Bigpumpkin":dmlg2cv8 said:
rastahawk":dmlg2cv8 said:
Does anyone else think the Raiders were dumb to get rid of Cable?
Let's not forget that there was turmoil in the locker room in Oakland. Tom had "cold cocked" one of his assistant coaches and there was litigation going on....it was a bad scene. We do not have all the details, but perhaps he may have not received a vote of confidence from the players.
A lot of that story came out very early as I believe it happened in the preseason. The guy in question who got "cold cocked" did nothing as far as reporting this whole situation to the police until AFTER he asked Al Davis for a promotion to be quiet and didn't get it.
He was Al's self appointed stoolie that was sent to spy on Cable, and everybody and I mean everybody in the locker room fully had Cable's back. I have yet to hear a word from anybody that questioned the way he ran the team or how he handled the situation with the guy who got "cold cocked". The story I've heard as more of it came out was that the guy basically went in looking for a fight, pushed Tom to the point where they had to be separated, and then he tried to work it into a promotion. Nobody supported that guy as far as I know. I think he seriously thought he could get Tom fired and be named head coach due to his job as Al's personal spy. That scene was ugly, but not one person involved that saw the whole thing thought Tom was in the wrong.
I'm not big on punching people, but I've been goaded to the point where somebody has nearly gotten it. In a high stress situation where a guy is chirping that he's going to have your job and reveals that it's his job to spy on you and make sure you run certain plays (basically the vertical offense Al is still in love with from his grave), then I can see how things would get heated.
The firing occurred long after the incident, and the players were stunned and many spoke out saying that the firing of Cable was idiotic, and they've been proven 100% right. What happened after he got run out of town? His successor tried to renegotiate his own contract and get himself named general manager with like 3 games left in the season and he did lose the players. They felt it was disrespectful to them and that he had put himself ahead of the team. Nobody ever felt that way about Cable.
I think you need look no further than what Cable did before he was the head man in Oakland and since he came to Seattle. Has there been any stories about him punching people's lights out or being anything but great to work with? I've not heard one. In fact I've heard nothing but the opposite throughout his entire career. I'd be very inclined to take his side in the whole incident.
I have a friend here in Utah who has season tickets and sits in that crazy section of Raiders fans (blanking on their name). He has flown out for games every week for probably 20 years and he is really connected to lots of people in the organization. When it all happened I asked what he thought, and he gave me the answer that the guy who got punch was looking for trouble and a promotion. Then when Cable left he was so pissed it made me sad for him. Then when the Hawks hired Cable he congratulated me on our team getting such a spectacular coach and he said he's going to vote for the Seahawks to win now just to see Cable do well and prove the idiots in the front office in Oakland wrong. He was pretty adamant, as were all of his cohorts.