j'marcus webb is starting for them?

As a closet Raiders (2nd favorite team) fan since I was a kid,I hope they surprise.

The Raiders are cooler than the Bears and one of many franchises that has accomplished more than the Bears, and that's even with the last 12 straight years of crap.

Hey, other than the Packers, Steelers, 49ers, Cowboys, Patriots, Raiders, Giants, Redskins, Dolphins, Colts, and Ravens, who has a prouder tradition than the Bears? In your face, Houston Texans.

The Raiders are cooler than the Bears and one of many franchises that has accomplished more than the Bears, and that's even with the last 12 straight years of crap.

Jack Del Rio is a boob who guarantees nothing but mediocrity.

I will, however, agree that there's nothing funnier than some smarmy shitbird like Canellis or Tom Thayer getting all misty-eyed about the "tradition" of a team whose post-1985 playoff record is essentially identical to that of the Atlanta Falcons.

After an 0-3 start last season, coach Jack Del Rio decided to place a huge tree stump and an ax in the middle of the locker room to illustrate his new mantra, "Keep chopping wood."

Each day, players would take little hunks out of the tree, leaving wood splinters scattered about the locker room. In Week 5, the Jaguars finally won their first game, but the log and ax remained. The next Thursday, after Hanson and kicker Seth Marler had finished their workout but the rest of the team was still on the practice field, Hanson took a whack at the log.

He lost control and hacked a deep, nasty gash in his right, non-kicking, leg. Blood poured out and a rush ensued to get Hanson to the hospital, where he had emergency surgery.

"I'll find another slogan," Del Rio said, clearly embarrassed himself after the accident. "The message was understood."

my favorite jack del rio story is when he coached the jags and put a stump with an ax in the middle of the locker room. the team slogan that year was "keep on chopping" or something football-y like that.

the kick took a shot swinging the ax at the stump and slice his leg. i believe the injury necessitated his placement on ir.

ninja'd!

It really is the dumbest, meatballiest, footballiest thing ever.

Tony Boselli...recalls when he was at USC how then-coach Larry Smith gave tennis balls to his players, reminding them to bounce back after a loss.

Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells used those tactics from time to time. When his Patriots were playing the Jets, he dangled toy airplanes in their lockers. When he was coaching in Dallas, he reminded his players not to buy into the hype being said about them — or, in his words, "eat the cheese" — so he put a giant blue mousetrap in the middle of the Cowboys locker room, and baited it with a piece of cheese.

Once, when he was coaching the Jets, Parcells left an empty gas can in the locker of linebacker Brian Cox, along with a question: "Do you have any left in the tank?"

Last season, before his Colts played 0-4 Jacksonville, Chuck Pagano placed a mousetrap in each player's locker. The message: Don't fall prey to a "trap" game. The Colts didn't, posting a 37-3 victory.

Dennis Franchione staging a terrorist raid of his own locker room, followed by a SWAT team coming in and liberating the locker room from the pretend terrorists. Here is part of a description of that incident: "[T]wo of the Rangers burst into the room portraying terrorists bearing (wooden fake) weapons. They 'captured' Scott in front of the group and tied him up and blindfolded him, while the others held the players hostage." (God, I wish there was video of that. That's amazing.)