After stepping away from the building for a few days, Maxx Crosby was back with the team this week and for the first time since stepping away on Thursday, Crosby spoke publicly on the Raiders’ decision to shut him down for the season.
Speaking to Jim Gray, who’s association with the Raiders is well documented, Crosby explained why the last week has been difficult for him from a personal and professional standpoint.
“For me, my love for the game has been since the day I started, since I could remember. My whole life has been football and sports. That has been my obsession since I was a little kid. Yeah, I’ve always — I mean, I’m an addict to the core. I’ve had an obsessive mindset and that addictive personality my whole life,” Crosby told Gray on the Let’s Go! podcast.
“But when it comes to football, there’s certain things that I truly believe in, and I feel like there’s core principles that you got to live by, and there’s a certain way the game needs to be played. And there’s a certain approach that you have when you go into the field. And the way you look at it, from my perspective, is you play to win. You play for your teammates, you put everything you have into the game, no matter what it is. There’s going to be bumps and bruises. You’re going to be banged up. That is a part of the game and the nature of the beast.”
With the way everything played out last week between Crosby and the Raiders, there’s no question that trade speculation is going to follow (and already has), but at least one media personality expressed this week that she doesn’t think Crosby is going anywhere in the offseason.
Former Raiders CEO Amy Trask posted on X this week that she doesn’t think Crosby will be traded and her reasoning had nothing to do with football.
Trask believes Crosby will remain with the Raiders going forward because of his business relationships with Tom Brady and Jim Gray, who are both minority owners of the team.
She even tagged them in her post.
What makes Trask’s comments more intriguing is that we already know she doesn’t think a lot of Gray based on remarks she made last month.
“There are, of course, on field problems, but there are also a lot of problems off the field behind the scenes,” Trask said on CBS Sports HQ in November.
“Many people assume when I say ‘behind the scenes’ that I’m referring to Tom Brady, but I’m not. The individual who orchestrated Tom’s purchase in the Raiders of the limited partnership interest in the Raiders, Jim Gray, has been working to orchestrate the purchase of an interest in the Raiders since Al [Davis] was alive and we were in the process of selling a minority interest in the team,” Trask continued.
“Well, he finally orchestrated the purchase and now he is involved in every aspect, or almost every aspect, of the organization. This is having an impact on the organization, not only off the field, but on the field. Pete Carroll is a very good head coach, but the problems we’re seeing on the field are related to the problems that are rampant throughout the organization. They’ve got to fix the off-field behind the scenes issues in order to give Pete a chance to be his best.”
Going back to his time in New England, Brady was accused of taking money from Patriots’ ownership through various business ventures in exchange for a team-friendly contract against the NFL’s salary cap.
That might not be something Crosby would consider, but if Crosby is tied to Gray and Brady in business relationships (like his upcoming flag football trip to Saudi Arabia in March), it’s possible those interests will influence where he plays football in 2026 and beyond.
x: @raidersbeat
So Brady was cheating off the field in New England? Shocker
This is not a raider this is a money hungy person that’s got marks puppet strings in hand kinda out for himself like trump
This losing season IS the best thing that could have possibly have happened to this team. NOW, a full scale reshaping must take place. So, let’s start with quarterback depth. My suggestions; go get Joshua Dobbs as the second string quarterback. He’s younger and more mobile than Geno and extremely battle tested. Next, go get Malik Willis as the starting quarterback. He’s young, mobile, plenty of upside and deserving of a starting role. Lastly, at the quarterback position, draft a young, mobile man with potential, who IS NOT under pressure to start right away. These moves will give the Raiders quarterback room plenty of experience, depth and longevity.
Next, the offensive line should be the priority. LOAD and I mean LOAD up on young bucks. Trade Kolton Miller for whatever they can get for him and start to heed Al Davis’ own edict; The greatness of the Raiders IS their future. After securing quarterback depth, NOTHING is more important than quarterback protection. Even current Raiders management can no longer ignore this. It’s all about priorities and anyone who saw last years Super Bowl knows that a substandard offensive line is what kept the Kansas City Chiefs from winning another Super Bowl.
THIS YEAR, those SHOULD BE the Raiders TOP TWO priorities. Rome wasn’t built in a day and the revitalization of this franchise won’t happen in one offseason either. Anyone who believes otherwise is delusional and only has to look at the past 10 years of the Raiders management teams attempts at quick fixes. It’s an old adage but it still rings true; slow and steady wins the race.
Additionally, get a couple of fullbacks who are tightend body types and USE them. In the past, Gruden almost killed Josh Jacobs through overuse. Don’t let that same thing happen to Ashton Genty. Learn from other’s past mistakes. On third and short, employ some common sense and fight bulk with bulk instead of killing your top flight runningback. It’s called THINKING. A bruising runningback in a tightend’s body is what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had in Mike Alstott, the San Francisco 49ers had in Tom Rathman, The Miami Dolphins had in Jim Kick. the Kansas City Chiefs had in Christian Okoye and the Dallas Cowboys had in Moose Johnston. Emulate tried, trusted, proven and successful practices.
One of the things that EVERY Raiders fan loved about Al Davis was the he WAS NOT passive. Al said that he wanted to dictate to other teams what the Raiders were going to do to them and NOT the other way around. Sadly, in my opinion, past Raiders coaches WERE NOT visionaries who knew how to dictate the narrative. THAT was what the Raiders did under Al Davis’ leadership. Not this passive, soft type of football that we see today. Instead of sucking up to keep their jobs and income, Raiders coaches need to buck up and push the envelope. That’s what Al did and while his flame remains the spirit of what he stood for has been lost. Al Davis said that he wanted to dominate, not just squeek by.
I’ve been a Raiders fan since 1968 and I remember a team that was hated by ALL and the envy of ALL other football teams and the GOLD standard that ALL OTHER football teams aspired to, with the possible exception of the Vince Lombardi lead Green Bay Packers. In my opinion, today’s coaches are soft and certainly don’t know how to control the narrative. John Madden said that he didn’t have a lot of rules but the ONE RULE that he did have was; “…play like Hell on Sunday.” Surely, THAT is MISSING from today’s Raiders with the notable exception of Maxx Crosby.
Well nowadays player can only practice so much and the best way a team is build is with players playing together but we dot eep players ong enough like today I c we out a last yr 6 th round pick to the fins why he was a young good qb too and more