In case you hadn't noticed, sports these days are all about Goliath. In 2009, the Steelers, Lakers, North Carolina Tar Heels and now the Yankees have all won titles in their respective sports. Cinderella is yesterday's news. The teams that win these days are the teams that always win, and if you think that's boring, well, tough. You can kiss one of Derek Jeter's five World Series rings.
So with that in mind, we need to be really careful about overlooking the Dallas Cowboys.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. All you ever hear about the Cowboys is what's wrong with them. Terrell Owens was a pain. Roy Williams is a loudmouth, too, and isn't good enough to replace T.O. Tony Romo's too concerned with his golf game and his high-wattage love life to ever attain his potential. The new stadium is ridiculous...
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- It's easy to believe Tom Cable when he says he's not worried about the possible criminal assault charges that could be coming his way. Honestly, even if he gets arrested, how bad could it be compared to coaching the Raiders?
Unless he's going to be sentenced to watch an endless loop of his team's 44-7 loss to the Giants (or worse, one single replay of Sunday's Bills-Browns game), Cable has to be thinking about heading up to Napa County first thing Monday morning and turning himself in. Because as embarrassing as the Raiders can be off the field in the middle of the week, they show up on Sundays and take humiliation to new, ever-darker levels.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The question swirling around the Giants all week was whether Eli Manning would play in Sunday's game against the Raiders. The answer, it turns out, was yes -- even though he really didn't have to, as New York routed Oakland 44-7.
Manning played most of the first half of the "game," completing 8 of 10 passes for 173 yards and two touchdowns against a Raiders team that looked as if it would rather have been getting a group root canal, or giving depositions for the Napa Valley district attorney's office. Manning showed no ill effects from the foot injury he suffered a week ago, and with a little more than two minutes left in the first half and the Raiders clearly not trying to win, he came out in favor of backup David Carr.
Three days after the trade that sent him from New England to Oakland for a 2011 first-round draft pick, Richard Seymour still hasn't reported to his new team. Several people with knowledge of the situation have told FanHouse that Seymour is upset because the trade blindsided him, and that he'd been hoping to sign a contract extension with New England. Seymour is due to make $3.7 million this year and can become a free agent when it's over -- and there's been some speculation in recent days that he could sit out the season if he doesn't want to play in Oakland.
But according to one NFL source, Seymour can't sit out the year and expect to be a free agent next spring. If he never reports to the Raiders, his contract is frozen, meaning he'd still be expected to play one year for the Raiders (or whichever team controls his rights at that point if the Raiders trade them in the meantime) before hitting the market.
It's a murky situation that still could end up in the hands of the NFL commissioner, because right now, the two teams involved seem to disagree on how official and final the deal is.
OAKLAND, Calif. -- NFL preseason games are about as meaningful as a Lindsay Lohan vow of chastity. But there is a modicum of significance to the third exhibition contest. Starters play for extended periods. Opponent game plans are installed. Coaches expect signs of rhythm, timing, execution. Then they yank the first teams at halftime and put them on ice until Week 1.
All of which made Saturday's surreal 45-7 New Orleans Saints' takedown of the Oakland Raiders at a stifling hot, mostly empty Oakland Coliseum even more disturbing for those expecting to see, well, anything of substance from the always rebuilding home team.
NAPA, Calif. -- Oakland Raiders coach Tom Cable, who is being investigated by the NFL following allegations that he fractured the jaw of defensive assistant Randy Hanson with a blind-sided punch during an Aug. 5 altercation at the team's Napa training camp, offered an emphatic explanation Tuesday of what occurred.
"Nothing happened," Cable blurted out when pressed again for details about a FanHouse report that the head coach struck Hanson with such force the defensive assistant required treatment at Queen of the Valley Hospital in Napa on Aug. 6.
Napa police confirmed to FanHouse on Monday that their officers followed hospital protocol by questioning the 41-year-old Raiders assistant coach, whose name police would not release citing privacy concerns, while he was undergoing emergency treatment for a jaw injury. NFL sources said Hanson sustained a fractured jaw as a result of the punch.
Oakland Raiders head coach Tom Cable punched defensive assistant Randy Hanson in the jaw during an Aug. 5 altercation at the team's training camp headquarters at the Napa Valley Marriott, multiple sources told FanHouse.
National Football Post first reported Monday that Hanson, a third-year assistant who is in his first season with the team under the title "assistant coach-defense," had been hit by another member of the coaching staff, but did not specify the attacker.
Two NFL sources have confirmed to FanHouse that the assailant was Cable and "that Hanson never saw it coming."
It's July, the slowest month of the year for the NFL, and it's driving you nuts. You need a fix. A hit. Anything NFL to pull you through the dog days.
FanHouse is here to help with an in-depth look at each division that should have you plenty prepared for training camp. We're calling it Summer Scramble. This morning we look at some Burning Questions in the AFC West and offer a ridiculously early prediction of how the division will finish.
It's July, the slowest month of the year for the NFL, and it's driving you nuts. You need a fix. A hit. Anything NFL to pull you through the dog days.
FanHouse is here to help with an in-depth look at each division that should have you plenty prepared for training camp. We're calling it Summer Scramble, and this afternoon we look at some of the AFC West's looming position battles.
Some NFL teams have confidence. Some have big dreams. Some have hope that they'll be this year's surprise. And some teams are just looking for any sign at all that they might not be a complete embarrassment to their sport. The Oakland Raiders fall into the last category, and JaMarcus Russell is offering such a sign.
According to Steve Corkran of the Oakland Tribune, Russell is organizing a special minicamp for the Raiders' quarterbacks, receivers and tight ends at an undisclosed location sometime before training camp begins on July 30. The fact that Russell, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 draft, is taking this upon himself is seen as a sign that he is trying to show the kind of leadership expected of an NFL quarterback. This in turn is seen as good for the Raiders and good for Russell, who will enter training camp with veteran backup Jeff Garcia breathing down his substantial neck.
In case you hadn't noticed, sports these days are all about Goliath. In 2009, the Steelers, Lakers, North Carolina Tar Heels and now the Yankees have all won titles in their respective sports. Cinderella is yesterday's news. The teams that win these days are the teams that always win, and if you think that's boring, well, tough. You can kiss one of Derek Jeter's five World Series rings.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- It's easy to believe 
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The question swirling around the Giants all week was whether 
Three days after the trade that sent him from New England to Oakland for a 2011 first-round draft pick, 
OAKLAND, Calif. -- 
NAPA, Calif. -- 
Oakland Raiders head coach 
It's July, the slowest month of the year for the NFL, and it's driving you nuts. You need a fix. A hit. Anything NFL to pull you through the dog days. 
It's July, the slowest month of the year for the NFL, and it's driving you nuts. You need a fix. A hit. Anything NFL to pull you through the dog days. 
Some NFL teams have confidence. Some have big dreams. Some have hope that they'll be this year's surprise. And some teams are just looking for any sign at all that they might not be a complete embarrassment to their sport. The Oakland Raiders fall into the last category, and 
