Napa DA to announce decision on Tom Cable today

Napa County District Atty. Gary Lieberstein will announce later today whether he will file charges against Oakland Raiders Coach Tom Cable for allegedly attacking one of his assistant coaches.

Lieberstein told the Associated Press he will announce his decision sometime after 2 p.m. PDT.

Cable is accused of assaulting Randy Hanson during a team meeting on Aug. 5. Hanson suffered a broken jaw in the incident.

Hanson has cooperated with investigators after initially choosing not to tell the police about how he broke his jaw.

-- Austin Knoblauch

Photo: Oakland Coach Tom Cable. Credit: Jed Jacobsohn /  Getty Images

Raiders coaches -- Pride, Poise and Punches

The Raiders tried a different approach to start training camp this summer: the players went four days without hitting.

Evidently, the same cannot be said of the coaches.

According to a report by FanHouse, which cites unnamed NFL sources, Raiders Coach Tom Cable punched defensive assistant Randy Hanson in the face, possibly breaking his jaw.

The FanHouse report came on the heels of one by the National Football Post on its website that broke the news of the Aug. 5 incident and identified Hanson, but did not name who threw the punch. The report said the altercation took place at the Napa Valley Marriott, where the Raiders hold training camp.

A police report was taken at Napa's Queen of the Valley hospital, but police spokesman Lt. Brian McGovern told FanHouse that the alleged victim did not want to press charges. McGovern told the website that police consider the matter closed at this point "unless we are re-contacted by the victim, and the victim changes their mind that they want us to follow through and pursue an investigation. At this point we're not doing anything else with it."

-- Sam Farmer

Photo: Oakland Raiders coach Tom Cable, left, defensive assistant Randy Hanson. Photo credit: Associated Press.

Lane Kiffin could be in trouble with NCAA again; Raiders call him a liar

Former USC assistant Lane Kiffin, now head coach at Tennessee, continues to struggle with the rule book. Tennessee, according to the Associated Press, has reported four minor recruiting violations to the NCAA since Kiffin was hired late last year.

The most recent came today after ESPN's "Outside the Lines" on Sunday included a segment showing Kiffin in his office with two high school recruits.

That would be a violation of NCAA recruiting rule 13.10.1, which states: “A member institution shall not permit a media entity to be present during any recruiting contact made by an institution’s coaching staff member.”

The ESPN program also included a statement from the Oakland Raiders, who fired Kiffin in September. The two sides are in litigation over pay Kiffin claims he is owed.

“Lane Kiffin is a flat-out liar. He lied to the team, he lied to the fans, and he lied to the media,” the Raiders’ statement said. “He will try to destroy that university like he tried to destroy the Raiders, and will eventually clash with [women’s basketball coach Pat] Summitt and [men’s basketball coach Bruce] Pearl.”

The university had no comment about the statement to the Associated Press.

-- Randy Harvey

Photo: Rocky Top? More like rocky start for Lane Kiffin at Tennessee. Credit: Wade Payne / Associated Press

Raiders are happy with their quarterback

INDIANAPOLIS -- Two years ago, the Raiders used the No. 1 pick on quarterback JaMarcus Russell. He wasn't the first choice of then-coach Lane Kiffin, who wanted to take Georgia Tech receiver Calvin Johnson and then use a second-round pick on Stanford quarterback Trent Edwards.

But Raiders owner Al Davis really likes Russell, and Coach Tom Cable says he's happy with the progress the quarterback made in the last six weeks of the 2008 season.

"Where I want to see him really grow is with his maturity, his understanding of his responsibility," Cable said, speaking here at the NFL combine. "Not so much taking the snap and handing off, but his responsibility as a starting quarterback in the National Football League. That's being able to grow more and come out of those post-college years and be more settled.

"Understand that you really are the face of the organization," he said, "so you have to handle that the right way and act the right way. ... And he's been great at that."

-- Sam Farmer

Photo: Oakland quarterback JaMarcus Russell. Credit: Al Messerschmidt / Getty Images

Lane Kiffin's life in the SEC fast lane

What is it about former USC assistant Coach Lane Kiffin that produces venom-spewing press conferences and/or tersly worded released statements?

Raiders' owner Al Davis fired Kiffin last fall and held a rare -- and very bizarre -- press conference afterward to rip the young coach, Davis calling Kiffin a "Flat-out Li-ah" (Liar).

Kiffin recovered by getting named head coach at the University of Tennessee, in the cutthroat Southeastern Conference, where on Thursday he found out what happens when you accuse Florida's coach of of evil doing.

That's right, Kiffin accused Florida Coach Urban Meyer of violating recruiting rules in pursuit of receiver Nu'Keese Richardson. WVLT -TV out of Knoxville reported Kiffin told a group of fans at post-recruiting breakfast that Meyer called Richardson during the player's recent visit to Tennessee. Richardson ended up signing with Tennessee.

