Gannon Praises Randy Moss

From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

Rich Gannon, a Raiders quarterback for six seasons, said he is sure the Raiders are excited about bringing in a player of the caliber of Randy Moss.

The Vikings agreed to trade Moss on Wednesday for linebacker Napoleon Harris and a first-round draft choice.

"I mean you really, literally talk about a franchise player," said Gannon, who lives in Excelsior. "A guy of his position is one of the dominant players in the league and probably one of the top 10 players in the league."

"From that standpoint, it's exciting, but at the same time, there's a reason why the Vikings traded him, you know. You deal with off-the-field and on-the-field issues."

Gannon, a 16-year NFL veteran who played for the Vikings from 1987 to '92, missed most of last season because of injury and now is trying to decide whether he will retire from football. He thinks Moss' behavior might change in Oakland.

"You hope so -- you got a new coaching staff, you got new players, and hopefully Randy will change with the scenery," said Gannon, 39. "And a little bit more maturity and hopefully you put him around the right type of people and he'll fit in and begin to continue to blossom, as a leader on the football team and not a distraction. I think that he has a world of potential."

Fractured History

Tim Kawakami, who last year told us that the Kerry Collins move was the most wonderful the Raiders had ever made and wondered why we didn't ship Rich Gannon out last June, now tells us that the Randy Moss trade proves the Raiders are doomed, doomed, doomed! Moss, he says, is a player no other team clamored for and that no Raider superstars (and they are now?) pushed for.

"When it became clear that Owens would be changing teams, he was wooed not only by team executives, but also by superstar players like Ray Lewis and Donovan McNabb, who knew what his addition would be worth.
"When it became clear that the Vikings were looking to deal Moss, we heard not a peep from any big-name player or mid-name player or any player at all saying his team must acquire Moss immediately."

Stop right there. It had been clear for several weeks that an Owens deal was going down because Owens had stated publicly which teams interested him and because his former team, the 49ers, said they were going to unload him as part of their ill-starred rebuilding project. The whole thing was done very publicly, and for a week or so it seemed inevitable he'd end up in Baltimore before Owens suddenly changed his mind and signed with Philly instead. Hell, people had pretty much figured out that Owens was moving by the middle of the 2003 season.

Conversely, it wasn't really clear that Moss was moving until he moved. Vikings ownership kept negotiations fairly quiet, and the incoming ownership team said they had no intention of trading Moss. The major sports press treated the Moss thing as a rumor. It was in the wind, but no one would say anything to the cameras. The Raiders said nothing. Moss was quiet, expressing no preferences about moving one way or the other. Daunte Culpepper was equivocal. This is probably why no "big name players" spoke. They weren't in on it. They didn't know whether Moss was really in play or not. Jerry Porter didn't know about the deal until he read about it in the papers. I would assume the same holds true for Kerry Collins, Warren Sapp, and Charles Woodson. I doubt that anyone in the organization outside of Davis, Lombardi, Trask, and possibly Turner knew that negotiations had progressed as far as they had.

"Owens was the subject of an unprecedented tussle between Philadelphia and Baltimore, which both know a thing or two about talent and team chemistry.
Moss was the subject of serious interest from apparently nobody but the Raiders, who will get him relatively cheaply because it was a total buyers' market.
The Ravens, who still badly need a big-play receiver, took a look at Moss this time. And passed."

Actually, according on Don Banks of Sports Illustrated, the Ravens and the Falcons were both in negotiations for Moss, with Ozzie Newsome (the Ravens' GM) describing the negotiations as "serious". The real sticking point was that both the Ravens and Falcons draft later in the first round than Minnesota does, severely limiting the value of their picks. They simply didn't have the ammo that the Raiders had. The Vikings would apparently part with Moss only if they could snag Braylon Edwards or Mike Williams (who Mike Tice feels is a once-in-a-lifetime talent). Both of those guys will probably be gone by the 10th pick--Minnesota drafts 18th. The evidence suggests to me that the Vikings walked away from the Ravens, not the other way around.

