The Oakland Raiders are looking for a head coach. When Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride met with their owner Al Davis for 90 minutes on Saturday, it was naturally assumed that they were discussing the job. Gilbride once coached the Chargers, after all, and the Raider trio of Darren McFadden, Justin Fargas and Michael Bush has a lot in common with the Earth, Wind and Fire crew he's had great success with in New York.
The Raiders, though, deny that their conversation had anything to do with the coaching job. "Mr. Davis has known Kevin for a long time and was more than willing to oblige and have that conversation," Raiders senior executive John Herrera said. "They had an interesting hour-and-a-half conversation Saturday at Gilbride's request. End of story."
Chances are that it was, at the very least, a preliminary interview. The Raiders deny more claims made by others than the nastiest insurance company in all the land. They'd deny that the sun came up in the East and set in the West if someone gave them the opportunity.
That North Korean philosophy toward information makes it hard to predict what Davis might do, but the Giants are definitely starting to feel what happens to consistently good teams in the NFL. Steve Spagnuolo is interviewing with just about every team in need of a coach, free agency will free either Brandon Jacobs or Derrick Ward after next season and constantly replenishing the team will put a heavy burden on G.M. Jerry Reese.
Nice thing about all of that, though, is that it's a small price to pay for Super Bowl rings
