ChiefsPlanet - Raiders | Moss critical of Davis

seem's like its not just moss bashing the raiders its every one.

Bash the Raiders? Take a number.
Has anyone heard from Tyrone Wheatley lately? How about Bill Romanowski? Bobby Hoying? Is there any former Raider who hasn't weighed in on the current team's travails?

Performing autopsies on this moribund team has become a national sport in recent days, with one-time Oakland icons like Tim Brown and Rich Gannon going public with harsh analyses. Gannon and Brown both argued that there is a leadership void in the Raiders' locker room. That assertion might be challenged by veteran players such as Warren Sapp, Barry Sims or Aaron Brooks. Then again, when one of your team captains is taking to the airwaves each week to air dirty silver-and-black laundry, it's hard to dispute the notion that Raiderland is being splintered by fault lines.

Brown is already persona non grata in Al Davis' territory, thanks to negative comments he made when he joined the Buccaneers after being cut by the Raiders and, even more to the point, because of his public assertion that John Madden doesn't belong in the Hall of Fame. The record-setting wide receiver was at it again Friday, telling KNBR that coordinator Tom Walsh's offense is horribly outdated and that tight ends coach John Shoop may begin to share play-calling duties. Reacting to Moss' weekly radio pot shots, Brown suggested the damage was irreparable.

"It sort of leaves the locker room even more so devoid of leadership when a guy like Randy steps out and says something like that," he argued. "So hey, I'm telling people right now, maybe they just need to get the old match, and the gasoline, and burn the whole thing up and start it all over. Because what they have going now, it will take years and years before they can get those same coaches and same players on the same page."

Current Raiders like Sims and fullback Zack Crockett rebutted Brown and Gannon this week, showing some deference to their former teammates while noting that neither has been close enough to the team lately to offer credible commentary. Coach Art Shell had a similar message Friday.

"They're not in the locker room, they're not in the building, they're away from here," he said. "So if they're being fed information, who's giving them that kind of information? So you've got to deal with the source. As I've said to you before, I feel very strongly about the character of this football team, and that locker room I feel very strongly about. I think I have a good feel for the beat of the team. - There's always going to be one or two guys, somebody that doesn't like what you're doing. But if the overwhelming majority is involved and they believe in it, I feel comfortable."

Told about the Shoop rumor, Shell seemed uncharacteristically exasperated: "I don't know where all this information is coming from, I really don't. I look at these things sometimes, and I just laugh and say it's like somebody's taking it and throwing it up against the wall and hopes it sticks."

Unfortunately for Shell, when your team is 0-3 - and 13-38 over the last three-plus seasons - people are usually willing to believe the worst