The tenants of the Oakland Raiders' black hole neither forgive nor forget. So when two former members of the family return to Network Associates Coliseum tomorrow, they can expect a rude welcome.
"They are Raider fans, they love their team," former Oakland receiver Tim Brown said. "I expect them to be very boisterous toward us. Before the game I expect a little love, after the game I expect a little love.
"During the game, I'm going to keep my helmet on."
Brown and ex-Raiders head coach Jon Gruden will be back in the league's scariest stadium when their Tampa Bay Buccaneers are the hated guests.
As if they need any added encouragement, Raiders players spent part of the week working on firing the crowd up.
The big target will be Gruden, who led the team to back-to-back post-season appearances and then bolted the Bay Area for Tampa Bay on Feb. 20, 2002.
As fate would have it, 11 months later Gruden's Buccaneers defeated the Raiders 48-21 in the Super Bowl.
"I hope it's loud," Raiders left guard Frank Middleton said. "I hope they boo him, throw stuff at him, make his day miserable."
Gruden, who was wildly popular in Oakland when he was the Raiders coach, expects some backlash. But he also hopes his past record accounts for something.
Gruden never had a losing record during his four-year tenure in Oakland.
"I'm sure I'll get booed like hell," Gruden said. "I don't worry about it. I've got a lot of friends who will be sitting in the stands -- the Terminator and the Axe-Grinder, whatever those guys' names were.
"Those are guys I had a relationship with. Hopefully they don't forget that, but I'm not going to get caught up in it."
The other big storyline is that of Raiders lineman Warren Sapp, who left Tampa in the off-season. Usually a motormouth, Sapp has been conspicuously quiet this week.
"Who cares about Warren Sapp," Bucs offensive lineman Cosey Coleman said. "We're 0-2."
PAST HIS PRIME TIME?
So far in his return to the NFL, Deion (Prime Time) Sanders has played all of 23 snaps and the Baltimore Ravens defensive back is listed as questionable for tomorrow's game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The flashy defender is nursing a sore hamstring but still hopes to play.
"I'm not a gambling man, but I'm going to do my best to be there for my teammates," Sanders, 37, said.
Ravens coach Brian Billick said not to read too much into Sanders' status on the injury report.
"When you're 50 years old, you're going to be questionable every week," Billick said, poking fun at Sanders.
"When you're that old and have played that long, questionable is pretty good."
Added Sanders, who was fired as a CBS studio analyst in the off-season: "This is a marathon, this is not a sprint. I think you guys want me in there for the finale, not just for the 40-yard dash."
CONTROLLING MOSS
Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith knows Vikings wide receiver Randy Moss will have his share of passes sent his way tomorrow.
Smith knows he can't control that, but hopes his team can find away to limit the damage inflicted by one of the NFL's most explosive receivers.
"We like to knock him around like we like to knock all the receivers around," Smith said. "You can't always double-cover him. You have to be able to just man-up from time to time and try not to let him get big plays as much as anything.
"We can live with him catching a couple short passes underneath. We would like for guys to catch the ball underneath, and we like to sprint and get 11 guys taking a shot at him. That would be an ideal world for us.
"We of course assume they're going to try to throw it deep and throw it often."
