Raiders Cut Russell

After days of speculation, the Oakland Raiders today cut ties with JaMarcus Russell. Russell has struggled to say the least since being drafted number one in the 2007 draft, finishing his Raider tenure with only seven wins. Seven. The writing was on the wall for Russell after the Raiders acquired former Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell on Draft Weekend but today the decision was made official.

I am a reformed Raider fan (sober for 13 months now!) and the release of Russell comes as no surprise. For years owner/walking corpse Al Davis has run the once proud Raider organization into the ground and Russell was the biggest step in that intentional grounding. He is widely considered to be the biggest bust in the history of the NFL and apparently Davis has had enough. Russell is the worst of the worst: he's a quarterback who lacks accuracy, lacks speed, lacks maturity, and lacks the work ethic to correct these issues. He was fined repeatedly for being overweight and recent reports pegged him at over 300 pounds. He just isn't capable of being a starter (or maybe even a bench player) in the NFL.

However, I place only about 50 percent of the blame on Russell. The guy didn't do anything to earn his place in the League, sure, but he should have never been in this position in the first place!!! Russell was inaccurate, slow, immature, and overweight in college so it stands to reason that he might exhibit those same qualities in the NFL. To draft a player, a quarterback no less, with a questionable work ethic number one and then hand him $39 million dollars is asking for a slow death. And yet, these things don't matter to the Raiders. I knew, as a Raider fan, that we were doomed to the Russell Era when it was reported that in the pre-draft workouts, Russell threw a ball 50 yards while sitting on his knees. I knew that that stunt alone, regardless of anything else, would get Russell picked by the Raiders due to Davis' incessant facination with freakish athleticism. That's a neat party trick for sure, but not something that really holds significance in the NFL. (Plus, judging by Russell's inaccuracy, it's likely the ball went 50 yards out of bounds, anyway.) This kid was, for all intents and purposes, set up not just for failure but for EPIC, HISTORIC failure; the kind of failure that you don't recover from and gets you mentioned in the same breath as New Coke, "Battlefield Earth," and Michael Dukakis.

Russell didn't stand a chance and neither did Raider fans. Because he was such a high pick he will likely get a second chance somewhere as a third stringer. I'm not sure he deserves that shot, but I can't help but feel a little sorry for...wait, no, you know what? $39 million dollars?! I don't feel sorry for him a bit. Get your crap together, JaMarcus, and enjoy the clipboard and lack of expectations that come with it.