Tale of 2 cities for Raiders as camp opens
The Oakland Raiders opened their 2017 training camp on Saturday. First impressions? There was a weird polarity that will likely be the signature of this team for the next three years.
Rabid fans filled the stands in Napa, and their favorite player seemed to be newly acquired running back Marshawn Lynch, the Oakland Tech and Cal product who is the East Bay’s favorite son. The fans chanted, “Beast Mode,” and applauded everything Lynch did.
It was alumni weekend, with 100 former Raiders in attendance at camp, so there was a lot of talk about legacy and loyalty.
Masses of media ringed the field, some drawn by the Raiders’ position as an AFC favorite. Could Derek Carr unseat Tom Brady as a Super
Bowl winner? A lot of experts seem to think the answer is yes.
But other media members were there because the team is simply their new assignment. About half the media came from Las Vegas to cover the city’s new football team. The Las Vegas Raiders.
Oakland’s own? Las Vegas’ newest acquisition? Yes and yes. The team is scheduled — but, um, you know how these things go — to open play in its new Vegas stadium in 2020. Where they will play in 2019 is still a question. The next two or three years will be, at the very least, weird and uncomfortable. At worst, it will become openly hostile.
“There’s no book on how to do this situation because no one’s done it yet,” Carr said. “It’s a weird deal,”
It is a weird deal, but — as Carr probably knows — it has been done before. By his very own team. Once, 11 years before Carr was born and again when he was 4. Now the Raiders are moving on again, the bitter news coming just as the team became relevant once again, testing those theories of loyalty and legacy.
“I’m about investing in the here and now,” said head coach Jack Del Rio, who grew up in Hayward, was a die-hard Oakland Raiders fan and admired some of the alumni who were on hand to see his team practice.
“People in the organization have to work on that … but we’re locked in. I’m focused on the here and now and right now we’re in Napa. We’re going to be Oakland Raiders this year.”
As long as the Raiders win, and they should win, the hardcore fans will ignore the coming departure and the absurd situation they find themselves in once again.
If things don’t go as planned — and the plan, according to predictions, is to win the AFC West and make a deep playoff run — the unhappiness will come to the surface.
There are a few troubling signs. First-round pick Gareon Conley, a defensive back from Ohio State, is starting camp on the Physically Unable to Perform list. The controversial pick has been under investigation by Cleveland police for rape allegations. Del Rio downplayed the mystery injury.
Left tackle Donald Penn, who protects Carr’s blind side, is holding out. He is, understandably, unhappy with his contract. His pay ranks 23rd in the league among starting left tackles, while he protects the team’s $125 million quarterback, the top youngster in the league.
“I never put my hand in another man’s pocket,” said Carr, who added that he’s been in touch with Penn.
Carr is healthy, fully recovered from his broken leg. He’s the best young quarterback in the league. The team around him is better. Interesting. Newsworthy. And abandoning Oakland. It’s the subplot the Raiders would rather not talk about.
“It’s years down the road,” said Carr, who, at 26, has a collapsed impression of time. “My kids will be a lot bigger. There’s a lot of things I want to do here first.”
However, Del Rio also portrayed the move as something that is happening in the distant future.
“An NFL season is almost like dog years,” Del Rio said. “Add seven.
“So we’re going there in 21 years.”
Which, coincidentally, is almost exactly the amount of time from the moment the Raiders returned to Oakland to the announcement they would be on the move again.
The Raiders’ 2017 season could be incredibly exciting, one that the season-ticket holders have been dreaming of for years.
Those season-ticket holders recently received a set of pins to put on their black Raiders hats.
One read, “Loyalty.”