Yo, DeAngelo, restructure this!

By Os Davis  |   Thursday, November 06, 2008  |  Comments( 46 )

Oakland Raiders
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Say what you want about Al Davis, but the man certainly knows something about cutting losses in a doomed scenario. Nor does Uncle Al suffer insubordination well. DeAngelo Hall is gone and Oakland Raiders fans should be celebrating.

Flashback to a few days ago, when Hall’s fit of self-destruction finally managed to get him excreted from the Raiders after a half-season of his abysmal on-field play could not. On that halcyon day (Sunday), Hall, in cahoots with Justin Griffith and Ashley Lelie, grandly proclaimed that he would “even be willing to part with some of their money” in order to acquire Michael Vick once released from prison.

“Gee,” came the thought. “How about this, you three big spenders? How about Oakland Raiders Football Inc. just goes ahead and takes some of your money, anyway, because you guys are not doing your outrageously expensive jobs?” Surely, Davis was thinking along similar lines; great minds think alike, eh?

Davis presumably sat down for about 0.147 seconds, not even bothering to crunch the numbers on Hall and the others. Who cares? Those numbers show the Raiders blowing somewhere in the area of $10 million for this season alone on these three, including salary, “incentives” (bwah ha ha!) and bonuses. For what? Well, for three interceptions and 13 passes (statistically) defensed; for 2 total yards on two carries plus one reception per game and ultimately a trip to the injured reserve; and for seven receptions, three of which came on opening day.

Instead of crying after the sad numbers, though, Davis surely just let the rebellious comments, the verbal usurpation of a struggling young quarterback in favor of a convicted criminal who never truly fit a game plan when he was in the NFL, fester in his mind for a bit.

Incredibly enough, the mysterious “source” that haunts the hallowed halls of Raiderdom blabbed that Davis & Co. had reportedly gone so far as to play Hall’s game, offering to restructure his current deal. Unbelievably, Hall topped the trash talking about his own quarterback by revealing that his brash statements in which he’d “put in my contract the same stipulations or whatever” were mere blathering BS.

Davis, in a nice show of not suffering fools, cut the man. And why not?

Said Gibril Wilson: "I've never been in a situation where you cut one of the best players.”

Sorry, mate, you still haven’t.

Statistics aside, Hall has shown himself to be hopeless in a man-to-man defensive scheme and has seemingly forgotten how to close a 7-yard gap between himself and the receiver. In the meantime, Hall has demonstrated a wickedly inappropriate sense of timing vis-à-vis on-field celebrations and addressed the media as though he were still performing at 2005 levels.

Surely Davis will be excoriated in some quarters for this maneuver, but truth is that if the Raiders were winning ballgames right now, the Hall release would be trumpeted as a heroic excision of a clubhouse tumor. No matter: Davis will be vindicated on this one in the end when none of this year’s remaining viable teams picks him up. Or even better: Imagine the defense-desperate Denver Broncos grab Hall, only to have him subvert the secondary further; we could see the first NFL team to average 40 points per game allowed!

The bad news (aside from confirmation of crushed expectations, that is): Would you believe some $17.5 million guaranteed to Hall still remains? The good news is that Hall is gone; further, Lelie can’t possibly be invited back to Oakland for 2009. Things are looking up, eh?

And you’re next, Javon Walker ...
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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CommentsComments: 46  |  Sign Up  View all comments
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No.1
02:27 AM
11/06/2008
Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News reports that it’s generally assumed that Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh, brother of...
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No.2
02:34 AM
11/06/2008
deangelo hall released, tyvon branch put on IR, so we resign CB Michael Waddell and DT William Joseph? these guys suck! if memory...
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No.3
Raidehz		02:58 AM
11/06/2008
***OBVIOUSLY WE'LL LOSE AGAINST CAROLINA*** So, I was thinking we could all dress up and form a circle-jerk @ Paul's house after...
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