MOSS WILL INTERVIEW WITH THE RAIDERS

Two years after the Raiders parted ways with a well-known player named Moss, they could be landing a head coach of the same last name, but a far lower profile. Packers assistant head coach/linebackers Winston Moss, the sole survivor of a recent purge of the defensive staff (other than the quality control guy), will be interviewing for the head-coaching job in Oakland, according to Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Moss played for the Raiders from 1991 through 1994. The 43-year-old has worked as an assistant coach for 10 years. He recently interviewed with the Rams for their head-coaching vacancy. In Oakland, Moss would be the second person formally interviewed for the vacancy that arose when interim coach Tom Cable’s stint ended with an unexpected two-game winning streak. Cable was interviewed earlier this week, and Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride had a 90-minute phone interview that the Raiders later characterized as something that was done as a favor to Gilbride’s agent. By interviewing Moss, the Raiders will be in compliance with the Rooney Rule, which requires at least one minority candidate to be interviewed for each head-coaching vacancy. The Raiders, however, would be one of the last teams to suspect of conducting narrow-minded, non-inclusive job searches. They had an African-American head coach (Art Shell) long before the movement to compel consideration for minority candidates gathered steam, and their Chief Executive (Amy Trask) is one of the only females in any position of significance with any NFL franchise. Then again, this doesn’t mean that the Raiders don’t have something up their sleeves. We wouldn’t rule out the possibility that the Raiders are interested in making Moss their next defensive coordinator, and that they lined up an interview of him for the head-coaching position because the Packers could have blocked an attempt to interview Moss for any other job.