Banning free speech and free access to information by legitimate journalists is now apparently catching on in the NFL, as Al Davis has banned former-QB and current CBS broadcaster Rich Gannon from the Oakland Raiders facility in advance of Sunday’s game against the Broncos.
“Rich Gannon is not welcome here,” Raiders executive John Herrera said Friday when asked about the ban. “We told CBS we did not want him in our building, we did not want him to be part of our production meeting, and that’s where it sits.”
“He’s attacked us on a regular basis since becoming a member of the media,” Raiders King of Propaganda (also known as public relations executive) John Herrera said. “After affording him the opportunity to establish a career here, he has since gone on to attack us in a way that’s totally unacceptable.”
This has become a way of life in Oakland, as it is here in Baltimore with Peter Angelos in regard to me and WNST, who continually report the truth only to be scorned and castigated in an effort to undermine the credibility of our journalistic conviction. (Hey, WNST is a Top 100K Alexa company and the Orioles are 60-93 — not a low blow, just a fact!)
At least someone in the media in the Bay Area has some level of conviction and integrity to ask the team to explain the “corporate rationale.” But as you’ll see below, the goofy un-American, Marxist answers that you get from delusional, uber-wealthy 80-year old men are right up there with the nonsensical speeches of Iran and Libya’s leadership at the United Nations over the past few days.
And with Gannon, he’s a guy who wore the silver helmet and led the team to a Super Bowl seven seasons ago and was the NFL’s MVP in 2002. I just a kid from Dundalk with a microphone and a 25-year record of journalistic integrity.
Gannon’s crime? He had the audacity to say the Raiders should “blow up the building and start over again.”
“We think in a post 9/11 world, that’s not a very proper thing to say,” Herrera said. “It’s uncalled for. He seems to be a guy who can’t get over the fact that he played the worst Super Bowl game in the history of the game and he wants to blame everybody but himself.
“I guess it’s our fault he threw five interceptions.”
(I think this was known as the “sticks and stones” reasoning when I was 8 years old on the Colgate Elementary playground in Dundalk.)
CBS is outraged, the NFL is embarrassed (as they should be) and Rich Gannon is apparently amused, because he’ll be calling the Denver game at 4:05 p.m. in Oakland on Sunday no matter what Al Davis thinks.
This is a way of life in Oakland, as we’ve reported several times before.
So, you want to be a sportswriter, huh?
Here’s a classic video of the aforementioned Herrera attempting to humiliate and intimidate a Bay Area reporter last year over the Lane Kiffin storm, which all turned out to be true:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruiUgDyMf60[/youtube]
