On Monday, a report emerged on a certain online information portal indicating that the honeymoon is over for Raiders coach Hue Jackson. On Tuesday, Jackson had a chance to address the situation.
“Do you believe all those things that are written?” Jackson told KNBR, via SportsRadioInterviews.com. “I don’t – and here’s the deal – and I understand when everybody thinks football decisions are made here that I make them by myself. One, I don’t. Number two, I don’t worry about what everyone else is saying. I can only worry about what I know is going on.
“It’s like anything else when things are not going as well it’s easy to all of sudden have all these spins. Two weeks ago, things were going great and there was none of these things being said. You start to lose a couple of games, and that comes with the territory. I understand that. I respect that. But we don’t have a problem in our locker room. We don’t have a problem with this team. Hue Jackson is the head coach of this team and trying to get this team as good as he can.”
It’s a good thing that he chose to go third person, since going third person usually operates as conclusive proof that a guy hasn’t allowed his power or status go to his head.
“Sometimes you hit a few bumps,” Jackson added. “We’ve hit them right now, and unfortunately we have. That’s not what any of us want. I mean, we got off to a great start and now in the middle of this thing we are having some bumps and bruises. Well, what we are going to do is stay consistent and stay the course. We know exactly what we need to do and how we need to do it. As I said to everybody I’m not going to make excuses when we lose. I think people would like for me to. But I’m not going to do that. That’s just part of this deal in the National Football League. We gonna stay to the grind. We are going to keep working at it and we are going to get this thing better and get to it where I know it can get to. That’s what the plan is.”
That’s the right approach. And Jackson never, ever would have conceded that he has too much power or that the power has gone to his head or that some of the players in the locker room are grumbling about the manner in which he is running the team. Still, he knows that talk like this is tied to losing, and that the best way to end it is to win.
Now, the challenge for Jackson will be to figure out how to pull off a key road victory in the face of this adversity, on Thursday night in San Diego.