This is what Seymour told SiriusXM NFL Radio:

One thing that I can take from Carson is just him being a field general out on the field and his leadership ability to get some interesting guys together and try to get them all on the same page. [...] Obviously, it’ll be a learning curve for him because he hasn’t played football in awhile but I’m excited to have a leader on that side of the ball of his caliber. Anytime you have an opportunity to acquire someone of Carson’s pedigree I don’t think it’s something that you can pass up on.

I think this quote says a lot about Seymour's opinion of Jason Campbell's skills as a leader of the Raiders offense. Carson Palmer has Seymour's respect, and that to me is more important than the (unfortunate) logistics of that trade. Our players sound excited about him, and so should be we - GO RAIDERS!

"I'm a big football fan," Obama said, "but I also think that for an industry that's making $9 billion a year in revenue, they can figure out how to divide it up in a sensible way and be true to their fans, who are the ones who obviously allow for all the money that they're making. So my expectation and hope is that they will resolve it without me intervening, because it turns out I've got a lot of other stuff to do."

An intriguing statement - at first, I thought the president was joking, but the video says otherwise.  His concerns are for the fans, and I like that.  Football is a national pastime and fans should be allowed to enjoy it without interruption.  Not sure how he could intervene though - it's not as if a lockout would create a threat to national security.  Your thoughts? 

Paul Gutierrez from CSN interviewed Nnamdi after the first day of Pro Bowl practice.  Excerpts below for your interpretive entertainment.  I think Nnamdi is scared of Al.

Gutierrez: Is it crazy, or strange, then, to be here at the Pro Bowl wearing Raiders gear since you’re technically a free agent?

Asomugha: "No, it’s not strange at all. In fact, I wanted to. There’s no other way that I’d have it. I’ll represent the Raiders and I’ll continue to represent the Raiders while I’m there no mater what. They asked me about the Walter Payton Award stuff, ‘How do we recognize you?’ I said, ‘I’m with the Raiders. List me as the Raiders cornerback.’"

Continue reading this post »

I am very, VERY concerned about the recent censorship trend on SBP.  One of the unique strengths of this blog is its democratic character - people post shit and eat shit for it, reprimanded by fellow bloggers.  But the shit has always been out in the open, for anyone to see and evaluate.  Deleting posts because you think they may be offensive offends everyone else - what if we want to see for ourselves what the offense was, and respond to it?

Censorship is a marker for mistrust in our powers of analysis.  It's bad for our community and the genuine, albeit raunchy at times, camaraderie on this blog.  I honestly think that if the trend continues, the blog will lose a lot of contributors.  Let the blog continue to function as a genuine Socratic forum - do not tamper with its dynamics!

Damon Bruce was raving today against Al Davis, calling him poor manager and blaming him for the expected blackouts.  I caught up with this segment a bit late.  His indignation, or whatever it was, was stirred up by Jerry McD’s article, excerpts of which are below.  Someone mentioned not long ago that investment comes with wins.  That may not be the case "with the advent of HD television and DirecTV", according to Jerry McD (see below).

Now, I am a hard-core watch-it-in-person fan.  TV doesn't cut it for me, and if I could, I'd travel at every opportunity to watch the Raiders.  I pity myself when I watch games on TV.  I can't afford travel at this time, which is why I bought season tickets and intend to go to those games even if I have migraine.  Now, if I have the flu, I'd agree to watch the game on TV for the sole purpose of preventing those germs from spreading; but if I have papers to grade, I'd take them with me to the game. 

I scoff at people who give up buying season tickets because the Raiders suck.  That's not how I was raised.  My father took me to my first soccer game when I was 2 and promised to buy me a dress if I cheered for our team.  He lied, but I attended every game of that team thereafter, until I left Bulgaria.  Mind you, CSKA is very much like the Raiders - magnificent glory, abysmal lows.  Team allegiance is greater than losses.  Both CSKA and the Raiders are weeds - they always push through through the pretty flowers of the day!

OK - here's was McD has to say:

Oakland has been televised only 44 times in 120 regular-season home games since returning to Oakland in 1995, and there’s a chance they’ll be 44-for-128 when the season ends.

The attendance for the Seattle game in Week 4 was listed as 23,957. It wasn’t in the stat books distributed following the game, but showed up in the final preseason stats.  There weren’t that many people in the park, but that’s hardly the point. The Raiders announce “tickets issued,” which means tickets that were actually bought and paid for. They don’t count butts in the seats.  So the 23,957 is roughly the Raiders’ season ticket base.

With a season opener on Sept. 19 against the thoroughly unappealing Rams and not in prime time, you can probably count on Week 1 failing to sell out in advance of the 72-hour deadline for local television.

