Super Fraud XXXVII: The voice of the Raider Nation speaks out...

If you really want to see the impact that the kind of rigging (and even the accusation of same) can have on people, I present to you John Tournour.

You may know him better as FOX Sports' Radio's "JT The Brick", a man I've been a fan of since I moved to San Francisco when he had a local show there.  I love his passion and energy, though I don't agree, obviously, with everything he says.

In fact, there was a time that I believe he had the better part of half the programming on one of the sports radio stations in San Francisco.  He'd have a 2 or 3 hour afternoon show, a 4 hour overnight show on SportsFan Radio Network until he got the opportunity with FOX, and then, when it ended, a replay of several hours of the same show before the morning show took the air on that station.

There is no one in the media who is more "Raider Nation" than JT.  He's worked for that team a number of times, including currently.

So it's obvious he'd have an opinion on the Tim Brown story about that he believes that the Raider coach at the time, Bill Callahan, sabotaged (and, hence, rigged/threw) Super Bowl XXXVII.  JT was working with the team on Super Bowl XXXVII, including doing a three-hour pre-game show on the San Francisco sports-talk station.

So he obviously has an opinion on the matter, and opened his January 22/23 overnight show with that opinion in this monologue, posted to the FOX Sports Radio site.

This is one of the reasons that I question the sanity of most sports fans.  You can tell this man is a very torn man.  He fucking bleeds Silver and Black, both on his show and in his other work, including that with the Raiders.

He knows Tim Brown.  He's met him on numerous occasions.  So he's not going to go off and just impeach the guy's words.

And I can understand how he truly believes, in all the work he did with the Raiders, that he saw nothing to indicate the game was being thrown.

The problem is:  This is something which would've been kept very quiet, very secretive, etc.  We're talking NFL Security levels.

Why?

Look at the firestorm this story has gotten in the two days since it's been made public on more than just satellite radio.  Listen to JT's show, which has several links on it underneath the opening monologue podcast.

If he knew anything, he'd probably tell.  I know there's a lot of people I could state could be skeptical of that statement -- so much so, in that it would probably be the end of any association he has/had with the Raiders.

That said, I don't think such a thing could be held back unless it was something that basically never got beyond the coach himself.

Do I believe that game was fixed?  You bet I do.  I believe every Super Bowl since One Yard Short has been fixed, and many before it.

Do I believe that game to be scripted, or even pre-arranged, with the say-so of Bill Callahan?  The evidence has always been there.  Jon Gruden and the Buccaneers knew every audible, and Callahan was, at best, negligent in his duties as the coach on that level alone.

So, when Tim Brown comes out and says Coach Callahan deliberately sabotaged/screwed the Raiders out of a Super Bowl because he actually loved Jon Gruden more than he loved the Raiders (and, in fact, resented and hated the Raiders organization), I give it a bit of credence.

When Jerry Rice backs him up, the red flags go berserk.

JT lays the blame, as many media would, with the quarterback and his five picks.

The problem is, JT openly states that Jon Gruden made Rich Gannon the MVP that year, not Callahan.  If so, would Gruden not know EVERYTHING about what Gannon was doing (in fact, JT notes that Gruden actually was the scout team quarterback, playing as Gannon, in Buccaneer practice for the game)?  Would it not be incumbent on the game plan, through Callahan, to work on that?

I've talked to a number of people, and one common thread in several discussions I've had is questioning that, since the team was so pass-wacky, why go with a running game?  That might be an answer -- people forming the plan might've known that Gruden knew everything about Gannon (and the audibles!), and needed to change things up.

And then, all of a sudden, under 48 hours to go, and the whole plan is scrapped?

And I can understand the pain JT's in over all this.  Consider:  He was held in such high regard with the Raider organization even then that he got a ring that the team got for the AFC Championship.

And he's very correct:  That's a Super Bowl ring he gets if the Raiders win that game.

JT then discusses Barret Robbins, who probably sealed the deal by going AWOL less than 36 hours before kickoff, effectively ending his NFL career instantaneously.  I agree with JT that I think Robbins threw it all away, but I do have to wonder, especially if the plan was set and then changed so drastically, that, especially with everyone knowing Robbins was a time bomb, how they could let things go down the way they did, especially with all the pressure on him as game time approached?

If they knew how many problems he had, why do you effectively expose him, and to even more, if Brown's story is to be believed?

JT later admits that Bill Callahan didn't get along with a lot of people, but still claims he wanted that ring.

Bill Callahan is the guy that took a nationally-regarded college program in Nebraska and fouled it up SO BADLY that they STILL haven't recovered.  I think he's screwed in the head, frankly.

Sorry, I don't buy it.  As much as I respect JT, he's still in the business of making the games appear legit.  And, as some interesting discussions have stated in the recent past, the games being businesses mean that the franchises work together more than they compete.  (Brian Tuohy has an interesting video in "We Sell Fantasy" to that effect on his site.)

And JT makes a good point:  Why now, especially with Brown being a Hall of Fame finalist?  (Hell, I'll put it on the record:  He probably just screwed himself out of a spot in Canton, at least for this year, because of these comments!!!)

But I've always believed, especially since knowing that the Raider audible signals were not changed for this Super Bowl, that the game was probably rigged against the Raiders.

Rigged is bad enough.

But for the head coach of the Raiders to pre-arrange the result, effectively, by screwing over his own team, for the championship of the league which employs him, that's a whole new level of rigging, even over and above the bullshit the National Football League has purported upon us for the last number of years.