RealClearSports: Hanie Takes His Mistakes Like A Man

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

OAKLAND, Calif. -- He took it like the man he is and the quarterback he hopes to be.

Caleb Hanie found out what it's like to start an NFL game because a star had been injured.

Found out the guy off the bench doesn't always...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: Jackson creates winning culture with the Raiders

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The blend is unusual in pro football, excitement and candor. Hue Jackson doesn’t stop believing. Or demanding.

When you wait half a lifetime to become a head coach, you look at things differently, and even when the score is wrong, approvingly.

Jackson isn’t the only reason the Raiders have moved out of the darkness...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Winds of change blow through Bay Area football

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The NFL season the Bay Area wondered if they would ever see has arrived.

The gloom has been lifted. The joy has returned. The playoffs are certain for the Niners, probable for the Raiders.

It’s barely past the mid-point, with several weeks...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Palmer Gets 'a Little Piece of the Action'

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Carson Palmer called the week surrealistic, an appropriate word when one begins by getting on a plane in one city and ends by throwing three interceptions in another.

Maybe Palmer indeed will prove the quarterback savior the Oakland Raiders thought was so desperately needed they sent off a couple of first-round draft picks to wedge him loose from the Cincinnati Bengals and the inactivity he had imposed on himself.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

RealClearSports: For Raiders, Future Is Now Or Never

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

ALAMEDA, Calif. – Of course it’s a smart move. Maybe it wouldn’t have been for the New England Patriots or Green Bay Packers, but these are the Oakland Raiders, who went out and traded a couple of first-round picks for Carson Palmer.

The Oakland Raiders who suddenly are grabbing at brass rings, grabbing headlines and most of all grabbing games.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011