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The mystery surrounding Lane Kiffin’s situation with the Oakland Raiders continues

Just when I thought it was safe to report on what the Oakland Raiders need to do player-wise, a new burst of strangeness emanates from Alameda. Apparently, Lane Kiffin did interview James Lofton for an assistant coaching job, but did not hire him. In fact, Kiffin was notified of Lofton’s hiring by someone outside the Raider organization. This drama is just too much. I am waiting for Alfred Hitchcock to appear with his classic, “Goood eveeeningggg.” I bleed Silver and Black, but this nonsense has to stop, NOW.

The early reports were that Lane Kiffin was interviewing James Lofton without the omnipotent Al Davis in on the interview. That seemed to say that the drama was over, and the staff was getting back to work. Jerry MacDonald of the Oakland Tribune reported that the drama was now as thick as ever:

It turns out that James Lofton has agreed to terms to join the Raiders as an unspecified assistant coach, most likely wide receivers, and although Kiffin conducted the interview, he had nothing to do with the hire.

That bit of news came Wednesday night from a team source I trust, and pretty much ruins my growing belief that things appeared to be working themselves out between Kiffin and owner Al Davis.

This remains a fluid situation.

Kiffin, I’m told, was first informed by a third party not affiliated with the Raiders that Lofton is on his staff.

Can this get any stranger? Kiffin was brought in to revamp the offense, and his offense showed a lot of promise and he is being undercut at his expertise. Its bad enough that Al is not giving the HEAD coach ANY say in the defense, but now Davis is undercutting him in the offense. If you don’t believe in your coach, Al then fire him and get one that you do believe in. Enough of these games.

Not to say that Kiffin didn’t bring some of this on himself by allegedly flirting with big name college programs, but its time to work it out. My suggestion is for Al and Lane to go have a huge Mexican Feast washed down with a surplus of Corona. I recommend La Imperial in Hayward. (If its still there, been a long time since I ate there. If they are there, great Mexican food.) Then they need to be locked in a room with no ventilation or restroom facilities, and would be let out when they reached an agreement to work together for the betterment of the Raiders.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 1:35 am and is filed under 2008 Raiders Offseason, 2008 NFL Draft, Raider Nation, NFL News, Free Agent Rumors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.