I wasn't going to write about this until Jeff Fletcher himself revealed it, but he just did in his Instant Baseball Blog. After 11 years, Fletch is leaving the Press Democrat, and anyone who loves first-rate baseball coverage, anyone who loves a writer who loves baseball and knows everything about [...]

I've been thinking about this subject because the NFL Network phoned me this morning and is coming to my house to tape me speaking about Al. The guy I spoke to said he wants me to talk about what's been going on with the Raiders this season, but also give [...]

Here are some key stats I project for the Niners against the Patriots on Sunday:Number of times J.T. O'Sullivan gets sacked -- 6.Number of turnovers by J.T. O'Sullivan. This includes fumbles and interceptions -- 3.Number of catches by Vernon Davis -- 1.Number of sacks by San Francisco defense -- zero.-- [...]

As he drove away from the Raiders facility on Tuesday -- after getting fired -- Lane Kiffin announced to the media he would have a press conference Wednesday to give his side of the story. This was not unprecedented. Mariucci held a press conference the day after the Niners fired [...]

I had no problem with Al firing Kiffin -- thought he needed to. Kiffin wouldn't shut up and he was becoming an inpediment to winning, plus he wasn't so hot as a coach.OK, fair enough. But Kiffin did have his points. Consider this. Al seethed because Kiffin wanted to fire [...]

I feel depressed. I don't want it to stop. I want the Raiders to keep exploding with me present. I want shouting matches and near fights in the press room between a Raiders official and a sportswriter. I want the coach putting down the owner and the public-relations department and [...]

In other news the Raiders hired a new head coach. I'll give you the basic facts about Tom Cable but they hardly matter when you know what Al Davis did BEFORE he introduced Cable.Tom Cable: Raiders offensive line coach, formerly offensive coordinator at UCLA and did pretty well, head coach [...]

ESPN is reporting Kiffin got the ax at 9:15 am on the phone by Al, who also told him no salary, bub. How that plays out will be interesting.ESPN also says offensive line coach Tom Cable is the next coach. I'm not sure if that's true and I'm not sure [...]

I'm going to put in the entire Billy Beane quote from his postseason wrapup. I'm going to put it in because it's a classic in the Beane sense, a Beanapalooza."My goal is to continue to improve every year. Sometimes you improve by a lot and sometimes you improve by a [...]

As I say, the next coach is not Tom Cable, Paul Hackett or Gregg Knapp.Cable is too old and has no NFL head coaching experience. Same goes for Hackett. And it is assumed Knapp will leave the Raiders after this season and go to the Seahawks.Al Davis, I believe, is [...]