OAKLAND -- The idea that we should feel sorry for Raider fans because of the shameful way they have been treated by their team has run its course. At this point, what you choose to do with this vat of hot tar with helmets is entirely your doing.
Sunday’s 20-6 loss at the hands of the Los Angeles Chargers was in large part the standard fare for this perpetually failing restaurant – although the Derek Carr Screw-It-Screen on fourth-and-5 will go down in the annals of bad dining as something truly special.
But there were still people in the building watching because . . . well, I have no earthly idea at this point. The Raiders already provided all the evidence you would need to skip the game and just tailgate, so the fact that you still go inside and cheer until you can’t stand it any longer (in this case, shortly before halftime) is really no longer their fault. You know what they’re giving you, so if you keep getting in line waiting for your share, then we’ve gone beyond offering condolences and are now totally resigned to your unhappiness.
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You see, the basis of fandom is still an exchange – you pay money, and you anticipate that what you’re paying that money for isn’t dysentery in entertainment form. That’s because there are no signs that say, “Today’s Blue Plate Special, Catastrophic Gastric Distress.” The first time you get it, you’re unlucky. The second time, you have some explaining to do.
By now, though, you know what is being served, no matter what you order. Thus, Sunday’s game, which looked like every other game they play these days, is really past the notion of consumer protection to full-on caveat emptor.
Let the sucker beware.
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Hell, Carr’s frustrated yet deliberate grounding of the fourth down pass because the only available target, tight end Jared Cook, was too closely guarded, was not so much a failure of nerve as it was a list of ingredients on the side of the box. This is who they are. They have chosen this. And by watching, this is your choice, too.
There is no other way to tart this up. What you see now isn’t part of the rebuild, or even part of the retreat. This is the rolling surrender, the year-long giving-up that may last another year before Jon Gruden decides it’s safe to repair not only the damage he inherited but that he caused.
And even that story has been told and retold to the point of nausea. The Raiders are in another semi-deliberate freefall because they know that’s how rebuilds begin, and they know that because they keep rebuilding over and over again.
Toward that end, there is no reason to break down plays on video, or project whom Gruden might be enamored with going into 2019 or 2020, or try to find wins on the remaining schedule – although Arizona minus-3½ at Oakland next week is so beguiling as a betting play. No matter who they draft, they’ll still have too many holes unfilled, and even if that player is generational, he could still end up part of a preseason trade because Gruden didn’t like the way he approached OTAs.
In short, we’re not telling you to give up, or maintain your enthusiasm. We’re just telling you that your choice whether to see or not see the Raiders in this latest version of their dying days is no longer being guided by guile or misdirection or the lure of broken promises of yore. By now, you know what’s coming – heartless, directionless, gormless failure – and we can only assume that’s what you’re willing to give your money to see, in hopes of a brighter day that never seems to come.