If I go on CarFax.com and see that a car is described as a “lemon,” I’m not going to buy it. I know the risks. I know it could spontaneously combust on the parkway. I’m not going to think that I can make it work.
“It’s got 100,000 miles on it? Sign me up!!”
When the Steelers got rid of Antonio Brown, I think the football world thumbed its nose at the Pittsburgh Steelers.
It was Ben’s fault. It was Art Rooney II’s fault. It was the GM’s fault for calling the team “kids.” It was Tomlin’s fault for giving AB too much rope.
It was all placed on the back of the Pittsburgh Steelers. None of it was the fault of the problem child Antonio Brown. The Steelers were criticized for alienating and dismissing one of the best players in football.
They were laughed at because supposedly it’s not possible to get better as a football team without having THAT guy. Well, fast forward to August.
--AB got frostbite.
--AB flipped out at least three times to the Raiders staff because he wants to wear his old helmet.
--He was late to his own introductory press conference.
All of this without Ben Roethlisberger stirring the bleep or the Steelers GM around to make, in the national media’s eyes, veiled racist comments.
Hmmm, color me shocked.
So he WAS the problem in Pittsburgh. And NOW he’s the problem of the Raiders. Maybe I haven’t skimmed the news enough this week, but I haven’t heard a national host say that the Steelers were right to move on when they did.
I think the Steelers totally nailed this. AB quit the team, so they quit him. They crushed it. Haven’t heard that take from the national folks.
The Steelers should be praised for the way they handled AB at the end. Not chastised. And anyone who said it was the fault of the team...Where are they now? Are they backtracking? No, they just hope that the takes dissolve into nothing and are forgotten about.
The Steelers deserve to be praised for throwing away a rotten apple. AND, now that this has all gone down, the Raiders deserve to be smeared for taking a risk where this was always the most likely outcome.
If he’s causing a fuss NOW, what’s going to happen when the team sucks the way we know it will suck?
He can’t handle a helmet, how’s he going to handle it when his team wins at best six games???
The Raiders knew what they were getting, they just thought they could fix it. That’s a bigger sin than anything the Steelers were accused of doing at the end of last season. They saw it was too much to handle, and they moved on.
The Raiders saw it, and mis-evaluated the situation. Or, they were willfully ignorant. In either case, they effed up.
Jon Gruden is in year two. Mike Mayock is now on the scene. Gruden is the highest paid coach in football. 10 years-100 million dollars. Dude has a stake in the team.
Oakland’s organizational future is in his hands. He was given that kind of capital to make sure that the Raiders could regain their might. He was brought in to return them to their glory years.
“The autumn wind is a Raider!”
Actually, it smells like the wind tracked in a fart.
If the Steelers coach made a personnel decision THIS BAD, he’d be raked over the coals. Maybe that’s a function of the expectation level or the Raiders national appeal at this present moment in time.
At any rate, I think if a coach is brought in to make all the decisions and he’s making that kind of money, he should be held to a higher standard.
Bringing in a dude who can ruin the rebuild at its base? That’s a risk that’s not worth taking. Especially because I don’t see the reward. Let’s say AB was really good this year and STFU…Do they win more than six games? I don't think so.
They never should have made the move.
But here’s the low hanging fruit as to why the criticism doesn’t exist or is few and far between: The ESPN folks don’t want to rip into their old pal Jon Gruden. They LOVE him.
He was the highest paid employee at the company and universally he was accepted as a good guy. So I guess he’s Teflon.
He’s on Hard Knocks and he makes people laugh. He was a jovial personality in the booth. Why attack one of your own!? I’m damn near positive that’s what’s happening here. AND everything that I’ve said about Gruden is true for Mayock with the NFL Network.
They ain’t going to drag him. They LOVE HIM. So ESPN has a protective netting up around Gruden and the NFL Network, likewise, with Mike Mayock.
Meanwhile the Steelers were the black-eye of the NFL when this was all going down in the Steel City. Got it.
All I want is consistency. All I want is fairness. So I’ll say what the national media doesn’t have the stomach to say:The Raiders are a fragile organization.
They play on a dirt field in front of tarped seats. They have been a laughing stock for two decades now. Why even chance adding to that reputation?
The keys to the car were handed over to Gruden and he wrecked it right as he took it out of the lot.
Only the Bills and Raiders wanted this dude. And for good flipping reason. Those two franchises are bottom of the barrel bad. Haven’t contended for anything real in years.
Why didn’t the good teams line up? Why did a good one let him go? Because they were smart enough to see through the B.S.
The Raiders weren’t. And they should be reamed for it. If not by the national media, then by the hero you deserve. ME.