"Owens caused controversy, but it was always because he burned to win at all cost, even to his own reputation. When he got to a team that won, he sacrificed his long-term health to play in the Super Bowl weeks before anyone imagined he could make it back from ankle surgery.
Moss walked off the field with two seconds left in a close game last season, squirted water at a referee during a playoff game a year earlier and has generally conducted himself as though winning were a nice but slightly unnecessary part of the Randy Moss Experience."

Actually, lots of people questioned Owens's commitment to winning when he was on a team that won. It's easy to forget now, but the 49ers under Steve Mariucci won consistently, even taking a few playoff games. But people wondered aloud whether Owens ran routes when the play wasn't to him, and questioned his willingness to throw downfield blocks during this time. They compared him unfavorably to Jerry Rice, calling him an arrogant me-first self-promoter out for personal glory. (Some sportswriters kept saying that right up to this year's Super Bowl, saying he was distracting his team and the media to draw attention to himself.) His performance in the Super Bowl was heroic, if sadly insufficient. What it may indicate is that Owens needed a change of scenery to play his best football and be his best self. That may be true with Moss as well.

Also, we must bear in mind that Moss has only missed three games in his career (all last year because of a torn hamstring). And, while playing hurt last year, he scored 13 touchdowns in 13 games. (To put that in perspective, the all-time Raider record for touchdowns in a single season is 16. Moss has eclipsed that twice in his seven year career.)

Now it is legitimate to question the mertis of the Moss trade. It doesn't address, directly anyway, core problems with the defense and running game, and Moss will cost a lot of money to maintain. Still, let's keep our histories straight. Owens's brilliant performance in a Super Bowl doesn't change what people said about him, or what he did, during his time in San Francisco. All the questions people ask about Moss now, they were asking about Owens last year at about this time. Moss's test will come this September. He may flop, he may be brilliant, or he may be sub-par. I don't know, but Davis thought he was worth the gamble; and he may well be right.

No One Ever Washes A Rented Penguin

European monarchy used to collect dwarves, and the Roman emperors brought exotic animals from the farthest reaches of the empire--both to execute in the Flavian amphitheater and to decorate their various palaces. (The Romans weren't big on animal rights.) P. Diddy was, by comparison, a sweetie:

"The animal rights zealots are apoplectic that six petrified-looking penguins were placed on a floating plexiglass platform in the pool at the opening of the Hotel Victor last Friday night. Several partygoers told PAGE SIX that the cold-weather birds were huddled in the corner of their platform the whole night, fearful of slipping down a slide into the pool's balmy waters." {NY post, via Majikthise}

If P. Diddy had been a Roman, he'd have placed a Sea Lion in the pool. Then he could stand in front of a little panel, look at each penguin and decide their fates. "That one amuses me," he'd say, and it would be spared. "This one is impudent. He shall pay for his defiance," he'd say of another. He'd then press a button on the panel and the penguin would fall to his doom. Either that, or he would have rented a hungry tiger shark and forced one of his entourage to get into a tank and fight it with a Thracian knife while the Penguins sit on an inclined icy plane above them, occasionally slipping in to distract both the shark and the diver. Basically, he'd have treated the penguins the way Bush treated his Texas death row prisoners. (Though Bush, like Caligula, never spared anyone.)

Still, what we've actually got here sounds more like neglect than abuse, and it's not surprising. People will naturally treat rented penguins the same way they treat rented bowling shoes or Chevy Metros. They don't own them, so they don't care. It's not like he's dealing with his pets. I'm sure if the crowned heads of Europe rented dwarves instead of buying them, the dwarves would have been in the same state.

So, Majikthise, if you covet penguins, don't stint. Buy them. In the meantime, I'm going to take a walk and try to figure out why this topic was so irresistible.

Is Breaking Up Hard To Do?

