Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

  More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! The Oakland Raiders picked University of Maryland'Darrius Heyward-Bey even though he was rated by many behind Texas Tech Wide Receiver Michael Crabtree. Even in cyberspace, Crabtree's a better rated pass catcher. On Madden Football, Michael Crabtree is rated ahead of Darrius Heyward-Bey 84 to 79, but Darrius Heyward-Bey was taken ahead of Crabtree. For the Raiders, Draftniks here in NYC think it was a question of speed. Heyward-Bey runs a 4.3 40 yard dash versus Crabtree's 4.5 time, but Crabtree's a gamer. Still his underclassman status and his recent injury have caused Crabtree to be down-graded by some. But not so far that the San Francisco 49ers took him as the 10th pick. A number of people here at the Draft are questioning the Raiders decision to pass on him for the lower rated Heywood-Bey. Here's a video example: a conversation featuring our Bill Chachkes and Dewie from Yardbarker both in the Interv...

More at Raiders Gab : “The Desert News reports that the Raiders and owner Al Davis actually were looking to hire Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham. Here is the report: Al Davis, the Oakland Raiders eccentric owner who once hired Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham’s father Fred as a defensive coach, called Whittingham after watching Utah dominate Alabama at the Sugar Bowl and tried to hire him to coach the Raiders defense. A little less than a week before the Sugar Bowl that piqued Davis’ interest, Whittingham agreed to a five-year contract extension worth roughly $6 million.” -- If Al can't get an unknown college coach, then is there hope for the Sliver and Black?

More at IBA : “New York Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride spent more than four hours at the Raiders' year-round facility in Alameda on Thursday in an attempt to persuade managing general partner Al Davis that he deserves a second shot at an NFL head coaching job. Gilbride arrived from New York in the early afternoon, headed to the team's facility and met with several people in the Raiders front office, as well as Davis. His day concluded in the early evening without any official word on whether he made any headway. For now, Gilbride is competing with Tom Cable and Green Bay Packers assistant head coach/linebackers coach Winston Moss for the job Cable held for the final 12 games last season on an interim basis.” -- Kevin Gilbribe is not the best choice for the job. Mike Shanahan's a better pick, if Mr. Davis would get over his petty issues with him.

More at Inside Bay Area : “The Raiders dismissed an ESPN report Sunday that said managing general partner Al Davis is negotiating to sell part of the team to a group with designs on moving it to Los Angeles. The report was written by ESPN's Chris Mortensen, who Davis called "a professional liar" on Sept. 30 for his penchant for writing stories about the Raiders without attributing them to named persons employed by the Raiders. On Sunday, Mortensen wrote that Davis and chief executive Amy Trask are negotiating a transaction with a group led by C. Dean Metropoulos a transaction that would turn over at least 10 percent of the Raiders. Mortensen attributed the story to unnamed "league sources." Raiders senior executive John Herrera spoke with Davis on Sunday morning and characterized Davis' reaction to the report as "incredulous." He also vehemently denied the report.”

By The Blue Screen - NY Daily News : “The Giants have won 22 games in two seasons, and followed up a Super Bowl championship by earning the No. 1 seed in the NFC. So really it’s no wonder that other NFL teams would be interested in raiding their coaching staff. And apparently defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo isn’t the only one drawing interest. The Oakland Raiders are reportedly going to contact the Giants about speaking to offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride, too. Gilbride, who was the Giants’ quarterbacks coach from 2004-2006 before stepping up to offensive coordinator last season, was instrumental in the development of Eli Manning and helped turn the Giants into one of the most powerful and diverse offenses in the NFL.He also has head coaching experience, with the San Diego Chargers in 1997-98.” -- For some reason I'm not excited about Gilbride and that's because I view his offenses as static and inflexible. I also don't think he has the right temperment to coach ...

More at Oakland Tribune : “The Raiders' all-around impressive 27-16 victory over the red-hot Houston Texans on Sunday had those who braved the cold and rain at the Coliseum roaring their approval and likely wondering if this was a one-game aberration or a harbinger of things to come.”

Raiders' losing becoming historic - Inside Bay Area : “The Raiders went 33-15 in their 48 regular-season games from 2000-02. They enter today's game against the New England Patriots enmeshed in a 22-71 tailspin that isn't losing much, if any, of its momentum. By comparison, the Patriots are 74-19 during the same period. A loss today by the 3-10 Raiders, or in any of their final three games, would cement their place in the annals of the Advertisement NFL as the first team with six straight seasons of at least 11 losses.” -- The Raiders are an organization in search of true leadership. The problem starts in the front office and from what I'm told, a culture that fosters fear and backbiting.

Jim Fassel says he wants to coach the Oakland Raiders. I think he should hold off on that before he hears my take. To make it work, Mr. Davis, the Manager of the General Partner of the Raiders, needs to really give the head coach power to be...head coach. 

