The press conference was basically a two-parter. Al introduced Hue Jackson, talked a little about why he didn't retain Cable, then opened it up for questions. During the question segment, he talked a little about JaMarcus Russell, and also said he would have fired Cable after the season ended even if the Raiders had made it into the playoffs. It reached a point were everyone thought the conference was over and they started to stand up....then Al said, "hold on"...or something like that....and said that he thought people wanted more answers to some things. Then he told everyone to sit back down.
The second part was more in-depth slamming of Tom Cable, and why he was docked $120,000 from his paychecks. Kind of reminiscent of the Kiffin conference without the overhead projector (Al read from papers in a folder instead). Al said he couldn't say some things due to legal reasons, but he did address some details related to the Cable woman beating accusations and the Randy Hanson thing. He said he probably would have considered firing Cable mid-season (for various reasons), but held off because the Raiders had a chance for the playoffs. He criticized Cable for flying in a woman to an away game so he could "be with her" the night before the game. He also didn't like Cable's statement on their 8-8 season when he said, "we're not losers anymore". Al said, "if 8-8 isn't a loser, I don't know what is".
Here is a chronology of the topics covered at the press conference. Start at the bottom and read up:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/raiders/detail?entry_id=81211It was a little weird. I'm sure it will be on YouTube and you guys can all watch it and draw your own opinions.
On Bay Area TV, after the conference was over....Ray Ratto from the SF Chronicle gave his opinion of it....he thought Al took away Hue Jackson's moment in the sun by spending the majority of the conference talking about Cable. He was critical of Al for feeling as if he needs to cover a lot of topics in his press conferences because of the fact that he doesn't make many appearances. He implied that he should be more forthcoming to the media with this information during the year, so that he doesn't have to cover so many things during an event like this that should be dedicated to the new head coach hiring.
Get ready for a bunch of articles!
Greg is working up a podcast as I type this...