DeAngelo Hall isn’t remembered particularly fondly by Raider fans and now that he has officially retired, he shared a story with ESPN’s Adam Schefter about his short stint with the Raiders.
Schefter asked Hall about the $50 million deal he signed to play 8 games (before being cut) for the Raiders in 2008.
This was a portion of Hall’s explanation for how things when down in Oakland that year:
“You know what Al Davis’s words were? He essentially told me he wanted me to take a pay cut because he said we’re not as good a football team as I thought we were going to be and so he said we need some of that money back so we can go and get more better players. It wasn’t a shot at me.”
“He had spent a lot of money so I kinda understood where he was coming from but it didn’t make sense because I felt like I was playing good football. I think I had three picks through 8 games, but we were getting beat pretty bad.”
Hall On Time In Oakland #Raiders https://t.co/Ky7B4aW1pQ pic.twitter.com/ezTU4s8qq8
— Raiders Report (@raiders_fanly) May 29, 2018
The Hall deal, for what it’s worth, will go down as one of the worst trades Davis ever made. The Raiders gave up 2nd and 5th round picks for Hall and paid him $8 million for 8 games. He also saw every penny of his $7 million signing bonus.
In Hall’s first game as a Raider, he and Gibril Wilson (another bad signing that year) tried to put rookie wide receiver Eddie Royal in the Hall of Fame in his first game.
Anyone interested in reliving that Monday night can see Royal’s video highlights below. Hall (23) and Wilson (28) are the common denominator on just about every play.
twitter: @raidersbeat
Horrible, horrible deal. The team wasn’t that good that year but they were better before and after Hall. He and JaMarcus Russell are still making Mr. Davis scream out in anguish, along with every other Raider fan…
Royal made a clown out of him …turned into a spinning top on coverage
bad fit he was a better zone corner not much good m/m
one of Al Davis’ biggest mistakes