Ross Resigns as Raider Fan

After 27 years of being a diehard Oakland Raider fan, I am officially resigning. After that last Super Bowl loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Raiders have been in an ugly process of rebuilding, rebuilding, rebuilding.  Is the team rebuilding towards something? Was there a strategy to get this team back into shape in a certain amount of time?

I am not a native Californian. I grew up mostly in New York. When I was three years old my family moved to Minnesota. So the television was full of Twins baseball, North Stars hockey and Vikings football. Funny enough every time my father took me to a Minnesota Twins baseball game they were always playing the NY Yankees. So I naturally became a Yankee fan. However it was awesome watching Rod Carew. My father also took me to North Star games. I even took skating lessons and joined a hockey team. When my family moved back to New York as I was turning eight years old my father got season tickets for the NY Rangers. Madison Square Garden became my second home. The green seats ruled. Potvin sucks!

My only difficult choice was picking a favorite football team. In Minnesota I was a kid and had this awesome Vikings jacket that I treasured. I recall being very sad when my mother told me she had to get rid of the jacket because I grew out of it. Who knows, if I received another Vikings jacket I could still be a Vikings fan today.

Returning to New York made my choice for a favorite football team confusing. I warmed up to the NY Giants in the first few years. I will admit to being one of those kids that loved watching a good team do very well and watching the best players in the game do amazing feats. So in addition to being a Giants fan, I enjoyed watching both the Pittsburg Steelers and the Oakland Raiders. Yes, I jumped onto bandwagons. The Steelers had exciting players like Terry Bradshaw and Lynn Swan. But something grabbed me big time when watching the likes of Jim Punkett, Lyle Alzado, Howie Long and the great Marcus Allen. Something struck a chord with me. A sense of identity came over me. And then “RRRRRRRR-A-I-D-E-R-S! RRRRRRRRR!” Welcome to THE BLACK HOLE!

It felt like it was meant to be when my family moved to Los Angeles, CA in 1992. I wanted to pursue the film industry and it was a great opportunity to see the Raiders when the team was in L.A. I was so sad when the team moved back to Oakland, but that is where the team should probably stay. 

So, even though I mostly grew up in New York and jumping on the Silver & Black bandwagon, I stuck it out for 27 years. The Giants became my second favorite team. (That comes in handy when the Raiders have a losing season.) There have been wonderful times with great players over the years such as #34 Bo Jackson.

I sympathize with other fans of terrible teams such as the Detroit Lions and the Buffalo Bills. It’s tough to be a fan of a team that seems to have a curse against it. The Raiders have always had a bad reputation for taking bad penalties so that’s nothing new. But this team has also gone by the moto, ‘COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE.’ What does that mean? Apparently it means nothing! A few years of rebuilding is understandable. Where is the leadership for this team...six years later? It’s not on the field and doesn’t seem to be on the sidelines or up in the booth. I can no longer identify with a team that has no identity.

I guess I’m trading the Raiders for the LA Lakers since I became a fan when Shaq arrived and have been following the basketball team since.

I wish the Raider organization well and hope it turns around if for no one else for it's fans that expect some sort of 'excellence.'

Perhaps quitting is a reflection of my own current frustration in not finding work. Who needs the extra frustration? The irony is that the Raiders play the Giants this Sunday, Oct. 11, 2009. Giants, I’m back! Back in a NY Groove. GO GIANTS!