Raiders press conference

[tagline]

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami/2008/09/22/the-raiders-john-herrera-vs-me-in-front-of-the-cameras-today-well-that-was-fun/

Tim Kawakami had a pretty tough situation at the Oakland Raiders press conference Monday with one of the team's PR guys confronting him. I don't know Kawakami, but I thought he handled himself fairly well considering the circumstances.

 

[slappy4428]

PR flack overreacted a little, ok a lot...

 

[John]

That was fun.

I suspect the paranoia of working for the Raiders might be getting to the PR guy because he came off like a jackass.

 

[DanOregon]

Should we just declare Sept. 22 International Trash The Media Day in honor of Mike Gundy's blast last year on this day, Steve Schmitt of the McCain camp and John Herrera of the Raiders. Honestly, I thought Herrera was pretty tame, almost like he was performing for someone else in the room. I think he was worried that someone would think he was the Raider official distributing the article in question and wanted to cover his butt. the Raider organization reminds me a lot of the Cheney East Wing. Suing over everything, saying he's part of the Senate and part of the Executive branches, circulating information to the media, then citing that information for their own interests. I just think Cheney has been better at it the last seven years than Al Davis has.

How weird is it that they list eight people under "Football Administration" with no specific job titles and under "Administration" they list another 20 names including Jim Otto and Herrera, but again no specific titles. I'd love to interview for one of these jobs.

 

[mpcincal]

Of course, the punchline was that the PR flack went off about how there wasn't a negative story on Kiffin distributed and, according to Kawakami, that guy was the one who distributed it.

Reminds me of the entry in "Ball Four" where Jim Bouton talks about how, during his time with the Yankees, there was a story that came out in one of the NY papers where an unidentified teammate criticized Johnny Keane, the manager at the time. They had a locker room meeting about it and Elston Howard stood up and proclaimed loudly that they shouldn't be talking to the writers so much and if it was found out who the player in the story was, he should be fined big time. Bouton was friendly with the writer of the story and asked him who the unnamed source was. Writer told him it was Elston Howard.

 

[Tom Petty]

jesus. this organization has sucked all the fun out of giving a damn about the silver and black.

just go away, al.

 

[DanOregon]

Clearly Herrera was embarrased that the question was asked to Kiffin, and even more so that he was the one fingered for pointing out the article. Herrera came off looking like one of those mob guys sent to do some dirty work and comes back to his boss and says "I leaned on him, but he won't leave." We later find said mob guy with two taps in the back of the head.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I'm not sure which team would be worse to cover, the Raiders or the Redskins.

The Raiders PR staff is the worst in the NFL by a longshot and their media guide would make most Division II schools laugh.

 

[Hustle]

I'm not sure which team would be worse to cover, the Raiders or the Redskins.

What on earth would make you lump the Redskins in with that?

 

[Big Circus]

I'm not sure which team would be worse to cover, the Raiders or the Redskins.

The Raiders PR staff is the worst in the NFL by a longshot and their media guide would make most Division II schools laugh.

Not my old D-II beat, where I finally got a roster at the last home football game of the season. The SID was, admittedly, building the school's records back up after some had gone missing, but he also seemed way more concerned with getting his video recaps up on the school website than gettting an accurate roster.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

Should we just declare Sept. 22 International Trash The Media Day in honor of Mike Gundy's blast last year on this day, Steve Schmitt of the McCain camp and John Herrera of the Raiders. Honestly, I thought Herrera was pretty tame, almost like he was performing for someone else in the room. I think he was worried that someone would think he was the Raider official distributing the article in question and wanted to cover his butt. the Raider organization reminds me a lot of the Cheney East Wing. Suing over everything, saying he's part of the Senate and part of the Executive branches, circulating information to the media, then citing that information for their own interests. I just think Cheney has been better at it the last seven years than Al Davis has.

How weird is it that they list eight people under "Football Administration" with no specific job titles and under "Administration" they list another 20 names including Jim Otto and Herrera, but again no specific titles. I'd love to interview for one of these jobs.

Be nice. Otto's a charity case. Al thinks with his heart (yes, he has one), some.

 

[The Big Ragu]

The Raiders are still operating like they are doing business out of the back of a Cadillac. It's funny to see people referring to Herrera as a PR flack. He's no PR flack, at least in the traditional sense you think of PR guys for pro sports teams. He's one of those guys who has been with the team forever, and he probably doesn't have a job responsibility because he has done every single job there is to do at the facility from mopping floors to scouting draft picks.

I don't know him well enough to say if he is a good guy or not, but this is just a different universe. One stuck in the AFL.

Just an interesting side note to give an idea about the types of people who are a part of the Al Davis universe. Herrera was the guy who got into a fist fight with Mike Ornstein in the 80s over an argument about a movie projector at the Raiders facility. Herrera pressed charges.

Ornstein was another one of those shadowy guys who had no job title and was there for years. He somehow pissed off Al Davis in the early 90s and got the boot. His name popped up last year when Yahoo! broke the Reggie Bush story and Ornstein was the sports marketing agent who was giving Bush and his family stuff against NCAA rules.

 

[SixToe]

Hurt dogs yelp the loudest.

 

[WildBillyCrazyCat]

To second what Mizzou said, the Raiders have the worst media relations staff in the NFL. And it's not close.

 

[joe king]

I'll second what Ragu said. The Raiders don't really have a PR staff, and never had. For years, ``Little Al'' LoCasale was the face at the top of the team's page in the Black Book, but I'm not sure anyone really knew what his job title was -- maybe Big Al's Henchman? But working with the media was not a priority, and still isn't.

 

[slappy4428]

Clearly Herrera was embarrased that the question was asked to Kiffin, and even more so that he was the one fingered for pointing out the article. Herrera came off looking like one of those mob guys sent to do some dirty work and comes back to his boss and says "I leaned on him, but he won't leave." We later find said mob guy with two taps in the back of the head.

And geez... someone tell PR guy to tuck his shirt in... that annoyed the hell out of me watching that

 

[Dyno]

I'll second what Ragu said. The Raiders don't really have a PR staff, and never had. For years, ``Little Al'' LoCasale was the face at the top of the team's page in the Black Book, but I'm not sure anyone really knew what his job title was -- maybe Big Al's Henchman? But working with the media was not a priority, and still isn't.

I think Al LoCasale's unofficial title was something like Executive Assistant. That team will be a mess until Al Davis goes off to the Super Bowl in the Sky (or possibly, the Underground Super Bowl).

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I'm not sure which team would be worse to cover, the Raiders or the Redskins.

What on earth would make you lump the Redskins in with that?

Both would be awful to cover for a lot of different reasons. The Raiders have the worst PR staff in the NFL, but the Redskins are probably the least writer-friendly.

You know it's scary when Belichick is running a distant third.

And while the Raiders are the worst, the Texans are the best. You gotta love a NFL team that will do anything for coverage.

 

[Hustle]

Sorry Mizzou, I couldn't decide if the blue font would work with a link. I was with you.

 

[imjustagirl]

I like that the PR guy was so specific. "Nothing was handed out in this room." Like three times.

So you gave it to them as they went in or came out. Fair enough.