Tickets and parking are expensive, and with the advent of HD television and DirecTV, watching games at home has never been a better option. If you’re talking sinking your money into nose bleed seats or getting a front row seat in your own living room, then tailgating with friends in the comfort of your own home is appealing.

Without getting too deep into the socioeconomic aspect, walk through the parking lot at any Raiders game and you’ll find what is probably the most diverse fan base in the NFL. You see it in the faces of the fans as well as the delicious foods on the barbecues. It’s probably the best smelling parking lot in the NFL. Unemployment and a bad economy hits fans of color the hardest.

I already posted on the possibility that DHB has the “burnout syndrome.”  Whether he does or doesn’t have it is up to the Raiders to announce.  What comes out of his mouth and Cable’s though makes it probable.  Now, the condition is not limited to sports only, and because it ends up costing companies a lot of money in lost productivity, it’s been the focus of much recent discussion.  Many factors contribute to it, overworking being one of them.  Genes and other considerations play a role, which is why the amount of work that causes the syndrome in one person doesn’t cause it in another.

According to a 2009 SI article, some of the strength and conditioning training in the NFL is abysmally reckless, possibly the cause of off-season injury in players:

Continue reading this post »

DHB’s reported fatigue has been top news lately.  It continues to draw heat on this blog as well.  I, for one, have been pretty hard on DHB – and in retrospect, it’s not so much DHB who makes me angry, but The Organization that can’t get over its urge to blow smoke about DHB’s actual condition.  So, instead of stewing, I decided to do my own Google search and based it on DHB’s reported symptoms.

I started with “the effects of prolonged rest after strenuous athletic activity” and found an article that agreed with my opinion that active recovery seems to be working better for athletes than complete rest.  But my professional training and inborn propensities as a devil’s advocate urged me on.  Lo and behold – the search paid off.  It appears that DHB may be having the “burnout syndrome.”

This is a pretty serious condition.  Remember how several days ago, I speculated that DHB’s problem may be more psychological than anything?  Read on:

The most common symptom is fatigue. This may limit workouts and may be present at rest. The athlete may also become moody, easily irritated, have altered sleep patterns, become depressed, or lose the competitive desire and enthusiasm for the sport. Some will report decreased appetite and weight loss. Physical symptoms include persistent muscular soreness, increased frequency of viral illnesses, and increased incidence of injuries.There have been several clinical studies done on athletes with the overtraining syndrome. Findings in these studies have shown decreased performance in exercise testing, decreased mood state, and, in some, increased cortisol levels -- the body's "stress" hormone. A decrease in testosterone, altered immune status, and an increase in muscular break down products have also been identified. Medically, the overtraining syndrome is classified as a neuro-endocrine disorder. The normal fine balance in the interaction between the autonomic nervous system and the hormonal system is disturbed and athletic "jet lag" results. The body now has a decreased ability to repair itself during rest. Heaping more workouts onto this unbalanced system only worsens the situation. Additional stress in the form of difficulties at work or personal life also contributes.

According to this study, the Raiders are doing the right thing with DHB:

When diagnosing overtraining syndrome, it is important to exclude any underlying illness that may be responsible for the fatigue. The only treatment for the overtraining syndrome is rest. The longer the overtraining has occurred, the more rest required. Therefore, early detection is very important. If the overtraining has only occurred for a short period of time (e.g., 3 - 4 weeks) then interrupting training for 3 - 5 days is usually sufficient rest. After this, workouts can be resumed on an alternate day basis. The intensity of the training can be maintained but the total volume must be lower.

…although they seriously messed up by allowing him to overtrain himself in the first place:

As with almost everything else health related, prevention is the key. Well-balanced gradual increases in training are recommended. A training schedule design called periodization varies the training load in cycles with built-in mandatory rest phases. During the high workload phase, the athlete alternates between high intensity interval work and low intensity endurance work. This approach is used by a number of elite athletes in many sports. A training log is the best method to monitor progress. In addition to keeping track of distance and intensity, the athlete can record the resting morning heart rate, weight, general health, how the workout felt, and levels of muscular soreness and fatigue. The latter two can be scored on a 10-point scale. Significant, progressive changes in any of these parameters may signal overtraining.

So – did the Raiders monitor DHB?  If yes, why didn’t they react earlier?  And we, fans – we got caught in the hype (“he’s training hard, hooray”).  Why didn’t the possibility occur to any of us that overtraining DHB is a distinct possibility?  Why didn’t we say anything while he was training hard? 

Anyway, if DHB has the “burnout syndrome,” rest is the only way to go.  Let’s hope he recovers soon – and that there is no underlying condition.  For “[w]hen diagnosing overtraining syndrome, it is important to exclude any underlying illness that may be responsible for the fatigue.”

