Bay Area Sports Blog

JaMarcus Russell might be done with the Oakland Raiders, but he’s not done annoying football fans. Russell showed up at local product Andre Ward’s boxing match last night at Oracle Arena and even wore some Alabama gear. Thanks for all the memories, LSU!

Jerry McDonald of the Oakland Tribune reported the scene: Apparently Russell showed up 2/3 of the way through the fight, and fans booed him roundly when he arrived and when he left.

A Raiders fans wearing a crisp, new Rolando McClain jersey (No. 55), stood up and began taunting Russell, asking him for his money back on his season tickets.

Good luck with that, big guy. Somehow we don’t think any of the $39 million Russell “earned” from the Raiders is going back to fans. Come on, he needs that money to buy Alabama gear! And various diamond-encrusted things.

Really, it’s shocking that JaMarcus is still in the Bay Area at all. We would’ve figured he would be back in Mobile, where he is literally a king. Maybe the ‘Bama gear is an homage to his kingdom.

Image of Russell at the fight via Twitter user “BabyHuey83″

Raiders owner Al Davis, already widely heralded as the master of the crazy press conference, now wants to conquer another part of PR: The press release. On Sunday, Davis boldly announced to the media via press release that … he is confident in the abilities of one of his top draft picks.

The gist of the release is that second-year receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey will soon join the ranks of great Raiders receivers like Fred Biletnikoff, Tim Brown and Randy Moss. Yes, Randy Moss. Heyward-Bey can only hope he develops an ability to disappear in key moments, loaf around, and get traded to the Patriots.

The press release is meant to boost confidence in Heyward-Bey, who had only nine receptions for 124 yards in his rookie season but has looked good in offseason workouts. But obviously, the release is quite unnecessary. We assume Heyward-Bey will have a better second season. It’s almost impossible not to.

Luckily, our sources in Alameda have provided us a working list of some of the other press releases Al is working on at this hour:

• The Raiders would like to announce that JaMarcus Russell was a bust.
• The Oakland football club would like fans to know that we encourage dressing up in silver and black while attending games. Skull adornments are a bonus.
• The Raiders would like to announce: Suck it, Kiffin.

Watch your desks, these press releases will be landing soon.

Former 49ers and Raiders tough guy Bill Romanowski is not exactly striking fear into the populace any more. Last year, he blogged about how he once listened to Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” before every game. Then he appeared on Comcast after Raiders games with a mildly lame “Romo Report Card” segment. Now, it turns out he’s been voluntarily writing advice columns for an online content clearinghouse for almost no money.

Romo’s “sex advice column” on Associated Content has been making the rounds today. Like the Romo Report Card, Romo’s column is tame and entirely inoffensive. It’s more of a health column, probably meant to boost sales of his health supplements, and who doesn’t need health advice from a guy who injected himself with 8,000 different drugs over his career?

Clearly Romo needs a report card for himself. Sure, we’ll oblige.

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Occasionally we’ll post rebuses: word puzzles based on images. Put the images together and you’ve got a name.

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Jerry Rice is making golfing headlines again, and again it’s for poor play. Thursday, he shot a 20-over-par 92 at the Nationwide Tour’s BMW Charity Pro-Am, the worst score ever at the South Carolina tournament. That was even worse than Rice’s 83-76 finish at the Fresh Express Classic in Hayward in April.

After his round Thursday, Rice didn’t stop to talk to reporters and told them “I don’t want to talk about golf right now. Had enough.” His performance drew the ire of bloggers in newsrooms and clubhouses.

Look, we get it. Rice has the competitive zeal of an ultramarathoner on amphetamines, even in retirement. He tried dancing and now he’s trying golf, and he can flounder around in the minor leagues of golf forever for all we care.

