Maurice Jones-Drew excited to play first real home game of his career

Maurice Jones-Drew has been in the league for eight seasons. In that time he has technically played in a great many home games both preseason and regular season. But on Friday, he will take the field for the first true home game of his career.

The veteran running back was born in Oakland. He grew up a Raiders fan in the nearby East Bay city of Antioch and attended East Bay powerhouse De La Salle High School. Then after his college career at UCLA, he was shipped off to the East Coast to play for the Jacksonville Jaguars, where he has spent his entire career up to this point.

"It's going to be exciting to have everyone there, people that I grew up with that are Raider fans, season-ticket holders," Jones-Drew said Wednesday. "It's going to be exciting. I just want to go out there, try and play a perfect game, strive to be perfect, and we'll see how it goes."

He has played in Oakland a couple times but both times, he was in the opposing jersey as it was an away game for his Jaguars team. He has played in Oakland twice in his career - both happened over the past two seasons, and both times he suffered an injury. The first time he came to Oakland was in week six of the 2012 season, and on his second carry, he suffered a Lisfranc foot injury that ended his season.

Last season he came to Oakland in week two and injured himself again. He was still not completely back to full strength after an off-season of rehab after the surgery to repair his foot from the Lisfranc injury. Then on his tenth carry of the game, Charles Woodson made his now classic leaping clothesline tackle and MJD came down awkward on his ankle.

It's an odd twist of fate (no pun intended) that the injury to MJD caused him to struggle much of the season which is what ultimately ended his career in Jacksonville and brought him to the Raiders.

MJD is hoping being in one of the Silver & Black uniforms this time around yields better results.

Follow @LeviDamien