Oakland Raiders: Move on, Marquette, Raiders just aren’t that into you
By Kevin Saito
Oakland Raiders head coach Jon Gruden unceremoniously dumped punter Marquette King, and it’s clear that King isn’t handling the breakup well.
Oakland Raiders head coach Jon Gruden is shaking things up in the East Bay, bringing in his own guys, and jettisoning anybody who doesn’t completely buy into what he’s selling.
Seems logical and rational for a coach trying to instill a new culture – a winning, championship culture – in an organization, right?
One of those faces kicked to the curb was punter Marquette King – and let’s just say, he’s not handling the breakup very well. King is running around acting more like a heartbroken, scorned girlfriend than anything.
About three milliseconds after getting his walking papers, King signed with division rival Denver, citing – at least, in part – a “revenge factor,” in his decision to sign with the Broncos.
Okay, fine. Fair enough.
After that, he gave an interview in which he threw some lowkey shade at Gruden and the Raiders, as he handed out glowing praise to the Broncos for being an organization that encourages players to “be themselves.”
"“The cool thing about the Broncos is the people that work at the Broncos encourage you to be yourself. That is real cool. Players play a lot better when they can let their hair down and be themselves. It’s cool. They encourage it.”"
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We’ll see how “cool” the Broncos are when he starts picking up 15-yard flags with his showpony act on the field. We’ll see exactly how much HC Vance Joseph keeps encouraging King to “let his hair down” and “be himself” when he pins his own team deep in their own territory with his foolish behavior.
And let’s not even pretend it’s a question of if – it’s a question of when. King most definitely will draw some flags for his “look at me, look at me,” attitude – the first time most likely being in week two when Denver squares off with the Raiders.
King’s incessant need to be in the spotlight and the center of attention – which results in him putting his team in a bad situation because of it – is what led his teammates, many fans, and ultimately, the Raiders brass, to sour on him and send him packing.
So, still salty about it, and with some time off before training camp begins, King was back in Oakland and decided to pen the latest chapter in his forthcoming post-Raiders breakup advice book, preliminarily titled, “Why Does Everybody Hate Me?”
King’s antics caught the eye of a Denver writer who, presumably in a spastic fit of laughter, essentially labeled the punter’s shenanigans the greatest trolling in the history of trolling, calling it, “absolutely amazing.”
Which probably should tell you all you need to know about the sense of humor among the Denver faithful and/or the effects of living at a high altitude on the brain.
In the short video, King is wearing his Denver gear and does his “pony dance” in front of Raiders HQ.
Yeah. Hilarious.
As far as trolling goes, it’s not very high level. It certainly isn’t anywhere close to being on par with Kevin Durant’s cupcake hat. It actually isn’t even on par with anything you’d see on your average grade school playground.
It wasn’t very creative or inventive. It certainly wasn’t very fresh or original. It was the equivalent of slowly driving by your ex’s house with the headlights on your car turned off, long after she’s told you it’s over. So – pretty much, stalkerish.
But hey, okay. Epic.
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All King has done this offseason is justify Gruden’s decision to part ways with him and show that he’s more about Marquette than about anything else. But hey, have fun with him Broncos fans.
Gruden and the Raiders have proven that they’re just not that into you anymore, and it’s time to move on Marquette.