FanPost

Would Al have allowed this?

Although I get the basic principals of the salary cap and how it works, I’m not an expert or a "capologist". I’m not familiar with all of the details of exactly how it works or what has changed about it over the years. I’m just a fan, and I’ve watched the Oakland Raiders do their best the field as talented a team as possible every year. We’ve had ups and downs but on the whole we have been as competitive as most teams over the years, and every off-season we manage to sign a free agent or two, which brings hope as a new season starts. I can’t remember a time when free-agency began and within hours a half dozen of our top players bailed for another team and we sat silent, helpless. I can’t ever remember the Raiders being so powerless. The same man who is being blamed for the current situation is the same man who never would have allowed it to happen. No Al Davis-led Raiders team would sit quietly watching every quality free agent sign elsewhere. Never at any time can I recall the Raiders saying they were basically screwed because of moves they made in the past, and there wasn’t much they could do. The Raiders always scrambled and found a way to at least try to improve their roster every year. Now that he’s gone, it’s popular to blame him, but I wonder if he were still calling the shots if the Raiders might be doing things differently. I somehow don’t think they would be silent while the league picked and choosed the cream of their roster. I doubt if the attitude would be "We screwed up the last few years, now we have to pay for it." I believe Al would have figured out a way.