Raider Woes Linger : NFL: Controversies will continue after Los Angeles closes its season with a dreary trip to the Redskins’ RFK Stadium.
So what’s left for the ’92 Raiders?
A trip they don’t want to take. A game they don’t want to play. And, for a few, a future they might not want to face.
The Raiders will leave their families on Christmas Day and board a plane to the frozen East to end their season at RFK Stadium on Saturday against the Washington Redskins.
It’s bad enough to be away from home on the holidays. But when your club is 6-9 and you are merely playing out the schedule on a team ridden with controversy, it can be downright depressing.
But whereas the Raiders’ season will end Saturday, win or lose, questions will linger for several individuals.
For example:
--Art Shell. Nobody is saying the Raider coach is on shaky ground. But when he said last week that Marcus Allen lied when he claimed Shell had told Allen he was powerless to stop owner Al Davis from controlling Allen’s playing time, Shell forced the players to choose sides.
Can Shell continue to command the respect and allegiance of his players in the wake of the Allen-Davis feud?
Everybody’s got an opinion. But Davis’ is the only one that matters.
The Raiders can survive a bad season. Bad karma is another matter.
--Marcus Allen. The veteran tailback had his say last week, criticizing Davis for all the world to hear.
Allen made it clear this was his farewell speech to his adopted city after carrying the ball for 15 years in Los Angeles, four as a USC Trojan and 11 as a Raider.
With an NFL agreement on free agency believed imminent, Allen will probably not have to wait for the Raiders to trade or waive him.
The real challenge will come next season, when he gets an opportunity to justify his claim that the Raiders have unfairly held him back by turning him into a specialty back, limiting him to third-down, goal-line and blocking situations while he was still able to function full time.
In the limited chances he has been given, Allen has shown that he still has the moves, the slashing, elusive running style that has made him so effective for so long.
But he will be 33 next season. Can he still carry not only the ball, but a full work load? Ironically, the Raiders, by limiting Allen’s playing time, might have given him the opportunity to prolong his career.
--Bob Golic. There can be no such optimism for the Raider defensive lineman. At 35, after 14 years spent crashing into opposing linemen and pounding his body against ballcarriers and quarterbacks, Golic can’t have much mileage left.
Yet if his career does end Saturday, he will leave with a bitter taste. The Raiders phased Golic out this season, leaving him inactive for the last six games. But he believes that he can still play. The only question in his mind is whether he wants to start all over again with another club.
Davis, who said he would try to get Golic some playing time this week, is also not ready to label his lineman finished .
Although it is clear the Raiders don’t see a role for Golic, Davis said Sunday that Golic shouldn’t necessarily assume that he is out of football.
“I know he’s down, but there are still teams out there that could use a Bob Golic to fill a specific defensive need,†Davis said.
“He still might hook on with somebody for next season.â€
Golic had been told by the Raiders that he would play against the San Diego Chargers. He learned Saturday that that would not be the case.
But Davis’ pledge seems to ensure that Golic, a former Cleveland Brown, will at least spend his final day as a Raider the way he spent much of his professional life--cold, exhausted, dirty and in pain.
He wouldn’t want it any other way.
--Todd Marinovich. The Raiders’ human yo-yo has spent a frustrating season going from No. 2 quarterback to starter, back to No. 2, and then down to No. 3.
Marinovich could rise again to backup this week behind Vince Evans if Jay Schroeder is forced to sit out because of an injured shoulder.
But that’s still a long drop from this time last season when Schroeder was also injured.
With the Raiders facing the Kansas City Chiefs in their regular-season finale a year ago, and also the following week in a playoff game, Marinovich stepped in for Schroeder and, although his team lost both games, was proclaimed by many as the Raider quarterback of the future.
Nobody is making any such claims these days.
--Mervyn Fernandez. The six-year veteran fell out of favor early in the season and has made it into the lineup only when the Raiders had no alternative.
If he wishes to remain in somebody’s lineup, Fernandez’s only alternative seems to be to go somewhere else.
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