Eastern Washington wants to abandon Western Washington. As a resident of Western Washington, I say fine, stop taking our tax money. You may disapprove of our crypto-communist, bisexual, overpriced coffee swilling lifestyles, but they make your lives possible. Without us, you're west Idaho, a low-tax/low-service shithole wallowing in your own filth. If that's what you like, see you, wouldn't want to be you.

While we're at it, let's break up western and eastern Oregon. They don't like each other much either, and it would be easier to make the transition between birkenstocks and bible belt in that place if there were a state border in between. Even California can break up. The coastal areas can split from the interior, and north can split from south. We can see how long these little shitball towns--and yes, Spokane, you are a little shitball town--can survive off their own tax revenue.

The whole thing not so appetizing now that you have to pay your own bills? Fine, we'll let you stay, but maybe you ought to think twice about calling us names. We create the jobs. We do the research. We face the terrorist threats. We build the civilization, and we pay for its maintenance. When people talk about the U.S. being the envy of the world, they're referring to us, not you. We've been carrying you for years. If you can't muster up some gratitude, try respect.

The Up Side of Gathering Moss

I've been going over this potential deal for Randy Moss. (And it's still only a potential deal, gang. These things have a habit of blowing up at the last minute. With Viking ownership changing hands and the word of the potential trade out, there's always the possibility of someone slipping the Vikings a better deal, or of the Vikings getting cold feet because the media says Davis is robbing them, or whatever.) I think the tone of my first post on it may have been too negative. Come, contemplate the ifs with me.

One thing this deal does is signal to other free agents around the league that Al Davis is serious about building a winning team in a hurry. The effect of this can be to bring other talents into the team at a lower price than they might otherwise come. After two losing seasons, it could be argued that the Raiders needed to make some noise, and I can't think of another deal out there that would have made as much. (Well, maybe if they traded for Peyton Manning. Mmmm. Peyton Manning.) We should be able to grab LaMont Jordan and some good defensive players for a nice price simply because they'll be excited to play on a team that includes Randy Moss.

Also, lets face it, it makes a great test for Kerry Collins. If Collins can't break the 25 touchdowns barrier with Moss, Porter, and Curry running routes for him, then he can't do it and we know we need to look elsewhere. Terrell Owens improved an already great Donovan McNabb. Moss should do the same for Collins, if Collins has it in him to improve. Moss will force teams to change their coverages to account for him. Underneath routes will open up. Coverages will have to shift, and teams will be less inclined to blitz Collins--a damn good thing because he can't handle blitzes. The offensive line, which is developing quickly into one of the best in the league, should give Collins plenty of time to decide where to put the ball. He'll have the time, and he'll have the targets. If he can't win with that, to hell with him.

If we can get a good trade for Charles Woodson--linebackers, linebackers, linebackers--this might go down better than I initially thought. We still need a running back and defensive talent, but we may have a better chance of getting them, at reasonable prices, because Davis made some headlines.

Moss to the Raiders!?!

That's what his agent says. The Raiders, according to the ESPN story, will give up LB Napoleon Harris, our 1st round pick and a late round pick.

Now, ours is not to question the mind of Al, but I'm going to do it anyway. Yes, Randy Moss is an exceptional talent who could do wonderful things with the #1 WR position, but does this move address our central problems? We need a franchise caliber running back. This move doesn't help us there. We need to acquire linebacker talent to run Robb Ryan's 3-4/4-3 hybrid defense. We're giving up linebacker talent in order to get Moss. We need young talent on the defense, young talent that is available at the Round 1 Pick 7 position in the form of Dan Cody or Derrick Johnson. We're giving that up to get Moss.

Now Randy Moss could do for us what Terrell Owens did for Philly, but Philly didn't give up their defense to get him. This move makes it a lot harder for us to go out and get the kinds of defenders we'll need to secure a playoff spot. It makes it harder for us to find the kind of running back who can take pressure off our statue of a quarterback. It has made finding a trade for Charles Woodson (so that we can pick up a first round pick this year and next) an imperative instead of a useful option. Randy Moss is great, but is he worth the price?

