You just can’t outfox Al Davis. On the day of final cuts,
Sept. 2, the Raiders unexpectedly sent wide receiver Doug Gabriel to New England for a fifth-round draft choice. The Patriots
waived Gabriel Tuesday, and the Raiders signed him today. So this team gets the
player and the draft choice! High-five!

Yes, the Raiders might be 2-11, but they’re not too
downtrodden to outfox the mighty Patriots on occasion.

Gabriel’s flight west is just the latest installment of an
ongoing soap opera that involves the strangest position on the strangest team
in America.
An up-and-coming young receiver is traded for the equivalent of 20 cases of
Samuel Adams lager, with no warning; the best receiver on the team, Randy Moss,
says whatever he wants and plays at varying speeds like a Cuisinart. The
second-best receiver, Jerry Porter, is banished to the Alameda Gulag and will
almost certainly finish the year with one catch for 19 yards. The third, Ronald
Curry, gets a few plays every game, like the kid with a disability who is treated
as a team mascot. And Alvis Whitted prevails.

The signing of Gabriel signals the Raiders’ lack of
confidence that Moss (twisted ankle) or Porter (twisted saga) will see the
field over the next three weeks. They certainly can use a 6-2, 215-pound receiver
who is only 26. Some might say it was crazy to trade him in the first place.

“Doug
is insurance for us right now,” coach Art Shell said Wednesday. “So that’s
where we are with that. I don’t know if we’d have made that move if those guys
all were healthy and ready to go.”

Shell
didn’t rule out the notion of Gabriel playing against St. Louis this Sunday. But what will he be
wearing? Rookie tight end John Madsen took Gabriel’s jersey number as well as
his locker. My guess is that Gabriel will honor his idol and friend, Jerry
Rice, by wearing No. 80 – and that we haven’t seen the last curiosity involving
the Raiders’ wide receiver corps.

I’m
just wondering if the team will now swing a trade for defensive end Bobby
Hamilton, whom it dealt to New York
a day before swapping Gabriel.