American Football: Oakland Raiders

With the eye to the future, the Oakland Raiders stayed in the Bay Area and selected Stanford wide receiver Teyo Johnson with the 63rd pick in the draft.

With Jerry Rice and Tim Brown probably in their final year with the Raiders, a receiver to play opposite Jerry Porter in 2004 became a consideration.

Johnson decided to give up his final two years of eligibility and enter the draft.

The 6ft 7in Johnson, who also played basketball for the Cardinal, started all 11 games at receiver and caught a team-high 41 passes for 467 yards and eight touchdowns.

The heavily recruited Johnson came to Stanford in the fall of 2000 and caught 38 passes for 565 yards and seven touchdowns in 2001 to earn Pac-10 Freshman of the Year honours.

Johnson played basketball for two seasons at Stanford, starting in 11 of 53 games.

Oakland Raiders linebacker Bill Romanowski was suspended from Monday's practice and fined an undisclosed amount after punching and seriously injuring teammate Marcus Williams during a fight in practice a day earlier.



Williams' left orbital bone was broken and his nose was injured, according to coach Bill Callahan.

Williams, who was a 14-game backup last year, will be sidelined four-to-six weeks, which puts the Raiders in position of reaching an injury settlement with him, ESPN's John Clayton reports. Williams is scheduled to make a base salary of $300,000.

Though Williams reportedly called Alameda police after the incident, no criminal charges have been filed over the scuffle, which occurred during a practice drill. Callahan doesn't expect charges to be pressed.

sports.espn.go.com...

Romanowski has a history of problems, the one that stands out in my mind is the time he spit on 49ers receiver JJ Stokes. He is an intense player on the field though, the kind you want on your team but you hate him if he isn't.

Ya, Romanowski is a mean dude.... He plays with that killer instinct, the linebacker mentality......We always got in fights with teammates in practice....big Marcus probaly had a week jaw.....look out cuz RomoCop is hunting in Raider nation.

Romo's Rap Sheet



Two days after Bill Romanowski seriously injured teammate Marcus Williams during a fight in practice, the Oakland Raiders' controversial linebacker was remorseful and apologetic.

"I hold myself accountable," Romanowski said of his latest episode of bad behavior. "It was a classless move by me."

An apology might not be enough for Williams, whose eye socket was broken in the fight. The reserve tight end was placed on injured reserve Tuesday.

Romanowski, who played for the Denver Broncos for six years until joining the Raiders last year, ripped off Williams' helmet and punched the reserve tight end in the face, breaking his left orbital bone and chipping his tooth. The fight came at the end of a running play during a 9-on-7 drill Sunday.

Hey, Al Davis won $34 million from the city of Oakland in a lawsuit last week.

Still it's far from the around $800 million he was seeeking so the Raiders will probably stay in Oakland, for now.

sports.espn.go.com...

You guys see the Sunday night game?

Man the Raiders played stupidly. 173 yards in penalties and they Rodney Jenkins did a big screw up by not letting that last Titan kickoff go out of bounds.

Your right the Raiders did screw up pretty big agaisnt the Titans...but the Titans did have to hit a field goal in the closing minutes to secure the win agaisnt the Raiders. The Raiders are a very good team this year...there offense looks to be in tip top shape again.

It was also some of the worst officiating I've ever seen. The Titans got a touchdown that should not have been touchdown, even if he was never hit. He would not have come down inbounds. The Raiders got a fumble that was not a fumble. If they call that a fumble...then the one in the playoffs against the Pats was a fumble. And a couple of the false starts that were called on Barry Sims were not false starts...he never moved. Plus I thought there was a rule that says the defensive line is not allowed to flinch...well they were flinching the whole game..and the Raiders got blamed for false starts. For once I agree with Thiesman..."the game was horroribly officiated".

I've got bad news and good news for the Raiders.

The bad news is that Jerry Porter is out with a hernia that requires surgery and that Rod Woodson is out with surgery, I believe on his knee.

The good news is they're playing the Cincinnati Bengals this Sunday.

I've got good news and bad news again for the Raiders.

The good news is that Jerry Porter will be back tonight to take the pressure off Jerry Rice and Tim Brown on the offensive side of the ball.

The bad news is they're playing the Kansas City Chiefs, undefeated and looking for revenge for last season's shutout loss at Oakland.

And Porter also doesn't help a defense that's 28th overall and 32nd against the rush. That's right dead last against the rush.

The Raiders signed Rob Johnson yesterday to back up Rick Mirer.

I dont think Rob will help them in any way... they are deffinatly not going to make the playoffs.

Nope, definitely not the playoffs.

The only question with this team now is when does Bill Callahan get fired. Before or after this season is over.

I say that if they dont improve before the season is over he is going to be getting the boot.

I wonder if he'll get fired during Christmas' Eve like Mike White did, heh.

Raiders' Head Coach Bill Callahan called his team, "The dumbest team in America" after that loss last week to Denver.

Is he out of line or not?

by far out of line, this is jsut about the same team as last year expect for the Qb but that isnt any reason for calling your team dumb they are in the NFL no way are they dumb, the only dumb peson in Bill for calling his team that...he has been starts on his team from Rice to Brown to Woodson so on

hahaha they are sitll the dumbest team in america

Does anybody want this job?

Cowboys' assistant coach Sean Payton left Al Davis hanging and now I've heard they're interviewing Norv Turner (another former Cowboys' assistant )

[Edited on 1/23/2004 by Fox Mulder]

Jim Fassel will end up with the job