It’s late Friday morning in late October, and Tom Cable is still the head coach of the Oakland Raiders. Somebody please explain why.
Never mind, for the moment, that in an investigation that somehow stretched out for nearly three months, Cable was spared of assault charges by police in Napa, Calif., where the Raiders’ UFC camp … er, training camp hosted some sort of incident in August that left assistant coach Randy Hanson with a broken jaw.
Also, never mind that the Raiders’ rock-solid grip on laughingstock-of-professional-sports honors is being loosened this week only because of the slapstick routine that the Redskins franchise has become – and because the Raiders managed to win a game last week.
Just chew on this: something that began with Cable and ended with one of his assistants going to the ER, took place back in August, was unveiled in grisly detail soon afterward, and has since made Cable, the Raiders organization and the entire NFL the butt of constant jokes all across football-loving America. And despite the decision not to press charges – and when you see why, you’ll wonder if the mob was ever this efficient at altering the memories of witnesses – the Raiders and Cable are going to get clowned over this not just the rest of the season, but whenever the low points of the late stages of the Al Davis regime are discussed.
Yet for embarrassing the legendary Raider logo and smearing mud on the NFL’s so-called shield – the one everyone always talks about protecting – neither the Raiders nor the NFL have seen fit so far to even scold him or wag an accusatory finger in his face, much less slap him down with a severe punishment of any kind.
Like firing him. Or suspending him. Or fining him. Or dressing him down in public and making him look and feel as small as his actions are making the Raiders and the NFL look.
Because you don’t have to be Johnnie Cochran to grasp that, despite the lack of charges being filed, Cable caused Hanson’s injury. The police’s final report may not have put Cable before a judge, but the picture it painted was pretty damning: a raging coach out of control, having to be separated from the target of his wrath, causing the comically-implausible series of events that landed Hanson on the ground in pain, then grabbing and screaming at the injured man on the floor beneath him.
Yes, the final report is a first cousin to the classic I-didn’t-punch-my-wife-she-walked-into-a-door acquittal. Believe if it you want, don’t if you don’t, but that’s what the cops say and they’re sticking to it. And they based their report on the witnesses on hand, and since this took place in a Raiders’ coaches meeting, you can decide for yourself who figured out where their proverbial bread was buttered.
This all makes Cable look like a lunatic, his assistants look like toadies and the Raiders look like bullies. The fact that the Raiders continue to employ him furthers the perception that the only thing that puts head coaches’ jobs in jeopardy out there is standing up to the owner (where have you gone, Jon Gruden and Lane Kiffin?).
And the NFL, which is still “monitoring’’ the situation? Every minute that goes by without Cable being suspended screams “double standard.’’ The idea that Plaxico Burress shooting himself in the leg sullies the image of the league more than one of its 32 head coaches starting a near-melee in a coaches meeting and leaving one assistant’s jaws and teeth cracked – exactly what “image’’ is it trying to project, much less protect?
If you’re trying to erase the perception of a league supposedly full of thugs, criminals and street punks, and you let Cable stay around, get paid and control the livelihoods of 50-odd players, a dozen or so assistants and all the others under his watch, then what perception are you really trying to control?
To the average fan, does being left alone in a room with, and saying the wrong thing to, Burress or Michael Vick or Adam Jones or Tank Johnson or Chris Henry terrify you more than if it was Tom Cable?
Which brings us back to the original question. If the answer is “yes’’ … somebody please explain why.
Never mind, for the moment, that in an investigation that somehow stretched out for nearly three months, Cable was spared of assault charges by police in Napa, Calif., where the Raiders’ UFC camp … er, training camp hosted some sort of incident in August that left assistant coach Randy Hanson with a broken jaw.
Also, never mind that the Raiders’ rock-solid grip on laughingstock-of-professional-sports honors is being loosened this week only because of the slapstick routine that the Redskins franchise has become – and because the Raiders managed to win a game last week.
Just chew on this: something that began with Cable and ended with one of his assistants going to the ER, took place back in August, was unveiled in grisly detail soon afterward, and has since made Cable, the Raiders organization and the entire NFL the butt of constant jokes all across football-loving America. And despite the decision not to press charges – and when you see why, you’ll wonder if the mob was ever this efficient at altering the memories of witnesses – the Raiders and Cable are going to get clowned over this not just the rest of the season, but whenever the low points of the late stages of the Al Davis regime are discussed.
Yet for embarrassing the legendary Raider logo and smearing mud on the NFL’s so-called shield – the one everyone always talks about protecting – neither the Raiders nor the NFL have seen fit so far to even scold him or wag an accusatory finger in his face, much less slap him down with a severe punishment of any kind.
Like firing him. Or suspending him. Or fining him. Or dressing him down in public and making him look and feel as small as his actions are making the Raiders and the NFL look.
Because you don’t have to be Johnnie Cochran to grasp that, despite the lack of charges being filed, Cable caused Hanson’s injury. The police’s final report may not have put Cable before a judge, but the picture it painted was pretty damning: a raging coach out of control, having to be separated from the target of his wrath, causing the comically-implausible series of events that landed Hanson on the ground in pain, then grabbing and screaming at the injured man on the floor beneath him.
Yes, the final report is a first cousin to the classic I-didn’t-punch-my-wife-she-walked-into-a-door acquittal. Believe if it you want, don’t if you don’t, but that’s what the cops say and they’re sticking to it. And they based their report on the witnesses on hand, and since this took place in a Raiders’ coaches meeting, you can decide for yourself who figured out where their proverbial bread was buttered.
This all makes Cable look like a lunatic, his assistants look like toadies and the Raiders look like bullies. The fact that the Raiders continue to employ him furthers the perception that the only thing that puts head coaches’ jobs in jeopardy out there is standing up to the owner (where have you gone, Jon Gruden and Lane Kiffin?).
And the NFL, which is still “monitoring’’ the situation? Every minute that goes by without Cable being suspended screams “double standard.’’ The idea that Plaxico Burress shooting himself in the leg sullies the image of the league more than one of its 32 head coaches starting a near-melee in a coaches meeting and leaving one assistant’s jaws and teeth cracked – exactly what “image’’ is it trying to project, much less protect?
If you’re trying to erase the perception of a league supposedly full of thugs, criminals and street punks, and you let Cable stay around, get paid and control the livelihoods of 50-odd players, a dozen or so assistants and all the others under his watch, then what perception are you really trying to control?
To the average fan, does being left alone in a room with, and saying the wrong thing to, Burress or Michael Vick or Adam Jones or Tank Johnson or Chris Henry terrify you more than if it was Tom Cable?
Which brings us back to the original question. If the answer is “yes’’ … somebody please explain why.
(Photos: Oakland Raiders, via AP)
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