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Recalling The Seeds of Chucky: Oakland Raiders 2003-???
Published: July 10, 2009
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“Seeds of Chucky” (2003)
January 26, 2003; Oakland Raiders vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Oakland Raiders would return to contention from 2000-2002 with Coach Jon “Chucky” Gruden and the shoulders of aging players like Jerry Rice, Tim Brown, and Rich Gannon.
Al Davis would also buck the orthodoxy of the NFL Draft by selecting Kicker Sebastian Janikowski in the first-round of the 2000 NFL Draft, because a kicker was seen as their biggest hole for a team that had a small-window to succeed.
In 2000, Rich Gannon would lead the Raiders to the AFC Championship game during the 2000-2001 postseason against the Baltimore Ravens, where DL Tony Siragusa would intentionally injure Gannon to sideline him (the NFL fined Siragusa for the hit).
The Ravens would eventually win the game, and then defeat the New York Giants in the Super Bowl.
In 2001, Jerry Rice and Tim Brown became the oldest receiver tandem to record more than 1,000 yards in the same season, and Jerry Rice would explode in the 2001 postseason against the Jets, and thus prove that he was still a viable veteran. The Raiders would lose the next week in Foxboro in the, “Tuck Rule Game.”
After “The Tuck Rule Game” in 2002, Al Davis traded coach Jon Gruden to Tampa Bay for draft picks while Gannon would earn the NFL’s trophy for MVP when the Raiders posted an 11-5 record on Rich Gannon’s record-setting numbers for passing.
The Raiders would ultimately have their age exploited in a Super Bowl loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The aggressive tactics of Al Davis to win however would set the stage for a series of blunders by Davis, in which he would squander draft picks, trades, and free-agent signings on busts but would also alienate coaches and players, such as CB Phillip Buchanon and WR Jerry Porter.
One such trade was for WR Randy Moss, whom the Raiders ultimately traded to the New England Patriots, and who set the single-season record for TD receptions in 2007 during New England’s 18-1 season.
This period in Oakland’s history is storied because; the blunders of Al Davis have directly affected the fortunes of other teams.
For instance, the Raiders passed on QB Phillip Rivers and QB Ben Roethlisberger in the 2004 NFL Draft for OL Robert Gallery. The Chargers acquired draft picks they would use to select Pro Bowlers and Rivers from the Giants for Eli Manning (who has won a Super Bowl with the Giants) and Roethlisberger who has won a Super Bowl with the Steelers.
The Raiders released QB Kerry Collins who has now led the Tennessee Titans, in place of Vince Young, in 2008. The Raiders fired head coach Norv Turner, who has done respectably in San Diego. The Raiders allowed CB Charles Woodson to leave for Green Bay, and has since returned to dominance as a corner.
More importantly, the blunders of Al Davis in the new millennium have begun to tarnish an otherwise great legacy.
By the way, the movie Seeds of Chucky premiered in 2004, not 2003 in which the Super Bowl between the Raiders and Buccaneers occurred. However, I chose to ret-con the name because I could not resist it.
Recalling The Iced Kicker Game And Sebastian Janikowski
Published: July 10, 2009
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Sept. 17 2007, Oakland Raiders vs. Denver Broncos
On this day a trend began during a 23-20 loss in overtime by the Oakland Raiders to the Denver Broncos. Denver coach, Mike Shanahan, used timeouts to “ice” Oakland’s kicker, Sebastian Janikowski.
That resulted in the negation of a FG and then a miss on the second try. Teams followed that trend throughout the 2007 NFL Season—including the Oakland Raiders a week later against the Cleveland Browns.
The idea of “icing the kicker” had been around before the 2007 season, but never to the degree that teams used it in the 2007 NFL Season.
Who could resist a bad joke about an iced Polack?
When Janikowski entered the league in 2000 as the Raiders first round pick, he was the punchline of every joke about Al Davis.
Yet, Janikowski was the missing piece for the Raiders in 2000, 2001, and 2002 that put them over the hump and made the Raiders a contender.
Every game (2000-2002) in which the Raiders were without Janikowski or unsure about his accuracy, they would struggle.
Before the Raiders had selected Janikowski and Shane Lechler in 2000, they had the same problem in 1997, 1998, and 1999.
The Iced Kicker game, though, epitomized the state of the Raiders woes.
Not only had the Raiders been the punchline for every bad football joke—they had then entered into the possibility of becoming the punchline for every bad Polish joke.
We shall wait and see whether coach Cable has changed the culture in Oakland in the direction of winning.
I hope so.
