Isn't it fitting that the one person who arguably had one of the most significant impacts in the Giants' season's resurrection, had two sacks, and put pressure on Brady all game long is aptly named Justice, er, Justin Tuck? Coincidence?(I think not).
Justice came, or should have come for the Raiders one year after, beating the Patriots in the season then the Super Bowl. Alas, it came not in the form of a Raider championship but justice came for the former coach, almost exactly one year removed from being run out of the team he revived, and along with it, absolution.
This is significant because it is intertwined with the situation the Raiders find themselves in today and almost every year since SB XXXVII. Look at it this way: Al Davis took the Raiders to a 10-4 record and coach of the year in his first year as coach of the Raiders and the youngest in the then AFL's history. He promoted another young coach ( again the youngest then), in John Madden. Shanahan. Gruden.
Do you see some sort of a pattern here? He is searching for himself, or at least someone like him.
Lane Kiffin almost ended his Raider career with 4-12. He had a tall standard to attain, and it remains to be seen what will happen. Will Al Davis give him another chance? Maybe. If he fails, even during the middle of season, well maybe that's what James Lofton might be there for.
But time is not on Al Davis' side. Never has been. The philosophy of always tooling a team to win immediately, never taking time to build slowly, it is not without warrant, just look at the Giants. Their win was magnificent.
All it takes is probably a great coach, quarterback, and defense, even if only for that last and most important game; and to be on the right side of destiny's forces, and yesterday it was justice.
I do not fault Al Davis' on the current debacle as has become the staple of the Raiders of recent. He has a tried and tested plan and formula, and most of us would admit as to how hard it is to deviate from the norm, from what you have known to be successful all your life.
He had another incarnate of himself in the mold of Madden on that January of 2003. The Raiders were on the right side of destiny. However, the harbinger was on the other side of the sideline.