(Note: none of this has anything to do with Moss's attitude problems. If I cared about attitude problems, I'd be a fan of a different team. The Raiders employed Bill Romanowski, John Matuszak, and Jack Tatum. Don't tell me about attitude. I'm fine with employing a son of a bitch, provided he's our son of a bitch and can help us win.)

It should be said that neither the Vikings nor the Raiders have made an announcement about this, so I could be getting into a sweat over nothing. Still, I worry, and hope to hell that Davis and Lombardi know what they're doing. Otherwise, I fear we'll turn into the Kansas City Chiefs--all the offense in the world with no defense--which could give us one 12-4 season and an early playoff exit.

And who the hell wants to be that?

Raider News

The Raiders will place a non-exclusive franchise tag on Charles Woodson, so that he can't leave without his new team giving the Raiders some swag (Two first round picks, money, and/or a package of players). If no one ponies up, the Raiders can always negotiate a long term deal with Woodson to reduce his cap figure before the season starts.

In sadder news, the Chronicle reports that Rich Gannon's doctors have told him his playing days are over. I'd figured this because there had been so little talk of a comeback from Gannon's people. According to the Chronicle, the Raiders will give Gannon the time he needs to settle things and receive all the proper compensation from the league for his injury (if he fails a team physical in a couple of months he'll be eligible for an injury settlement from the NFL). His roster bonus will count heavily against the 2006 books, but that's life.

The team reports that discussions with Jerry Porter continue to go well. They'd obviously prefer that he stay off the free agent market, and are hopeful that he'll take the twenty million they're offering him before March 2.

UPDATE: ESPN reports the Raiders have reached a deal with Jerry Porter.

Shit

Josh Marshall reports that William Bennett (the high stakes gambling windbag moralist) will rough up AARP for Karl Rove, swiftboat style. This means that AARP will be accused of dissing soldiers and supporting gay marriage. Is all this a load of fairly obvious crap? Yeah, of course it is. Will the media fall for it yet again? If by the media you mean those idiots who employ Pat Robertson as an Israel expert or the right wing TASS guys who add Zell Miller to their network for "political balance", of course they will--willingly and gladly. Will it work? Probably. I used to think these ploys were so naked and so absurd that no one would believe them. The election robbed me of this particular kind of innocence. The people, especially the dumbasses in the Bible belt, will go for it again; and they will stand up for the right of rich people to jack them again, and when they're old they'll accuse left-wing jews and homosexuals from the coasts of stealing the money that the people they elected stole.

If you can get past the nausea, you have to smile at the irony.

Nothing left that he could live with

Majikthise has it more or less right in her post on Hunter Thompson's suicide. There's so little now in media, in television, or on-line, with which a person with a lick of sense can live. Hunter S. Thompson was a nut, but he was a nut with a hell of a prose style. Through the lens of his nuttiness it was possible to see a world that made sense. His was a lunatic eye turned upon recognizable reality, and sometimes truths emerged more plainly from the distortion. I remember his parting shot at Nixon, done while everyone in the mainstream press turned to obligatory hagiography:

"Richard Nixon is gone now, and I am poorer for it. He was the real thing--a political monster straight out of Grendel and a very dangerous enemy. He could shake your hand and stab you in the back at the same time. He lied to his friends and betrayed the trust of his family. Not even Gerald Ford, the unhappy ex-president who pardoned Nixon and kept him out of prison, was immune to the evil fallout. Ford, who believes strongly in heaven and hell, has told more than one of his celebrity golf partners that 'I know I will go to hell, because I pardoned Richard Nixon.'

"I have had my own blood relationship with Nixon for many years, but I am not worried about it landing me in hell with him. I have already been there with that bastard, and I am a better person for it. Nixon had the unique ability to make his enemies seem honorable, and we developed a keen sense of fraternity. Some of my best friends have hated Nixon all their lives. My mother hates Nixon, my son hates Nixon, I hate Nixon, and this hatred has brought us together.