Kiffin told the crowd: "I love the fact that Urban had to cheat and still didn't get him."

This produced an almost instant response from Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley, who said in a released statement:

"There was no rule violation and we have confirmed this with
Southeastern Conference. It is obvious that Coach Kiffin doesn’t know
that there is not a rule precluding phone contact with a prospect during
an official visit on another campus during a contact period. His
allegations are inappropriate, out of line and, most importantly,
totally false. It is completely unfair to Urban Meyer, our coaching
staff, our football program and our institution. The appropriate action
at this time in my opinion is for Coach Kiffin to make a public apology.
His comments not only slandered our coach, but he violated SEC rules by
publicly criticizing another coach and institution."

No apology from Kiffin yet.

Hmmm. Wonder if this will have any carry-over to next season?  Florida, which has won two of the last three national titles, returns almost everyone on offense and should be the clear-cut preseason No.1

Tennessee visits The Swamp on Sept. 19.

It might be interesting. In fact, it might be 65-10.

-- Chris Dufresne

Theismann: From a screen to a scream

The Times' Sam Farmer is in Tampa, Fla., this week covering the Super Bowl.
In a series a Fabulous Forum posts, he looks back at the 1983 Raiders.
You can access his Raiders posts by clicking here and all his Super Bowl posts by clicking here.

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There were two signature plays in Super Bowl XVIII: Marcus Allen's 74-yard touchdown run, and Jack Squirek's interception of a screen pass, which he returned for a touchdown at the end of the first half.

Joe Theismann will never forget that screen pass.

"We ran it in the first game against them, and that was the problem," he said. "It was 14-3 at the time, and the play was called rocket screen. It was a simple rocket screen left. Joe Washington had run it against them in the first game for 90-something yards. It was a big gain for us."

Then, in what turned out to be a disastrous decision, the Redskins tried it again -- from their own 12 with 12 seconds left in the half.

Theismann on Raiders: Part III

The Times' Sam Farmer is in Tampa, Fla., this week covering the Super Bowl. In a series a Fabulous Forum posts, he looks back at the 1983 Raiders. You can access his Raiders posts by clicking here, and all his Super Bowl posts by clicking here.

                            ----------------

So Joe Theismann was annoyed with the stuff Howie Long was saying in an interview about Super Bowl XVIII, but at least he could snap off the TV.

There was no mute button on Raiders linebacker Ted Hendricks.

"Right after the game, we're flying to the game for the Pro Bowl," Theismann said. "Ted had been up all night. ... Sits down right next to me on the plane and proceeds for the next hour to tell me just how he kicked my ass. Now, we've got a six-hour flight!

"What am I going to say? We lost. They beat us, 38-9! What am I going to say, 'You're full of baloney'? He's saying, 'We kicked your ass. We chased you all over the place.' He finally fell asleep about an hour into the flight.

"It was the most thankful I've ever been in my life: Ted fell asleep."

More to come ...

-- Sam Farmer

Photo: Marcus Allen makes a 74-yard touchdown run against the Redskins during Super Bowl XVIII. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times

Theismann on Raiders, Part II

The Times' Sam Farmer is in Tampa, Fla., this week covering the Super Bowl.
In a series a Fabulous Forum posts, he looks back at the 1983 Raiders.
You can access his Raiders posts by clicking here, and all his Super Bowl posts by clicking here.

                                                      ---------------------

Back to Washington quarterback Joe Theismann's recollection of the '83 L.A. Raiders on the silver (& black) anniversary of their Super Bowl victory in Tampa...

Theismann thinks the world of running back Marcus Allen, but he would have given the Super Bowl MVP award to another Raider: defensive tackle Reggie Kinlaw.

"Absolutely," the quarterback said. "Reggie Kinlaw did not allow us to run the football. He owned that line of scrimmage. The nose tackle, that was the best game I'd ever seen him play.

"Marcus and I are very close friends. He shows me the ring every now and then and thanks me, and I want to strangle him. But the truth of the matter is, Reggie Kinlaw was the reason we weren't successful. Because we couldn't get into second down and sixes, second down and fives.

"And the last thing is, I did not play well. I threw the ball poorly. I made bad decisions."

The following week, he was MVP of the Pro Bowl.

"The next week, I lit it up," he said. "And that's the neat thing about football. You get a three-hour period of time somewhere in your life where you get to be special. And if you're special during that three-hour period, it becomes a life-changing experience."

And it has changed Theismann's life. It changed it a year before losing to the Raiders, in fact, when the Redskins beat Miami in Super Bowl XVII at the Rose Bowl.

