Clueless On The Blind Side

Today is NFL week 2 of the regular season and the Raiders are playing their home opener at 1:05 p.m. at the Coliseum taking on the Rams. I was going to post a pregame preview, but the discussion of today's game as been analyzed already here extensively. After last week's game in Tennessee, we all know what the Raiders need to do this afternoon and we all know what we expect the Raiders to give to their fans today to make the memory of last week more dim.

However, though, speaking of dim, I find myself completely and utterly astonished by what I read this morning provided by Vittorio Tafur with SFGate.com following his discussion with Mario Henderson. That interview should leave us all highly concerned about any QB the Raiders put out there as long as Mario is permitted to play football in the NFL.

Mario Henderson:

"I just realized for me, playing left tackle, I think it's just like, everybody gives up sacks, but now I really understand the fact of protecting the quarterback's blind side. Because I watch Sunday, guys getting sacked, and I guess he can see it coming from the right side, but it's just like, when it's coming from there, I really see the quarterback has no (frickin') idea.

I read this and am holding onto a sliver of hope that Mario is just messing with the media and is being totally facetious. However, I think he is serious and apparently truly clueless about the meaning and duties of his position he is being paid well for, which begs the question, how much intelligence is required to play the left tackle position in the NFL?

"That's why the majority of sacks the quarterback gets is from the blind side. Always sack-fumble. Majority of them. Same thing that happened in the (49ers) game. So I just kind of look at it like, Damn, man, the left side is really important. So now I kind of feel for Jason and I feel for my position."

Thanks Mario, we all feel relieved now that you understand that the "left side is really important". Sorry for assuming that you would have thought that, beginning with high school football, then 4 years at Florida State(one must real wonder about their scholastic credibility now) and three years in the NFL, but that's just me.

"If you just turned on ESPN, you seen me get beat by a sack-fumble. Nobody knows he was offsides because they didn't throw the flags. They jumped us a few times in the game. But once again, playing left tackle, a guy jumps offsides, I have no chance. None. And it always looks the worst coming from the backside, the blind side. I really learned that. For reals."

For reals Mario, way to dominate your position.

This next one is regarding crowd noise, which obviously has come to a surprise to Mario that crowd noise is actually a factor in the NFL:

"That's kind of what my problem (was in Tennessee). That was real loud. Like I said, it's still no excuse. I'll take the sacks, I'll take the fumbles, all the criticism and all the things people are saying. The only thing I can do is just keep working. It's all I can do. ... I still got to keep looking forward. I just kind of got to block out that negativity. It is tough, though, I ain't going to lie. It really is tough, man."

Great Mario, maybe when you are trying to block out all this negativity, you could try just to block the man that lines up in front of you for a change.

Seriously folks, this problem on the left side has already been well diagnosed on this site, much of which was thought to be a lack of skill by Henderson. But now, it should be much clearer to us what the problem is with Mario, even if he doesn't realize it quite yet.

This is about as close to an emergency as you're going to get with the Raiders and Mario should not be allowed to take another NFL snap until he goes back to school or has a counseling session with Sandra Bullock. The Raiders coaches are just as clueless for permitting this, not properly educating Mario and should be ashamed of themselves for allowing him to start on the blind side.

What do you think Nation? What should be done about with the clueless one?