Last weekend, Jon Gruden approached his team, after published a 10-year-old email of his, to try to own his mistake. He told the players the message in the email—the one that referred to NFLPA chief DeMaurice Smith with a racial trope—was wrong. And that there was no place for it. And he apologized for it.
He then turned the team’s focus toward the Bears.
The Raiders would lose the game, and Gruden would lose his job a day later, with a follow-up report from revealing more offensive emails of Gruden’s, emanating from the league’s investigation into the Washington Football Team. Now, where Gruden failed, there lies real opportunity for Raiders interim coach Rich Bisaccia, GM Mike Mayock and their staffs, and for the once-proud franchise to come out of a pretty dark week.
In fact, if you know the way business has been done the last few years in Oakland and Las Vegas, you know the deal. While the weekend’s mea culpa came at a point where it was too late for Gruden, it’s leading into a shot that’s right on time for Mayock and Bisaccia.
Do take this as a repudiation of Gruden’s coaching ability, because that’s not what it is. For his faults over the last three and a half years, and there were plenty, the one thing that was always there was just that: The guy can coach. But the environment in the building was a different matter altogether, with Raiders HQ having become the sort of place where few knew what to expect from one day to the next.
That’s what happens when one man, and one man alone, seizes control of everything.
The entire operation begins to reflect his personality.
So now, in a certain way, a cloud should lift off the building, and the Raiders have the chance to paint the sky beneath it. The canvas is open for Bisaccia and Mayock, and owner Mark Davis, too.
Can they reinvent the Raiders on the fly? Over the next three months, they’ll try.
If not, another opportunity for the franchise will be waiting.