I have it from a good unnamed source that the Oakland Raiders -- rumored by some to leave after the current lease expires in five years -- plan to remain in Oakland through 2016, when the original Raider bonds expire. The news comes as welcome on the day that Oakland opens a sold-out Coliseum and hosts the hated Denver Broncos. But the obvious question of if the Raiders retention will mean a new stadium is not settled. As the current Coliseum is vastly behind schedule for an upgrade and a mostly-privately-owned stadium could bring big bucks to the "Coliseum Redevelopment Area" surrounding the Complex, combined with corporate sponsorship, the targer appears to be an ungrade of the stadium. It's also clear that what I told GAP Founder and Oakland A's owned Don Fisher two years ago is coming to pass: the Fremont A's deal is a loser because of its design based on land-sales performance. While that scheme works in a great economy, it becomes more and more te...

I want to be the first Oakland blogger to affirm Chip Johnson's article today charging favoritism in the City of Oakland. My response is that it doesn't start or stop at the CAO's office or with Deborah Edgerly herself, and a really complete look should go back 10 years, not just 2004. Look, I was treated so terribly by the City of Oakland when I was trying to bring the Super Bowl here , that my own mother -- who's still cancer-free by the way -- observed that "Between Blacks who are jealous of you and Whites who think someone White should be doing what you're doing, you're going through a terrible place." She was right. Oakland's government has a long history of hating well-educated Black men who don't follow the normal ethnic stereotypes. I remember 1998, when all of us from Elihu Harris' office -- I was economic advisor -- were being placed in various departments of the City of Oakland after Jerry Brown won a landslide victory to ...

I met with Oakland's elected City Attorney and my friend John Russo the day after election day to talk about his unopposed win for a third term, how Oakland has changed, Oakland Politics and the District Three Council race, who Senator Obama should pick as his VP, what Russo's is proudest of with the evolution of his office, and the talks between the City of Oakland and the Oakland Raiders. Russo explains that the talks are between the Raiders and the Oakland / Alameda County Joint Powers Authority and that they're going well. He also confirmed that Raiders Manager of The General Partner Al Davis is not in good health and has not attended all of the meeting. As to the possibility that the Raiders would get a new stadium, he said no, but they're in agreement on the matters of concern to the Raiders. Given what I know from trying to bring the 2005 Super Bowl to Oakland (we lost to Jacksonville), that means we should expect to see an upgraded Coliseum at some point i...

Kofi Bonner | Bonner With Lennar in SF Bay Area | 49ers Stadium Issue After a stellar career as an executive in the National Football League and with a credit card company, my friend Kofi Bonner is back in the San Francisco Bay Area as Director Of Urban Land for Lennar Corporation. Here's some background on the person who was once Interim City Manager for Oakland from the SF Business TImes. Kofi Bonner is back. Lennar Corp. has hired the former Bay Area planning and political whiz to help in its Hunters Point and Treasure Island developments and search for fresh Bay Area opportunities from San Jose to Sacramento. "It's wonderful to see the old faces. Many have moved onward and upward and are as cantankerous and loving as ever," said Bonner. "It's great to be back." Known for his aggressive role in redeveloping Emeryville during the 1980s, Bonner also served as the head of economic development and interim City Manger in Oakland before becoming an...

Ever wonder what a day at the Oakland Raiders game is like. See my video of my day at the Raiders / Colts game. It features Raider Legend Moris Bradshaw, Raider Fan Legend Charlie Santana, Jr., and Raider fans and The Raiderettes. Oh, there was a game, too!

It doesn’t matter if it’s a retail business or the Oakland A’s, all good economic development efforts start with one thing: action. Well, two things – action and aggression. Over the past six years, the City of Oakland – and I mean everyone, not just the government, has shown little of either. By contrast, Fremont, led by Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty, and Fremont’s Mayor Bob Wasserman have been both active and aggressive in attempting to yank the A’s from Oakland. What can Oakland do? Simple. Fight. Take action and aggressively work to retain the A’s. Oakland should use Jacksonville, Florida as an example. Jacksonville had no business thinking it could host a Super Bowl game, but their shortcomings didn’t stop them from trying. They were rejected by the NFL, but kept coming back until finally in 2000, they landed the right to host the 2005 Super Bowl – the one the Oakland-Alameda County Sports Commission and I worked to bring to Oakland. We had a better plan, and...

Yep. I just returned from a week-long trip to Miami, Florida and to attend my fifth Super Bowl game, Super Bowl XLI. For more on my trip and videos, check out our NFL Super Bowl Game blog. More on Oakland soon. Frankly, I was glad to get away from all of the bad news around town. Geez. Now, I learn that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's bearing his sole for all to see. Maybe that's a good turning point and a good example for politicians in Oakland and all over the World. Full emotional disclosure.

Click here to read my post on this over at SBS NFL Business Blog.