"Nixon laughed when I told him this. 'Don't worry,' he said. 'I, too, am a family man, and we feel the same way about you.'"

This was some of the best, most honest writing done about Nixon during his funeral, so far from the nauseating kitsch of network and cable news tributes airing for that entire week. Before then, I'd felt almost alone in thinking, when I heard Tricky Dick had kicked the bucket, "I hope it hurt". It gave me comfort to read something this funny and smart and true, and it could only come from a single voice, acting alone.

But single voices don't act alone all that much in the media anymore. People put on their corporate or partisan liveries (and with the whole Jeff Gannon/Jim Guckert/Whatever-the-fuck-he-calls-himself its become damn near impossible to tell the difference) and they go out and spin for their side. Of course, there are old ones, who mostly shill for that bygone lost era of clubby bipartisanship, wondering why politicians are so cranky and why people can't just take off their uniforms at the end of the day and toast each other. It's a kingdom of kitsch, this media environment, uncaring of truth, addicted to worry and shock, thirsty for a sentimental ending. It reminds me of what William Holden said to Faye Dunaway before walking out on her near the end of "Network".

"Max Schumacher: You need me. You need me badly. Because I'm your last contact with human reality. I love you. And that painful, decaying love is the only thing between you and the shrieking nothingness you live the rest of the day.

"Diana Christensen: [hesitatingly] Then, don't leave me.

"Max Schumacher: It's too late, Diana. There's nothing left in you that I can live with. You're one of Howard's humanoids. If I stay with you, I'll be destroyed. Like Howard Beale was destroyed. Like Laureen Hobbs was destroyed. Like everything you and the institution of television touch is destroyed. You're television incarnate, Diana: Indifferent to suffering; insensitive to joy. All of life is reduced to the common rubble of banality. War, murder, death are all the same to you as bottles of beer. And the daily business of life is a corrupt comedy. You even shatter the sensations of time and space into split seconds and instant replays. You're madness, Diana. Virulent madness. And everything you touch dies with you. But not me. Not as long as I can feel pleasure, and pain... and love."

Hunter Thompson died because there was nothing left in this world that he could live with. It breaks my heart that it's come to this: Hunter S. Thompson, gonzo journalist and enemy of Nixon, dead at 67. Que iconic photograph. Silence. Slow fade. Que Cialis commercial.

Goodbye Labor?

It doesn't seem likely, but this story muses on the remote possibility that Labour will lose the next election. Now, I have little love left for Tony Blair, whose third way support for George W. Bush's Iraq policies have made both England and America bleed, but this sounds pretty bad:

Such an upset, handing victory to the Conservatives or resulting in a "hung parliament" where no party has an outright majority, would radically change UK policy on various fronts.
The EU constitution could be consigned to history, and Blair's commitment to cut poverty in Africa and tackle climate change would be threatened. Economic and fiscal policy in the world's fourth largest economy would also be unclear.

I'd hate to see England abandon any of those positions--especially since Labour policies have kept the UK's economy so strong. To me, the best solution is to give Labour the victory, but to throw a good scare into the bargain. How you'd engineer exactly that electoral outcome I don't know, but if the UK's left did give Blair enough of a fright, he might find a way to put some distance between himself and Bush in order to better secure his position. His whole ill-considered notion of triangulating Europe and the U.S. died when Bush was re-electe. (Triangulating reality and neo-con fantasy is a terribly tricky business. I doubt even Bill Clinton could do it). He will soon have to make a choice between the two powers. If he refuses, I'm sure Gordon Brown could be tapped to do it for him.

Exciting New Location

I had to reformat my hard drive the other day, and unfortunately I didn't backup the old blog properly. Rather than laboriously reinserting the old Omnibus into a new iblog site, I decided to make the jump to blogspot. I'll maintain a link to the original Omnibus so that long-time readers can look at the archives, but for new posts look here.