NFL: Oakland & San Francisco 08/09

 Continuing my look at NFL teams for 08/09, I'd like to look at both Bay Area teams at once.   I've discovered something that has thus far escaped the notice of the mainstream press. America's financial crises were not triggered by sub-prime mortgages, but by Al Davis' unsecured foray into the NFL free agent market.  Al's spending on bringing back Tommy Kelly (7 years/$52.5 mill) and signing Javon Walker (6/55), Gibril Wilson (6/39), Kwame Harris (3/14), Drew Carter (one year at a fairly reasonable $2m), and, after the Federal Reserve intervened, DeAngelo Hall for 7 years and $70 million precipitated a crisis in confidence among all those high financiers in silver and black suits.  Meanwhile, the Raiders' are denying they've spent that much money, but they sound like the guy sitting next to you on the plane when you've bought a bucket shop ticket and he's paid full price.  In the immortal words of Ron Borges: 'Things like this didn't happen when Al Davis was alive'.  ... (link)