So here is a brief summary of one of the best trips a football fan(atic) could ever have.

Friday March 11, 2012. My friend, Tony Corroto (expert DUI witness if you ever need one) and I arrived in SF at about 12pm PST from Atlanta, GA. We went directly to rental car pick up to grab our car and wouldn’t you know they gave us a black and chrome Jeep Liberty. We knew from that point on it was going to be an amazing experience. From there we headed right over to Oakland and went to visit the stadium. He had never been to a home Raiders game before and I hadn’t been since 10-10-10 (when the Raiders snapped the losing streak to San Diego. Naturally since the Raiders share the stadium with the A’s this was the in-between seasons where the prep the stadium for baseball. The parking lot was locked down tight, but after sweet talking the security guard we were allowed to enter the parking lot. We took pictures outside the stadium, and then we saw there was a guy inside the store built in to the stadium. Everything was already changed over to A’s merchandise but he gave us a lot of Raider info dating back to the 60’s. He then showed us a back door to get into the stadium and said just look out for the security guard named “Ice Pick”. We go inside and take pictures and after a few moments “Ice Pick” comes over and tells us we weren’t supposed to be here. So we left and continued on our journey. From there we headed to the Raider Image. This was my first time stepping into one of these stores. (It’s a little piece of Heaven) So after I spent an undisclosed amount of money there, we decided to try our luck and go to Raiders HQ. We get to the facility and naturally being the Raiders it is locked up tight, but we saw a sign that said “Fan Services”. Our thinking was we’re fans maybe we can get some service. We went to the door and it was still locked so we rang the buzzer. After a few moments the door unlocked. After we got inside we saw a beautiful lobby with tons of Raider history. The receptionist told us the building was locked down and we couldn’t go any further, but since we were such great Raider fans she gave us both a souvenir ticket from the 50th anniversary. Only season ticket holders have this Limited Edition numbered souvenir ticket. Excited we left and went to our hotel the Hilton Oakland Airport. Once there we met up with a couple more guys from our Atlanta club and decided to go to Ricky’s Sport Bar that night. This Sports Bar is a must see for any Raider fan. EVERY RAIDER has been there from Jim Otto, to John Gruden, to Janikowski. This Bar is a shrine with more memorabilia than I have seen anywhere let alone just Raiders stuff. Almost every inch of every wall was covered with Raiders posters, autographs, custom artwork, jerseys etc. We actually met Ricky and he was nice enough to tell us stories and posed for pictures with us and we finally left there about midnight PST. We then went for tour of Oakland. (Probably not the best idea) But we go in safely around 2am.

Sat March 12, 2012. Even though we got almost no sleep we were up Early Sat morning and decided to head out to visit Al Davis. He is resting in a beautiful mausoleum in downtown Oakland. We paid our respects and took pictures where he resides. After that we headed back to the hotel shot some pool and played a little air hockey then had lunch. We got refreshed and got ready for the main event. The CTE dinner began at 5pm for the reception. We met tons of Raider fans and everyone wanted to talk to us once they found out we came all the way out from Atlanta. We met the presidents of several official booster clubs and they all said the same thing. “The official Raider away game this year will be in Atlanta” (the only thing that will prevent it is if the schedule puts the game on a holiday weekend). This is huge there will be A LOT of RAIDER fans descending on this city this year. After we finished our political business we started to have fun. There was a silent auction with signed merchandise from everyone from Tim Brown to Jim Otto to rookie David Auberry. There was also a preview of the actual auction merchandise as well. We sat down for dinner and they introduced Several Raiders in attendance. HOF member Jim Otto, HOF member Willie Brown, future HOF Tim Brown, the CTE award recipient Rock Cartwright, GM Reggie McKenzie, HC Dennis Allen, CEO Amy Trask, former Raider Maurice Bradshaw, former Raider Barry Sims, and a few others. The program began as we at dinner. After dinner the auction began with a bang. The highlight was probably the first item which was a Tim Brown autographed jersey. The bid went up to $900. The CEO Amy Trask gets up and adds to tix to the first home game, the bid goes up to $1500. Then she added sideline passes. Bids keep going up, and then Tim Brown says he will go to the game with the winner of this jersey. Bids kept raising, and then Amy adds parking and a suite to the winner. That jersey ended up going for $4500! This is how the auction went all night. The president of the ATL Raiders won a day at Raiders training camp in NAPA (which is closed to the public and most press) for $4000. Also auction off was a lunch with HC Dennis Allen, GM Reggie McKenzie, and CEO Amy Trask. Of course I wasn’t involved in any of the bidding. After all this was over the program ended and we were able to meet the players and staff as well as take pictures.

