The Las Vegas Raiders

Well it's official.  The Raiders are no longer the Oakland Raiders.  They've dropped 'Oakland' from all media material and are simply listed as "Raiders".

I grew up with the outlaw imagery of the Oakland Raiders, and I remember well when they moved to Los Angeles.  I hated the move and it made the franchise seem as if it were made out of plastic.  Al Davis looked more eager to give the finger to the NFL than keep the zeitgeist of the team and the energy of the franchise's fan base energized.

He eventually moved the team back to Oakland.  It was as if the Dodgers moved back to Brooklyn.  Davis, who went to Erasmus Hall HS in Brooklyn, realized that nothing could replace the Oakland outlaw history and reputation.

Now that is all over.  The Raiders are moving into an incredible stadium in Las Vegas:

"To help with that, the Raiders signed a partnership with Cox Business to bring the fastest optical internet on the market to the venue.

The $2 billion Allegiant Stadium will feature 1,700 Wi-Fi access points backed by redundant 40-gigabit optical internet connections, which Cox Business Vice President Derrick Hill said will have the bandwidth for every mobile device in the 65,000-seat stadium. There will be more than 227 miles of fiber. There will also be 2,200 Samsung screens and signs, powered by Cisco Vision. With the technology, Cox will provide a variety of fan interaction elements, such as virtual meet and greets."

I think Davis would be happy with the move to Las Vegas. He never had much love for the NFL bureaucracy, and the sinful background of Las Vegas and the in-your-face connection to gambling, legal and illegal, is a good way to continually skirt the edge of respectability.  It's not a bad move.