Poor Raider Nation just can’t catch a break. Oakland has struggled mightily since losing in Super Bowl XXXVII to the Tampa Bay Bucs back in 2002. Since then, the Silver and Black is an appalling 53-123 in 11 seasons. Needless to say, it hasn’t been a good decade for Oakland.
The team has also battled the perception that is a mismanaged franchise where players go to die. According to a recent poll by NFL Nation Confidential, almost a quarter of players polled said the Raiders would have to pay them double before they would consider joining the Silver & Black.
The Raiders are followed by the Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars and Green Bay Packers as least desirable places tok play. Although I’m sure the cold weather and not the state of the franchise is what pushes players away from Wisconsin.
While the results might not be surprising to most NFL fans, some current Raiders don’t believe the poll is very accurate.
“Whoever said it, they’re telling a lie. They didn’t think about it. They thought about the one team that has the biggest stigma of negativity around them.” said fullback Marcel Reece, “The most hated team in the world? The first thing that comes to mind is the Oakland Raiders. The bad boys. The black sheep of the NFL. And it’s not really a negative thing because we don’t do bad things. We’re not the team that’s having the most arrests in the NFL, or the DUIs or the drug cases or throwing the big parties.”
Reece does have a point, it seems the stigma against the Raiders ties more directly to their ownership than their players. In comparison to some other teams and players who have been in the headlines over the past couple of seasons, the Raiders have been relatively quiet.
But when your owner looks like this, you are going to run into problems.
The Raiders look to finally make an impact this season with some interesting additions to their roster.