Hue Jackson Regrets Week 17 Rant
Added on Jan 12, 2012 by Jack Thurman in
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Hue Jackson is a classic example of ‘hindsight being 20/20′. Jackson ripped his team a new one after their Week 17 loss and now wishes he had been more diplomatic. Of course he now says all of this as *former* head coach of the Oakland Raiders. The loss left the Raiders with a nine year run without a winning record or playoff berth and although Jackson was upset with his team he now wishes he handled things differently:
“I think probably the emotions were still pretty raw after talking to the team. I kind of went in there and said some things that I was saying to the team that maybe didn’t need to be said outside the locker room.”
“So lesson learned by me. I know what I said, I know what I meant. I don’t think I meant it the way that everybody took it.”
Jackson wishes the Raiders franchise well going forward and realizes that the call was made to change direction:
“When it’s all said or done, it really doesn’t matter whether it was Mark or Reggie. At the end of the day, it was the Raiders organization that made a decision to move in a different direction.”
And although he didn’t give specifics as to why he thinks this is the case, he suggests that he’d likely still be head coach if Al Davis was still alive:
“I feel like if that was the case that maybe I’d have the opportunity to still be there.”
Jackson also denied suggestions that he tried to make a ‘power grab’ after Davis’ death:
“Sometimes people can take things and run with them. I’ve seen so many things said about me being power hungry, that I want to be the GM. I’ve never said that. I don’t know many coaches in the National Football League that don’t want input on his team, his coaching staff or how to go about conducting practice.”
The Raiders have hired Reggie McKenzie as General Manager, and one of his first items of business will be to find a replacement for Jackson. He’ll likely then address the quarterback situation–Jason Campbell is coming back from a season ending injury and there’s much pressure to find a better backup than Carson Palmer.
