Oakland Raiders: GM Reggie McKenzie Basically Tells Beat Writers to Screw Off
By Eric He
Apr 23, 2013; Alameda, CA, USA; Oakland Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie speaks at press conference at the Raiders team headquarters. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
The media has not exactly been kind to the Oakland Raiders during recent years, with the team mired in a decade of bad play and disappointment.
And with the Raiders currently employing four quarterbacks who have combined to make three starts in the NFL, the criticism and negativity has come pouring down, even though we’re only in June.
“In 19 years covering the NFL, today’s showing by Matt Flynn, Tyler Wilson, Terrelle Pryor and Matt McGloin rates as one of the worst in memory,” Steve Corkran of the Bay Area News Group wrote after Day 1 of OTAs.
The San Francisco Chronicle’s Vic Tafur used a clever metaphor, calling it the beginning of “duck season.”
“On two straight throws, starter Matt Flynn lobbed two wounded ducks downfield — and they were the plays of the day,” Tafur wrote.
Now, it is worth mentioning that the team performed much better in the final days of OTAs, so the failures in Day 1 may have just been rust and shouldn’t be taken too seriously.
Unfortunately, national sites like NFL.com decided to profile the harsh reports, and pretty soon the entire country was once again laughing at the Oakland Raiders’ misfortunes.
On Tuesday, GM Reggie McKenzie went on 95.7 The Game and fired back at the beat writers.
“I don’t know about those great evaluators that were out there (in the media) but in my eyes [the Raiders quarterbacks] had a pretty good off-season, pretty good OTA’s, and they had some really good days,” he said. “Everyone has a bad day, but as far as the development of Flynn, the development of Pryor, the development of Wilson, all these guys, they have gotten a ton better from day one to when they left last week.”
“As far as the beat writers’ evaluations, I really don’t pay a whole lot of attention to that,” he continued. “Sorry about that, beat writers. If you were really good I’d probably get you in one of these scouting jobs.”
(Ooooh, burn….)
McKenzie went on to give Raider Nation some optimism for a change:
"Despite what the outsiders say. I don’t want guys to think that we’re not gonna win this year, that we’re not gonna be any good, that we’re just gonna be waiting until the next couple years to turn this things around. We feel like we’re starting to turn this thing around this off-season and we’re moving in the direction that we’re gonna win some ball games this year. We’re definitely gonna be competitive and we’re definitely, hopefully… I won’t say we’ll surpass my expectations because my expectations are pretty strong. I feel good about this season and I can’t wait."
If you want to listen to the full, lengthy interview that McKenzie did, we have provided some links below.