The Oakland Raiders’ New Attitude

June 23, 2010   ·   Justin Smith   ·   Jump to comments

Take a good look at the picture on the right.
From the player in the photo to his hangdog expression, it is endemic of the Raiders' issues for the better part of this decade.
An underachieving player walking off the field after yet another disappointment, unable to hide his defeat; a scene all too familiar to Raider fans in recent times.
Since the beginning, Al Davis treated his stars like stars.
He has enabled them and entitled them to preferential treatment, inflated salaries, and a general all-around "do what you like as long as you perform on Sundays" attitude.
Back in the salad days of the '70s and '80s, Raider renegades wreaked havoc both on the field and off, gaining a hard-partying, no-nonsense type of reputation. They were great football players who occasionally toed the line of football ethics.
But they won, and won often. Thus, it was forgiven, and even largely ignored.
Couple this with the fact that until the mid-1990s the NFL w...

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