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Hey DeAngelo Hall,

GET THE F*CK OUT OF OAKLAND!

We have change in The White House, and it’s starting to appear as if there will be major changes within the Oakland Raiders organization. Mr. Hall was grossly overpaid and it became painfully obvious that he would never live up to the massive contract he signed, therefore Al Davis sent him packing.

“Why release Hall with eight games to play?

Hall admittedly struggled to adapt to the Raiders’ style of man-coverage defense, enough so that Raiders owner Al Davis decided he’d seen enough. Hall is due $16.5 million next season in injury-guaranteed bonuses. Davis would rather take that money and load up a long-term contract offer for cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, according to a league source familiar with the situation.”

In addition to this, Pro Football Talk claims that as many as 15 players on the current roster will be let go before next season. Bay Area residents have had enough… I can only hope this is the beginning of a new philosophy.

And when I say finally, I mean it in the sense that they’ve been talking about it too long. Apparently the Raiders heartbreaking loss to the Buffalo Bills was the straw that broke the camels back, because management is informing Kiffin to pack his bags.

Sources told ESPN’s Chris Mortensen on Sunday that the Oakland Raiders owner intends to fire coach Lane Kiffin as early as Monday. Team officials have told the coach of the impending move.

When asked after Sunday’s defeat if he was worried about his job, Kiffin replied: “I don’t even think about that.”

I personally don’t believe Kiffin is the problem in Oakland, it’s not his fault that the defense absolutely melted in the fourth quarter. Rob Ryan should be shouldering the blame for Sunday’s debacle, and for that reason I hope Ryan is named interim head coach. Lane and Rob have been beefing since the offseason, so its time for Ryan to show if he can turn the squad around.

It looks like the great stalemate of 2008 may be coming to an end next week. According to the San Jose Mercury News, coach Lane Kiffin could be fired as early as Monday or Tuesday if the Raiders don’t look improved against Kansas City in their Sunday matchup.

“Wouldn’t surprise me if people around the Raiders are all but planning the firing press conference–whether it comes next week, the week after or in two weeks.

Because it’s coming. The Rob Ryan Blow Up on Thursday–dictated, I’m sure, by Davis himself and directed at Kiffin and Kiffin’s supporters–told us all that things are at a boiling point in the Raiders offices right now and the only way to ease it up is to fire Kiffin.

Kiffin is the focus of the Al Fury. Kiffin will be blamed for wasting all the big-money and big-ego talents Davis just acquired. Kiffin is being blamed.”

If/When Kiffin is fired, we can expect the Raiders to play like chickens with their heads cut off….. oh wait, they’re already doing that. In fact, I can’t forsee this team looking any worse than they did last week, this might actually be an improvements.

Sapp vs. Hall

Everyone knows DeAngelo Hall got publicly embarrassed by Broncos receiver Eddie Royal last week, and now Hall is vowing to make up for the disaster.

“One of my coaches told me I didn’t play angry,” Hall said. ”I told him, ‘Well, I’m angry now.’ Just go out there ready to fight, play the way I play and that’s aggressive, 100 miles an hour.

“Let the penalties fall as they may.”

But Warren Sapp ain’t buying any of this… he flat out says DeAngelo is HORRIBLE.

“DeAngelo Hall has been getting burnt since he was in Atlanta,” Sapp said. ”DeAngelo Hall is the flashiest burnt-up corner ever in the history of the game. I mean, he gets burnt more than anybody else, and he all of the sudden is this great Pro Bowl cover corner.”

ZING!

Theres a good article on SF Gate detailing the toxic relationship between coach Kiffin, defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, and owner Al Davis. Ray Ratto absolutely nails the foolish pride-induced-standoff between owner and coach. Davis refuses to fire Kiffin because he doesn’t want to pay Kiffin his full salary, Kiffin won’t leave because if he does he’ll leave empty handed.

“Kiffin is by all accounts a man alone on a team that knows he is a dead man talking. He has done everything but put a flaming bag of dog’s business on Al’s desk.

Every day Kiffin stays is a day the team’s paralysis grows more profound and less curable. Davis spent almost $200 million on player contracts this offseason and is letting all that go to waste over the $4 million he doesn’t want Kiffin to make for nothing.

By all accounts, Davis and Kiffin almost never speak, which normally is a healthy sign if you’re looking for a firing. And by every known account, the players sit back and watch this silliness and try not to laugh on camera.”

God help them.

Being a football fan in the Bay Area sucks, I’m not going to rehash the misfortunes of the Raiders and Niners for the last six years, so lets pick up in the here and now. The best thing about each Bay Area football team are their awesome punters, Andy Lee (S.F.) and Shane Lechler (Oak). Lechler and Lee both made the NFL pro bowl teams last year, and will probably make them again at the end of this season.

Thats right… the best part of our teams are when we give the ball back to someone else.

So i figure, why not highlight how awesomely bad we are? Why not share with the entire country just how bad it is here… because you guys around the country most likely don’t get the full gist. Each week (or day, depending on how bad it gets), I’ll share stories and links documenting the dysfunction in Oakland.

1. Coach Lane Kiffin publicly disowns the defense he has no control over (Link)
Brief rundown: In the offseason Kiffin wanted to fire the defensive coordinator, Al Davis said no. The Raiders defensive philosophy is not to blitz…. not blitzing is one of the major reasons Denver and Jay Cutler torched the Raiders secondary last week.

“I’m not going to get really get into if I was the defensive coordinator what I would do because that doesn’t really matter,” coach Lane Kiffin said Wednesday. “I’m the head coach. I oversee everything and I control what I can control. Do I have the exact belief we do on defense? No, but it’s hard to have the exact belief that we do. So, it is what it is.”

2. Local fans and beat writers call for action against Al Davis & The Yorks (link)
Yeah, thats right…. it’s gotten so bad that some people are calling for some kinda revolution to overthrow the evil bad team empires. Here’s a little piece from Nancy Gay:

You don’t want to hear Jed York telling you yet again why the 49ers need $136 million in redevelopment funding from Santa Clara to build a $900 million stadium. That won’t fix this.

Demand that Al Davis - yes, even though he is 79 and frail - stand before you. Not Jim Otto or Amy Trask. Make Al Davis explain why he has committed nearly $200 million of the Raiders’ future this season to unproductive free-agent signings. Why does he misjudge talent and character, year after year?

3. Raiders and Niners ranked as lowest valued franchises in the NFL by Forbes Magazine (link)
Our teams have low value because they play in piece of crap stadiums. They play in piece of crap stadiums because they never win… it’s a never ending cycle.

4. Warren Sapp blasts The Raiders and predicts bad news in 2008 (link)
Warren Sapp could still play the game when he retired, but he simply couldn’t take one more year of losing in Oakland. On a conference call for his new TV gig… he layed into them in true Warren fashion.

” “As far as where the Raiders are going, they have unrealistic ideas about what their people can do … That was the experience I had in the four years I was there. They asked people to do stuff they were physically impossible of doing.

“They asked a guy who hadn’t coached for 12 years to coach,” he said of former offensive coordinator Tom Walsh.

“They’re going to suck.”

I’ll probably have to update “Raiders disaster watch” more than I care to…. see ya later.