Here is more on this syndrome (added emphasis):

Symptoms

The athletes' main complaint is underperformance , however increased susceptibility to infection, persistent high fatigue ratings, heavy muscles and depression are common symptoms. These are often ignored until performance is chronically affected. The athletes' reaction to underperformance is often an increase in training rather than rest, and this only serves to further exaggerate the recovery deficit.

Aetiology

Training alone is seldom the primary cause of overtraining, rather it appears to be the total amount of stress on the athlete, which exceeds their capacity to cope. Additional non-training related stress factors that can lead to an increased risk of overtraining syndrome include social, educational, occupational, economical, nutritional, travel as well as monotony of training.

Psychological Markers

Overtraining has been reported to involve a complex interaction of psychological stresses including individual cognitive, behavioural and emotional characteristics, as well as the skills of the athlete, environmental and social stresses.

The most promising tool for identifying the overtrained state, is reported to be the psychological mood state, and several validated tools have been used for this purpose. American collegiate swimmers were studied using the profile of mood state (POMS) questionnaire. When the mood state improved, training was increased, and when the mood state deteriorated, training was decreased. Using this method, the rate of overtraining was reduced from 10% to zero. They determined that the mood state was significant if it does not improve during tapering in the lead up to competition. Unfortunately, at this late stage, it may be too late for intervention and reversal of the syndrome. The recommendation from this study was that tapering and recovery is best performed throughout the season to enable regular monitoring of recovery

In the event of overtraining, the athlete must be educated, and reassured that less training rather than more, is the only way to improve their performance, and that it could take up to 12 weeks. Significantly less training is required, and the volume must be gradually increased to one hour of aerobic work prior to increasing the intensity. Cross training is recommended to avoid temptation of the athlete to over-train in their familiar sport.

via christotechne.files.wordpress.com

Marti, the bartender at The Public House who broke the JaMarcus rumor

via christotechne.files.wordpress.com

Saint (2 pens in pocket) with Goatee Guy Trei Brundett, creator of the SBP technology and platform

Sons-of-Blanda and Spirals Galore
  

Sons-of-Blanda (right) with Vasu Vadaparti (Fox Sports, The NFL Network)

via christotechne.files.wordpress.com

*** 

We are at the Public House in San Francisco with Saint and Sons, and a lot of other fun people.  Pics will follow.  Now, we just heard a shockking news - JaMarcus is a Jet.  Have you people heard anything?  

I am on Saint's computer which is excruciatingly slow but I'm gonna go and check for more news.  Man, it's awesome here.  We are the only three from SBP here.

Wait, I need 75 words to publish this post.  People around are getting drunk (maybe).   Guinness is the beer of choice and I am drinking it now, although I don't really like it.  There is also some strong whiskey I couldn't finish, but I forget the name.  The Public House is a swanky bar in a swanky neighborhood.  I wanna move in here.  Are there 75 words yet?

I found this article online.  Excerpts below.

“The original Socratic model relied on one ‘master’ who dialogued with the learners. The new approach allows multiple learners to benefit from multiple experiences. There is quite intentionally no ‘master’. Everyone’s experience is equally valid and the facilitator who is required for the dialogue simply plays a background role.”

That’s how the Silver and Black Pride blog functions.  We all bring in our perspectives and examine them from every possible side.  Yes, we often disagree, because each of us has a different angle at the Raiders.  And yet, take all these inevitably partial perspectives together, and you get a fuller understanding of what the Raiders are all about.  If you take my purse and place it in the center of a table and ask everyone around the table to describe it, we would similarly disagree and argue, and resort to hasty generalizations about that purse, especially about its contents.  Who will ever know what Spirals decided to keep in her rather deep purse? Who knows what Al is thinking?

“The Socratic Dialogue is specifically not a debate or an argument.”

Ah, we argue and debate, often resorting to ad hominems, equivocations and other fallacious tactics to hold our ground.  But the community is smart and catches us when we do so.  As a result, the experience is quite enjoyable and conducive to learning.

“Learning will come from participants hearing themselves speak as well as engaging in listening. Most of the benefits come from active listening. Thus to be a member of a Socratic Dialogue and to get full benefit from it, an individual needs to be enthusiastic about hearing the thoughts of others and about listening to themselves as they explain their own thoughts.”

Yep, instead of reacting to each other’s sometimes hastily typed comments, we could ask questions.  And if the questions are directed at us, the best strategy would be to treat ourselves as Spirals’ purse.  

“Although one of the aims of a Socratic Dialogue is to reach a consensus participants may not always reach a definitive outcome in the form of a totally agreed answer to the question. This should not necessarily be seen as a failure as the Socratic Dialogue experience itself has the potential to create reflective learning, which is a desired outcome of the exercise.”

Yes!  And that’s why I think the Silver and Black Pride blog is the best in the football universe.  Much better than the Donkeys’ blog, in my view, because ours is raw and spontaneous.  OK, Donkeys, feel free to challenge me.