It could be worse

It is hard to believe there are people in this country who suffer more than Melania Trump, but we do. And by “we,” I mean Raiders’ fans. Many predicted that, after a long drought, the Raiders were going to bounce back to glory last season. Many, in fact, prognosticated the Silver and Black would be back in the Super Bowl for the first time since 2002.

While the Raiders didn’t completely crash last season, they certainly dealt with a lot of turbulence, and a rough seasonal flight in general, while finishing 6-10. Still, this season the Raiders had an (egomaniacal) coach returning to the fold who had led a team to a Super Bowl victory and also had the best — OK, some J.J. Watt fans might say second-best — defensive player in the league in Khalil Mack.

Then the Raiders, unable to reach a contract agreement with Mack, traded Mack and some draft picks to the Chicago Bears last week for two future first-round picks and various other draft picks.

In other words, the Raiders traded one of the league’s best players for a crap shoot, or crap shoots, as it is hard to determine who will excel in the National Football League. First-round picks, even “can’t miss” picks, frequently flop because they lack the ability or the heart, or both, to survive in the league. Other high picks don’t thrive because of injuries.

Mack, though, was a high pick who turned into, and remains, one seriously bad dude.

The good thing about trading with Bears is they usually are putrid, which means the Raiders should get some high picks with the compensation they received from the Bears in the Mack trade. In the NFL the worst teams pick first, which means the chances of finding outstanding players with the choices from the Bears should be high.

So I watched parts of Sundays night’s Bears versus Green Bay Packers with interest for a few reasons: I like Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers because he’s a great, innovative player and a smart, funny guy; I wanted Khalil Mack to do well to embarrass the Raiders’ brass for the stupidest of stupid trades; and I wanted the Bears to lose so the Silver and Black would be on the way to at least getting some potentially good players for the idiotic Mack trade.

Things, though, did not start well in the Bears-Packers game. Rogers got hurt early. The Bears went ahead 20-0. And Mack, with only a week of training camp, dominated as no defensive player has ever dominated an NFL game, getting an interception, a sack, a fumble recovery, a forced fumble, a date with two cheerleaders and a touchdown.

Rodgers played through his injury, however, and with Rodgers being Rodgers, and the Bears being the Bears, the Bears managed to lose 24-23 on a late touchdown.

(Okay, I’ll admit I tuned out with the Pack down 20 points in the second half to watch “Insecure” and “The Deuce” on HBO. I mean, come on, those are good shows, right? And with a limping Rodgers the Pack had no chance to come back, right?)

So it appears the Bears will stink again. And it appears the Raiders front office made yet another idiotic move and that the Raiders and their faithful will suffer some more as a result.

Yes, Melania is married to The Donald, and that’s certainly horrid, but we Raiders’ fans are married to the Davises, first Al and now his son The Haircut, and that isn’t much better.

I guess it could be worse, though. We could be Bears fans.