How the NFL keeps scheduling the Oakland Raiders to play the opening Monday Night Football game is beyond me. They’ve won 19 games in six years and amazingly show no signs of improvement as time passes by.

Last night, the entire country got to witness the Raiders get massacred on their own field by the Broncos (a team which is not that good). Let’s see how the high priced signings did last night:

Tommy Kelly – DT – 7 Year/$50.5 million contract
How did he do last night? 4 tackles, Denver rushed for 142 yds total.

DeAngelo Hall – CB – 7 year/$70 million contract
How did he do last night? Deangelo was ABUSED by Eddie Royal all night, absolutely embarrassed. Due to Royal catching every pass thrown to him, Hall had 7 tackles.

Javon Walker – WR – 6 year/$55 million contract
How did he do last night? Didn’t play due to a nagging injury, money well spent.

Gibril Wilson – SS – 6 year/$39 million contract
How did he do last night? Gave up an easy touchdown to Eddie Royal, adding to his 9 catch, 146 yard night. Wilson did have 11 tackles on the night, which says a lot about the Raiders inability to stop the pass.

Darren McFadden – RB – 6 year/$60 million contract
How did he do last night? 9 rushes, 46 yards. To his credit, McFadden looked pretty good last night and would have had a touchdown if Jamarcus Russell hadn’t fumbled the ball in the 1st quarter. McFadden’s lateral movement looked better than the critics give him credit for.

These are individual players who are VERY talented, but happen to be employed by an organization so dysfunctional and clueless, they can’t put together anything resembling a professional football team.

They make me embarrassed to be from Oakland.

Sportaphile has dedicated a decent amount of time to Javon Walker in the past, from his mind boggling contract with Oakland to his bizarre mugging in Las Vegas. Somehow this guy just can’t stay out of the news and his NFL career gets weirder by the minute.

Reports surfaced this weekend that Javon Walker was so distressed by his lackluster performance in training camp, that he told management he was retiring. That’s right, he was willing to throw away a newly signed $55 million dollar contract because he’s having a slow start in practice. The owner of the Raiders, Al Davis, had to talk Walker out of leaving.. .and he eventually changed his mind. Javon has done a complete 180 and is now saying everything is fine.

“That’s a done issue,” Walker said late Saturday following the Raiders’ evening practice. “I’m not really sure what happened but that’s a done issue. That’s something that obviously people hear stuff. I’m here practicing, waiting, and (I) obviously can’t wait till the season starts.

However… head coach Lane Kiffin has his doubts…

“I worry a lot about it,” Kiffin said. “For someone to discuss retirement, and then to come back and change his mind a day later. I’m worried a lot about it. I’m worried about where he’s at mentally, because these things happen sometimes and they come back up again, because maybe they come back and maybe it isn’t necessarily for the right reasons. So were going to continue to communicate with him and push him out there on the field and get him better.”

Between Javon’s recent behavior, and the situation with Darrent Williams, I’m starting to think there are serious mental issues that need to be tended to. I’m no health professional, but I know “coo coo for cocoa puffs” when I see it.

The Oakland Raiders have undoubtedly had the craziest off-season of any team in the NFL. They’ve been in the headlines for the past three months for handing out what seems like ill-advised contracts to questionable players.

Javon “Mr. Pop Bottles” Walker is the third highest paid receiver in the NFL (and he doesn’t deserve it).
Tommy Kelly is one of the highest paid D-Linemen in the league and nobody has ever heard of him.
etc etc.. I wont rehash the entire thing, but basically the Raiders handed out so much money, I made a parody post of them signing a bowl of oatmeal.

Anywho, word around town is that team owner Al Davis is regretting some of the moves he’s made. Al and the Raiders released a statement strongly denying that he’s second guessing anything.

Raiders public relations director Mike Taylor reacted sharply to inquiries from Cole on this point, and refused to ask Davis for a reaction.

“You obviously don’t know Al Davis,” Taylor told Cole. “Self-doubt is not part of the equation with Al Davis. I’m not going to justify this tripe, this drivel by even asking [Davis] for his response. It’s ludicrous, it’s insane, it’s rumor-mongering and it’s irresponsible journalism.

However, I remember a few years ago when there were rumors of the Raiders firing Art Shell, they released a similar statement about “rumor mongers” spreading lies…… and it turned out to be true afterall.

I was a little harsh on Javon Walker last week for spraying champagne in the club and getting beaten up on his way home. The thought of him doing the exact same thing the night Darrent Williams was killed simply didn’t sit well with me. This new tidbit of information about that fateful weekend certainly won’t help.

The VERY day Javon was in the club partying happened to be the VERY day the Darrent Williams Foundation had it’s very first fundraiser in another city. Darrent’s mother asked Javon to attend and help out, but Javon told her he was busy with other things (which turned out to be absolutely nothing). Darrent Williams died in Javon Walker’s arms, and theres no doubt that it was a traumatizing moment that will never be forgotten…..however….. It’s simply impossible for Javon to escape this situation without looking like a jerkoff.

Everyone deals with grief in their own way, but perhaps it’s time for Javon to stop running from what happened that night and deal with the situation head on. Walker didn’t even go to Darrent’s funeral after the incident and seems to be continuing his life like it never happened.

There’s too many coincidences in this saga to be ignored. We’ll see how it turns out…

So Javon Walker was found unconscious on the streets of Las Vegas with a fractured orbital bone last night… Someone beat the poor guy up and robbed him of cash and jewelry after a night of flossin in the club.

“We don’t believe this is a random act,” Las Vegas police Lt. Clint Nichols told the Chronicle. “They knew who he was and (Walker) presented a target.

“We did get a surveillance (video) of a vehicle and suspects that may have been involved. We know there were suspects, possibly two (but) we haven’t identified anyone yet.”

Some of you may remember, Javon Walker was also with Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams the night was shot in the neck and died in Walker’s arms. The two players were in a limo leaving a club after a night of partying. During an interview with HBO, “Real Sports” with Bryant Gumbel said the altercation stemmed from Broncos players engaging in activity similar to what you’ll see Javon doing at the bottom of this post.

“Real Sports” said another Broncos receiver, Brandon Marshall, and his cousin were partying with Williams’ group that night and began spraying champagne around, “some of which hit a club patron and his friend, who confronted Williams and his entourage.”

For the life of me, I can’t understand why Javon would do it again, seeing how it **may** have contributed to events leading up to his former teammate being killed.

You’re about to turn 30, stay out of the fucking club.. idiot.