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4xchampncountin
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Raiders wide receiver Tim Brown went on a San Francisco radio station Monday night and made some of the most remarkable allegations you'll ever hear about an NFL coach. If what Brown said is true, Pete Rose has nothing on Bill Callahan.
The gist of Brown's assault? Callahan "sabotaged" the team's season.
Brown did not suggest this was accidental sabotage, either. He suggested that Callahan had it in for someone in the front office, and just about everything he did from the first day of training camp until Sunday's loss to the Chargers was done with blatant disregard for wins and losses.
Callahan changed the team's offense for no reason other than sabotage. Callahan injected a negative attitude onto the team for no reason other than sabotage. Callahan deactivated Charles Woodson and Charlie Garner before Sunday's loss to the Chargers for no reason other than spite and sabotage.
I was driving as I listened to this, and my jaw was resting on the steering wheel. A Hall of Fame receiver, one who spent his whole career with Team Dysfunction, suggested repeatedly over the course of an hour that his head coach intentionally put his team in a position to lose games.
Have we ever heard anything close to this damning? We always knew the Raiders were the most unusual franchise in professional sports, but could it have deteriorated to this point? Commitment to Sabotage? Just lose intentionally, baby.
Brown said Callahan would spend time during practice telling the team they had no chance of winning that week's game.
He said Callahan repeatedly belittled his players to the point where nobody wanted to play for the coach.
He said Callahan came in at halftime of a game in which the Raiders were leading the Broncos and said, "Well, we haven't turned the ball over yet." The Raiders, evidently swayed by the power of suggestion, had three turnovers in the second half and lost.
"He coached to get fired," Brown said.
Brown also provided a history lesson, saying Callahan -- then an assistant -- twice walked out on the team in the final games of the 1998 and 1999 season. Just took his headset off and left the field, saying he didn't want to be associated with such folk as the Raiders.
An obviously fawning caller made a joking reference to Brown, saying he should have let the fans know about this weeks ago so the fans could have taken care of it in the parking lot.
Brown laughed, but the caller hit on something important: If the Raiders believed their coach was actively sabotaging their chances -- deliberately, no less -- didn't they have an obligation to themselves and their fans to make it public before the season ended?
Judging by his read-the-speech, leave-the-podium routine of the past two days, Callahan is not likely to respond to Brown's allegations.
One thing is clear, though: This was either the most vigorous plea for a coach's firing in history, or the most phenomenal shredding of a coach's character ever heard in public.
Just goes to show: There's a whole weird world out there, and then there are the Raiders.
The gist of Brown's assault? Callahan "sabotaged" the team's season.
Brown did not suggest this was accidental sabotage, either. He suggested that Callahan had it in for someone in the front office, and just about everything he did from the first day of training camp until Sunday's loss to the Chargers was done with blatant disregard for wins and losses.
Callahan changed the team's offense for no reason other than sabotage. Callahan injected a negative attitude onto the team for no reason other than sabotage. Callahan deactivated Charles Woodson and Charlie Garner before Sunday's loss to the Chargers for no reason other than spite and sabotage.
I was driving as I listened to this, and my jaw was resting on the steering wheel. A Hall of Fame receiver, one who spent his whole career with Team Dysfunction, suggested repeatedly over the course of an hour that his head coach intentionally put his team in a position to lose games.
Have we ever heard anything close to this damning? We always knew the Raiders were the most unusual franchise in professional sports, but could it have deteriorated to this point? Commitment to Sabotage? Just lose intentionally, baby.
Brown said Callahan would spend time during practice telling the team they had no chance of winning that week's game.
He said Callahan repeatedly belittled his players to the point where nobody wanted to play for the coach.
He said Callahan came in at halftime of a game in which the Raiders were leading the Broncos and said, "Well, we haven't turned the ball over yet." The Raiders, evidently swayed by the power of suggestion, had three turnovers in the second half and lost.
"He coached to get fired," Brown said.
Brown also provided a history lesson, saying Callahan -- then an assistant -- twice walked out on the team in the final games of the 1998 and 1999 season. Just took his headset off and left the field, saying he didn't want to be associated with such folk as the Raiders.
An obviously fawning caller made a joking reference to Brown, saying he should have let the fans know about this weeks ago so the fans could have taken care of it in the parking lot.
Brown laughed, but the caller hit on something important: If the Raiders believed their coach was actively sabotaging their chances -- deliberately, no less -- didn't they have an obligation to themselves and their fans to make it public before the season ended?
Judging by his read-the-speech, leave-the-podium routine of the past two days, Callahan is not likely to respond to Brown's allegations.
One thing is clear, though: This was either the most vigorous plea for a coach's firing in history, or the most phenomenal shredding of a coach's character ever heard in public.
Just goes to show: There's a whole weird world out there, and then there are the Raiders.
