Preseason - Preseason- Preseason

I know it is a long haul from Feb. 1st to Aug 9th HOF game.. 6 long horrible months, and there wasn't even Arena football this year :(

So for the big football fans like myself we tend to get carried away in the games. I mean don't get me wrong I loved the fact that the Raiders beat the Cowboys. I just hope the Cowboys don't return the favor during regular season in Dallas. Some teams look good and organized while others still look dazed and confused like the Kansas City Chiefs. But again no weight should be held with these pre-season games. No one knows what happens until the bell for regular season begins.

I recall my first year with the Raiders, I was very excited and pumped because the Raiders Where playing in the HOF game, John Madden got inducted into the HOF, and Art Shell was named head Coach of the Oakland Raiders. I was beyond myself I mean what else could possibly go wrong? So on we go!! We played the Eagles in the HOF game and Win.. Ugly but hey a win is a win dammit. Then on to play Minnesota.. another ugly win .. Then we played San Francisco at home - yep pre-season battle of the bay, lots of fans- lots of excitement even for a preseason game. We beat them 23-7 and all hell broke loose. Calls were coming in, I was so busy with fans wanting to sign up, "the silver & black are back" one fan said. Signs went up all over the building from booster clubs. Claiming Art Shell is back, "BRING BACK THE NASTY" .. It gets better, we play the Lions and beat them 21-3 that whole week was busy I worked easy 12 -13 hour days and lunch was being brought in for us. I remember telling a few of my fellow workers that Seattle should give me a gauge as to where the team stood. So on to Seattle! Well ... it was 20 - 7 at the half, we lost that game 30 -7. Thinking back that was a Thursday night game, and I was in the office. It was a quiet night to say the least. Maybe the calm before the storm? The Nasty was about to come back and not the kind the fans talked about .. We opened up our season on 9/11/2006 that should have been a warning - Monday Night Football on ESPN- yeah it's all downhill from here. We got spanked on National TV by the Chargers. That had to be one of the toughest times for me not only as a fan but as part of the team. Reality hit and it hit hard but it was not until the end of the season that it all sunk in. We only won 2 games that year.

So before you go a hootin an a hollering about your team during preseason.. Take a seat, enjoy the game, and just look for the up and coming rookies and players battling for position. Beyond that Preseason doesn't mean a thing.

The Rumors are fun too.. I wonder if Coach Cable punched out his assistant coach- I was like Wow that's a page right out of Bill Romanowski's "how to punch a player" book.

Til next time all - enjoy week 2 preseason games