I enjoyed seeing JaMarcus Russell reacted remarkably well to the (not entirely unexpected) firing of Raiders former head coach, Lane Kiffin, and the controversy that Al Davis tried to stir up by trying to drive a wedge between Kiffin and Russell. It helped confirm my belief that the biggest thing wrong with the Raiders is the hag of an owner that has driven the team into the dirt.

Russell did not watch the televised news conference announcing Kiffin’s firing and acknowledged he was disappointed by the move. He also defended Kiffin’s decision to bring him along slowly as a quarterback, a move that has been criticized as the Raiders got off to a slow start this year.

“Hey, with the mistakes I made in the Jacksonville game [last season], if I had gotten out there early, at the beginning of the season, things would have been flying a little faster for me and who’s to say, I might have did a lot worse,” Russell said. “I appreciate his time sitting me down. I learned a lot from it, and once I got out there, everything kind of slowed down for me.

“I appreciate the opportunity he gave me to play in the National Football League. I wish for him to go out and get him a job, because he’s a good guy, a good coach. I don’t look for him to sit around long; he should be able to get a job somewhere.”

It speaks well for the man that he refused to allow himself to be drawn into the controversy and he had only good things to say about his former coach. I can’t yet say whether he’ll be a great quarterback for the team, but it would seem that he has the right attitude for them to build a team around.

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