all coming from a grudge holding Oakland Raiders fan and it might be a little easier to swallow.