"But I'll say this: Playing and losing the Super Bowl gives you a different perspective," he said. "It's something that I can share with people, that I've been to the top of the mountain. I can tell you what it takes to get there. I can also tell you what it does if you take that for granted."

More on switching shoes before the game...

"What I did is I wore the same pair of shoes all through the season," he said. "Now, it was the same company, but they were new shoes. Because it was the Super Bowl, and I was going to have new shoes! And they didn't fit right. They stunk. So I was [complaining] about the shoes, it was cold weather, I had all these little things that were bothering me."

'83 Raiders -- from Joe Theismann's perspective

The Times' Sam Farmer is in Tampa, Fla., this week to cover the Super Bowl. In a series of Fabulous Forum posts, he looks back at the 1983 Raiders.
You can access his Raiders posts by clicking here, and all his Super Bowl posts by clicking here.

                                                    ---------------------------

OK, so a lot of you out there want to hear more stories about the 1983 Los Angeles Raiders, who won the Super Bowl here in Tampa 25 years ago. Well, I was just over at the media center and I bumped into Joe Theismann, who told me a ton of good stories about that game and the days before and after it. Check back here over the course of the day and I'll tell you some of them.

Here's a taste:

Those Redskins were 14-2 during the regular season, and their two losses -- to Dallas and Green Bay -- each came by 1 point. Washington had a jaw-dropping turnover ratio of plus-42, and, Theismann says, would have been considered the greatest team in NFL history had it A) won those two games in the regular season, and B) beat the Raiders in the Super Bowl.

Now, remember, the Redskins had beaten the Raiders, 37-35, during the regular season in Washington, so the Skins were feeling pretty comfortable and confident coming into the Super Bowl.

"We'd beaten the Raiders, but I didn't take into consideration how we beat the Raiders," Theismann said. "Fumbles, interceptions, they made a bunch of mistakes. Took a late, great drive for us to be able to beat them. So they were really a terrific football team.

"Come here to Tampa, and I'm expecting warm weather. It's cold. It's windy. I decide I'm going to do a shoe deal, so I change shoes. So my shoes don't really fit. So I've got all these little things gnawing away at me."

Still, he was feeling pretty good about how things would unfold.

"We had a great practice on Thursday. If we would have played the game on Friday, we would have beat the Raiders, I promise you. Unfortunately, it was two days later."

By Sunday, it was a different story.

"The wind was blowing," he said. "We made our living throwing fades -- and you know how good those corners were, Mike [Haynes] and Lester [Hayes] were fantastic. Every fade I threw, every time they pressed, and we knew they would, I'd get the ball and it would just fall past my receivers' hands by just an inch.

"And then they kept bringing Mike Davis off the corner. They kept bringing him late, and he'd knock the crap out of me. I'd walk to the sideline. I walked up to Coach [Joe] Gibbs one time and I've got my helmet half on and half off, my shoulder pads are hanging out, my face is cut. I look at coach and I say, 'Coach, who's blocking the safety?' He looks down at his chart and he says, 'He's supposed to be blocked.'

"I said, 'Coach, look at me! Does it look like anybody's being blocked?' "

Anyway, that's just the start of what Theismann had to say.... He told some great ones about the screen pass that was intercepted by Jack Squirek, more frustrations with Gibbs, an unforgettable flight to Hawaii with Ted Hendricks, why Howie Long made him so mad once that Theismann threw his shoe at the TV... On and on...

Check back.

-- Sam Farmer

Photo (top): Lyle Alzado, left, hugs Howie Long after the Raiders beat the Redskins 38-9 to win Super Bowl XVIII. Credit: Allsport. Photo (inset): Joe Theismann. Credit: Associated Press

Al Davis gave his Raiders the royal treatment

I just bumped into marketing rep Mike Ornstein in the lobby of my hotel. He was a longtime executive for the then-Los Angeles Raiders and reminded me of something Al Davis did in early 1984 when the Silver & Black played Washington in the Super Bowl at Tampa.

Every time Raiders players would come back to their hotel rooms for the night -– whether it was after a team dinner, practice, whatever -– Davis would make sure there were gifts waiting for them. Little things –- watches, T-shirts, sweatsuits, radios etc. He also picked up the tab for all the incidentals when the team checked out, the day after winning the game.

That kind of stuff wouldn’t be allowed now; it would count against the salary cap. But at the time, it almost provided a psychological edge. After all, players from the teams mingle and talk during the week. And while the Raiders were getting gifts in their rooms, the Redskins were staying at a Holiday Inn. One Washington player once told me that his hotel-room treat was breaking the paper sanitized-for-your-protection strip on the toilets.

-- Sam Farmer

Photo: Al Davis, left, receives the Super Bowl trophy in 1984 from then-NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, right, as Brent Musburger -- then with CBS -- gets ready to interview the Raiders' owner. Credit: Associated Press