We’ve come to expect boorish, misguided behavior from Raiders exec John Herrera, who most recently wanted to ban former Oakland quarterback and current CBS broadcaster Rich Gannonfrom the building, applying an all-too-literal interpretation to Gannon’s suggestion that owner Al Davis should “blow up the building.”
Apparently, one of the newest Raiders has applied a “When in Rome” approach to his assimilation. Defensive lineman Richard Seymour did his best Herrera impression (sans the “Get your f--king hands of me” admonition) after Sunday’s embarrassing home loss to the Broncos.
Seymour drew a penalty during the game for pulling the hair of Broncos offensive lineman Ryan Clady. The half-the-distance walk-off moved the ball 14 yards closer to the Raiders’ end zone, allowing Denver to eventually add another seven points, which pushed the lead to 20-3.
After the game, Lowell Cohn of the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat asked Seymour about the incident. But Seymour wasn’t interested in talking about it.
The full dialogue is right here.
First, Seymour tried the “next question” routine. Then, he escalated it to twice telling Cohn, “Get out of here.”
Eventually, Seymour refused to talk until Cohn left. Cohn didn’t leave, and Seymour didn’t talk to the other reporters, even after Cohn finally walked away.
Cohn contends that Raiders P.R. exec Mike Taylor thereafter accused Cohn of “inciting” Seymour and “berated” Cohn for ten minutes in the press box.
“He kept saying I had incited his player,” Cohn writes regarding Taylor. “He called me an unflattering name. I offered to tell him my side of the story but he didn’t listen, kept talking about my incitement. At a certain point I felt he was harassing me so I put in my ear pieces and began listening to my taped interviews while he kept telling other journalists, who were trying to work, that I had incited Seymour.”
Though, amazingly, Herrera was not involved in this one, Taylor and Herrera have been regarded as the closest confidants of the owner over the past year. They were, it is believed, the only ones in the organization to whom Davis was listening during the ugliness in connection with the termination of coach Lane Kiffin, who worked his last game with the team one year ago today.
So something is wrong in Oakland. Taylor (if Cohn’s contentions are accurate) and Herrera have shown a stunning lack of professionalism and maturity, which simply does not reflect the basic standard of behavior to which the NFL aspires. It’s wrong, and the team or the league office need to address it.
But, hey, at least they haven’t broken anyone’s jaw.
Yet.
Allegedly.