He’s only four months into his tenure with the Raiders, but head coach Jack Del Rio believes the culture has already changed in Oakland. In an interview today on Sirius XM Radio, Del Rio was asked how he’ll change the culture and environment in an organziation that hasn’t won in a long time. This was his response:
It’s already flipped. I can just tell you, you can come through here and you’ll feel it yourself. The way we meet, the energy that we take the field with that we sustain throughout practice, the way we’re demanding the players, the coaches, everybody buying into the same message.
Del Rio added that in the past teams “[knew] they were going to get pounded when they played the Raiders” and wants to bring back that Raider mystique.
Of course, it’s only May, and it’s essentially the same message every year, but Del Rio knows talk is cheap. “I think the biggest thing is to do less talking about it and more doing it on the field,” Del Rio told season ticket holders during a conference call yesterday, “that’s what we’re going to ask of our players.”
If history is any indication, maybe it’s worth buying a few shares of Del Rio’s penny-stock hype machine. In his first season as head coach in Jacksonville, the Jaguars tallied 5 wins, then jumped to 9 wins the next, and 12 wins the next.
After 13 years without a winning season, what Raiders fan wouldn’t sign up for that?