But if he is indeed done with golf, for which the golfing gods will surely be appreciative, here are some other activities for him to torch with his competitive flamethrower:

• Champions Series Tennis. The former tennis greats on the tour include John McEnroe, Jim Courier and Bjorn Borg. So, never mind, we cannot be serious about this.
• The Senior Games. Just think of all the events he could dominate! But maybe not: Good luck trying to get into the Hall of Fame with the likes of Frank Willard Furniss, the retired teacher from Marion, Ohio, who won 282 medals, 173 of them gold.
• World Championships of Deck Shuffleboard. Held in Florida, of course, the 2009 title was taken home by Jim Bailey, who just happens to be the president of the USA National Shuffleboard Association. So that’s a total juggernaut.
• World Seniors Invitational Bowling. Held in Florida, of course, the inaugural event earlier this month was dominated by non-Americans. The woman’s winner was from the Virgin Islands and the men’s winner from the Bahamas. Where are the American developmental leagues???

So, never mind Jerry. It’s a tough world out there. Too bad there’s not a senior football league. We smell an opportunity.

So yes, two days later, Dallas Braden’s perfect game still stands. Bud Selig hasn’t put an asterisk next to it because of low attendance, nor has he declared the game a draw because both teams played hard. Alex Rodriguez wasn’t able to buy an erasing of the history books.

Braden was on NPR on Monday and tonight he’ll give the Top 10 list on Letterman. That’s when it will become real, probably. Letterman!

There has been much, much analysis of Braden’s perfect game, but most of it focuses on one solitary facet: How? As in, how the hell did that happen? As in, how did a guy with 17 previous career wins go out and toss the holy sacred perfecto? We loved this portrait from SI’s Joe Posnanski: “No, he was never highly regarded. He was not regarded at all.”

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So JaMarcus Russell fulfilled his destiny, if not his potential, and was officially cut from the Raiders today. Voice of the Raiders Greg Papa argued on Chronicle Live that Russell is the most vilified athlete in Bay Area history, and it’s hard to argue.

Plenty of people spit some keyboard venom upon Russell’s release today, but none more so than the Raiders bloggers. Check out this random sampling and tell us you can’t feel the clubs reaching out from the computer screens, bash-ready:

The Oakland Raiders shed over three hundred pounds of dead weight today…

–Just Blog Baby

This deliberate and decisive move saves the organization $6.4M and the players and coaching staff from the unwanted, unnecessary distractions of Russell polluting the field with his negative energy. A new era in Raider football feels like it is officially underway. Brilliant!

–Silver and Black Forever

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The reports are written on the internet wall: JaMarcus Russell probably won’t last until the weekend as an Oakland Raiders quarterback. With the signing of Jason Campbell last weekend, the Raiders will probably release their former No. 1 draft pick so he doesn’t get injured in camp and sue the Raiders for even more money. You know he would.

Unless Russell gets signed by the 49ers, this means he’ll fly away into the welcoming arms of another regional sports blog. We’ll still follow him of course. We hope he sends some postcards. We’ll put them on the fridge and marvel at the exotic scenes from Tennessee or Florida. But … well, it’s just so hard to seem him go.

Before we wave goodbye at the train station, please come with us on this journey of JaMarcus’ greatest moments in Oakland.

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The Raiders capped a remarkably level-headed draft weekend by trading for Washington Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell today. The move means it’s probably time to say goodbye to JaMarcus Russell, which is good for the Raiders, bad for sports blogs everywhere. Or Russell could take a pay cut, but that’s unlikely because he’s got some major ice to pay off.

Anyway, the Campbell signing, combined with some decent draft picks, has us optimistic the Raiders might win a few more games this year. So let’s get to it: Here are some things to know about your new Raiders starting QB.

• Campbell has played for eight different offensive coordinators in the last 10 years stretching back to college. He told NFL Network he’s going to write a book about it someday. Not sure it’ll end up on the New York Times bestseller list, but Alex Smith will probably read it.
• Campbell learned the Redskins had traded for Donovan McNabb when a reporter called him asking for comment.
• If you want in-depth analysis on offensive linemen who fart on their quarterbacks, read Chris Cooley’s 10 questions with Campbell on his blog.

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Occasionally we’ll post rebuses: word puzzles based on images. Put the images together and you’ve got a name.

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