Rich Gannon is not happy with anyone in the Raiders organization. (USATSI)
The last time the Oakland Raiders were good, Rich Gannon was their quarterback. In 2002, Gannon won the NFL MVP award and led the team to Super Bowl XXXVII.
Since that Super Bowl season, not only have the Raiders not been back to the playoffs, but they haven't even had a winning record.
The 12-year run of ugliness continued this week when the team fired coach Dennis Allen. According to Gannon, things have gotten to the point where employees are basically 'stealing' their paychecks from the Raiders because they're not doing their job.
"The thing that drives me crazy is that they spend millions and millions and millions of dollars on the payroll. There's people out in Oakland, in that building -- players, coaches, front office, people in business, accounting -- stealing," Gannon said on his SiriusXM radio show. "They ought to give the check back. The product on the field is terrible. When you lose like that, how can you go to the bank and cash the check? You should be embarrassed. That's the facts. I know Mark Davis knows that. It's got to pain him to sign those checks every week. They're stealing. That's a problem."
Gannon sees a culture problem in Oakland.
"When you've got that culture and that environment that exists that it's OK to take that check even though you're not putting in the work, you've got a problem," Gannon added.
Another problem in Oakland is that the Raiders have become accustomed to losing.
"You're not winning because you have players and coaches and people in the building who have become comfortable with the process of losing," Gannon said. "It's OK to lose out there. it's OK, it's not a big deal. In other places, it's not tolerated. When it gets to the point where they don't tolerate it anymore and it's unacceptable and you run people out of the building who haven't figured that out. And then you bring in players who care, and players who work and players who aren't going to tolerate [losing], then you'll get the results you desire. But they don't know how to do it. It drives me crazy."
Gannon, who's worked as an NFL game analyst for CBS Sports since 2005, says the team no longer has the famed 'Commitment to Excellence' that the Raiders were known for under Al Davis.
"They have a sign in front of their building that says, 'Commitment to Excellence.' They ought to take it down," Gannon said. "It's false advertising. There's no commitment to excellence. There's a 'Commitment to Mediocrity,' right now. And that's the problem."
Some might see the firing of Allen as a step in the right direction, but Gannon sees that as the problem. The former NFL MVP says you can't keep making moves like that if you want to rebuild a team successfully.
"It's not going to change when you keep replacing coaches, replacing quarterbacks and keep running different veteran free agents through the building. That's not how you rebuild an organization," Gannon said.
Although the former Raiders quarterback ripped the organization, he does empathize with one group of people in Oakland: Raiders fans.
"I know it makes Raiders fans have to be sick to their stomach," Gannon said. "I have them calling me, 'Hey, we're going to win 12 games and beat Denver.' Yeah, right. They aren't going to beat anybody until you find guys in the locker room who demand perfection, who demand excellence."
'Excellence' and 'Raiders' aren't two words that have been used in the same sentence a lot, lately. Since 2011, the Raiders have the third worst record in the NFL. At 16-36, Oakland has only been better than Jacksonville (11-41) and Cleveland (14-37).
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