Tuck done with Oakland Raiders talk, ready to prove it on field

For the past several years, the upcoming Oakland Raiders season has followed a familiar theme. Players, coaches, fans and the local media all talking about how this will be *the* year for the team to finally restore the tradition of the franchise after years of futility. Each year the team giving plenty of optimism talk leading into September before the same results on the field failed to live up to the hope inside the locker room and in the stands as the Raiders haven’t lived up to the offseason hope they have sold for well over a decade.

Now with just days until Week 1, two time Super Bowl champion Justin Tuck is tired of talking about bringing the Raiders back into contention, he is ready to go out there and put it out on the field rather than in the media with optimistic soundbites.

“We haven’t done anything in, what, 10 years?” Tuck said Tuesday during his media availability according to Steve Corkran of RaiderBeat.com. “I wasn’t here all those years, but every year I’m sure every coach and every player has said the same things — we feel better about this year, blah, blah, blah.”

“We haven’t done a thing,” Tuck added yesterday. “None of us have. Until we actually go out there on Sunday and prove it, I can sit here and give out accolades all day.

“But I’ve done that before and then we go out there and get our butts whupped. What I’m excited about is that we’ve gotten better every week, and hopefully we can do that throughout the season. But ask me that question come February. Hopefully I have a great answer for you.”

Despite his annoyance about the constant preseason positivity and talk after months of it, Tuck did add that he is excited about the talent on the Raiders roster this season.

“We’ve got a lot of talent on this team. We’ve got to put it together, obviously, and we’ve got to exorcise some demons that have been here, some thought processes of some guys that are used to having 4-12 seasons. The mindset has to change. We hear it. I hear all the things that people say and I’m in the business of proving people wrong.”

Tuck gave a refreshing take yesterday from the usually empty positivity that fills the lead into a season by claiming that talk is cheap, which based on the history of the Raiders and their optimism through the past decade is entirely right. Nobody knows what the Raiders will do in 2015, but it is a certainty that you won’t find the former champion with the New York Giants selling false optimism throughout the season. Something that may just be the best thing for a team that needs to prove something on the field after years of hopefulness falling short at the end of a season.

Tuck done with Oakland Raiders talk, ready to prove it on field

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