Another excellent episode tonight.

First, there may not be anybody who benefits less from high definition than Al Davis.  It’s amazing to me that a guy with as much pride as Al Davis will show up on TV looking like he rolled 3000 year old skin over his skeleton in the mornings.  Of course, this is also the same guy who used an overhead projector to fire his head coach in 2008.  I’m sure somebody has told him numerous times, but he needs to make like George Steibrenner.

Honestly, it probably is sad that the Raiders organization has turned into the cesspool it is now.  However, my family, having ties to the Bat Area, and most importantly the 49ers, rejoiced in their failure.  It was easy to hate the Raiders and their style if it wasn’t your team.  In fact it still is.  To make matters worse, Raider fans makes Philly fans look like choirboys.

I’m certainly not qualified to give an opinion on gangsta rap or South Central L.A., but it’s easy to see how the two of them would associate with Raiders.  Having been exposed to it only means so much.  It’s another thing to live those songs.  The Raiders brought an attitude that was already part of the culture in that area.  Both sides benefited from the other in way that culture and sports never had, and it changed the game.  Never one to keep a good thing going, Al Davis of course had to step in and take his team elsewhere, after he was going to take him team somewhere else.  Al Davis’ ego will never let Al Davis get want he wants, and that’s a winning football team again.

Sure, I think part of the idea was to tell a story about the history of West Coast hip hop and the Raiders, but after watching almost every episode in the series, the theme that continues to stick out is that sports and culture are a lot more intertwined than even we realize.  That our teams are who we are, as  a city, as a people.  And that is what makes fans.