There aren’t too many organizations that let you meet the CEO, head coach, general manager, and H.O.F. players for $100 and all proceeds went to Nnamdi Asomugha’s Owin foundation.

Oh almost forgot… there was a raffle in which I won the HOF football signed by Jim Otto and Willie Brown. After all of this there was an after party at the hotel sports bar where we just enjoyed the rest of the night.

Sun Was peaceful we headed back to the airport after taking a slight detour on the Golden Gate Bridge. We got back safely and I was home about 11pm EST.

Nnamdi struggled through his initial years in Oakland as he transitioned from safety to cornerback. Now, he’s the most dominant defensive back in the NFL. Branch struggled through his injury shortened rookie season as he did the opposite of Aso by going from corner to safety. During his second season, Branch emerged as force in run support and continues to improve in pass coverage.

The Todd Marinovich Award for Biggest Draft Day Disaster: Darrius Heyward-Bey

He was called the biggest reach of the draft and he did little to prove otherwise. Heyward-Bey had more memorable drops than catches. With just 9 grabs in 11 starts, DHB has nowhere to go but up. Unfortunately, if he triples his out put in 2010 it would still only be good enough production for a third option at best and not nearly enough for a top 10 pick with $23-million guaranteed to be in his pocket.

The Todd Christensen Award for Dominating Tight Ends: Zach Miller

Miller is by far the best offensive weapon in the East Bay. Despite playing for the 31^st ranked offense in the NFL, and having three different starting quarterbacks, Zach still managed to improve his offensive out put for a third consecutive year. We could be looking at the best tight end to ever wear Silver and Black.

The Kwame Harris Award for Most Penalized Offensive Lineman: Cornell Green

Green is a false start machine. That he still is the best option at right tackle doesn’t say much about Khalif Barnes and Erik Pears who were both brought in to push Green and Mario Henderson for their jobs. If Green is still starting in 2010 then the only explanation can be that he has incriminating photos of Al Davis and has threatened to sell them to TMZ.

The Trevor Scott Award for Best Rookie Defender: Matt Shaughnessy

Like Trevor, Shaughnessy arrived in Oakland as a second day selection but produced like a first round pick. The versatile defensive lineman is a masterful pass rusher who displayed some serious athletic ability on his way to racking up 4 sacks as a part time player.

The Javon Walker Award for Biggest Waste of Cash: JaMarcus Russell

$13-million for 3TDs, 11 INTs, a 50.0 QB rating and a 48.8 completion percentage is hardly going to justify such a huge check. Russell gets the award but Walker will always be the namesake for this dubious distinction. Javon inked a deal worth $55-million last year and didn’t catch a single pass in 2009.

The Mike Shanahan Award for Best Performance by a Former Coach: Rob Ryan

It hurt to lose to the Browns thanks in large part to Ryan doing something he almost never did in the East Bay – blitz! Ryan’s 3-4 D got all up in Charlie Frye’s grill, forcing him to throw 3 horrendous interceptions.

The Ray Guy Award for Putting Pigskin into Orbit: Shane Lechler

Lecher is one of the 7 wonders of the football world. His ridiculous 51.1 yards-per-punt average doesn’t do justice to the manner in which Shane killed footballs every Sunday. One day, there will be a punter in the Hall of Fame and there is a 100% chance said punter will be a Raider be it Lechler or Ray Guy – or both.

The Tom Walsh Award for Worst Coaching Performance: John Fassel

Yes, Sebastian Janikowski and Super Shane both had banner seasons. But those two are on autopilot. As far as the return game and kick coverage goes, Fassel inherited one of the best units in the NFL and ran it into the ground. Maybe it wasn’t his fault that Johnnie Lee Higgins contracted a bad case of the Fair Catches this season, but as the department head Fassel deserves a large portion of the blame.

The Bo Jackson Award for Best Steal of the Draft Class: Louis Murphy

Murphy was the best receiver on the team and despite some up and down performances he put up numbers on par with any of the other receivers picked ahead of him in the ’09 draft. With a year under his belt, look for the former Florida Gator to clean up his mistakes and with a healthy Chaz Schilens in the line up, Murphy could emerge as one of the league’s best big play threats in 2010.

The Marcus Allen Award for Being Unfairly Benched: Michael Bush

After he ran Chucky out of the NFL to end the ’08 season, all of Raider Nation was predicting big things for Bush in ’09. Thanks to Al’s desire to see Darren McFadden earn his contract, Bush spent most of the year watching from the sideline. When given the chance, he had the only two 100-yard performances of the season for the Raiders and led the team in rushing to boot.

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