Oakland’s new coach has always been known for his scary intensity. But has age – and a long spell in the TV booth – softened what made him great?This was in the summer of 2000, back when Jon Gruden was still the impossibly young coach of the Oakland Raiders fighting a team owner stuck in the past. We were walking across a threadbare field at the team’s training camp – a makeshift operation set up behind a country hotel – and he kept shaking his head at the tufts of grass that looked like islands in an ocean of dirt. His face was a mix of disgust at the shoddy conditions and pride for the way he made the best...
For many fans the Raiders embody the city’s grit and diversity, and their move is like ‘losing our north star’. What can fill that void?John Jones III was born in Oakland to members of the Black Panthers at a time of division and strife in America. But he remembers the Raiders’ glory days in the NFL with fondness. “I grew up in church, which is segregated. [But being a Raiders fan] was transformative and beautiful in a way that stays with me. It was, and still is, a time of racial disparity and a lot of institutions are set up to divide people. But never the Raiders ... I’ve never been a part of another entity that was as inclusive....
By plotting his NFL comeback for a Raiders team that’s already given up on the city, Marshawn Lynch’s homecoming has the potential to be very awkwardIt’s been barely more than a year since Marshawn Lynch hung out his shingle as an Oakland clothier. This was during Super Bowl week in nearby San Francisco and the establishment of Lynch’s Beast Mode Apparel in Oakland’s downtown was a holiday of sorts. The city’s mayor, Libby Schaaf, declared the afternoon “Beast Mode Day”, a huge crowd filled the street outside the store and the running back himself cut a ribbon with a giant pair of scissors.It was a message that Lynch, who was born and raised in Oakland, was coming home after a...
Lost in the bombast of the Raiders’ exit from Oakland is the not-so-subtle admission by the NFL that their opposition to gambling was always temporaryFor decades, the NFL wanted nothing to do with Las Vegas. As the city boomed in the Nevada desert and other professional team sports at least dabbled with the idea of a Las Vegas franchise, the world’s most lucrative league stayed away. Even talking about Las Vegas meant opening the door to gambling – and the NFL wasn’t going down that alley.But now that Nevada has $750m of public money to offer the Oakland Raiders for a gleaming new stadium, the NFL is embracing Sin City, even championing it. When the league’s owners approved the Raiders’...
The regular season’s Pick Six contest is done and dusted, and now Pick the Playoffs can begin. This week, go for Houston, Seattle, Pittsburgh and Green BayFor NFL teams, the playoffs represent the culmination of months of hard graft. But here on the Guardian sport blog, they simply represent a fresh start. Our regular season Pick Six contest is at an end, but now it is time for the Pick the Playoffs to begin. First, though, we must crown our regular season champion. In past years, this has often been a close-run thing, but this time it was not at all; castigers has led the way for weeks and held off one final late push from the chasing pack to...