The following post, written by Raiders fan Chris Peterson, aka R8der, appeared on the Raiders Fans Mail List on August 14, 1997. Reprinted with permission.

Hello fellow Raiders brothers and sisters!

I wanted to report to you on my experiences today (well, actually yesterday since it's 12:30 AM as I write this). Where I work we have a luxury box for the Raiders games, and all luxury box owners are automatically enrolled in a group called the Executive Club. The Raiders and OFMA have events for this Executive Club, and I was lucky enough to get invited along today to the best event I've attended yet......a private visit to training camp.

The group met at the Coliseum today for lunch at 12:30. There were a total of 28 members there today, along with staff from OFMA, Jim Otto, and George Atkinson came along as Jim's guest. They served us a light lunch, put us on a bus, and we started the trek to Napa.

On the way up Jim Otto talked about the Raiders as he usually does, and then he asked trivia questions for prizes. I ended up winning a Raider hat that I guess is brand new for this season. I don't even remember what trivia question I answered, but I was surprised that I knew most of the answers. One of Jim's stumpers was what number did he wear when he was first with the Raiders?

He said he wore number 50, but changed it after his first year to 00. They had to ask the league for permission to change his number, and I did not know the meaning behind the number before. He said it was a play on his last name, since it sounds like "aught O".....not sure on that spelling of aught...but you get the picture.

Jim also mentioned that there will be an announcement in the next few days that the Oakland Coliseum has negotiated a new name, but he would not reveal the business which had bought the rights to the Coliseum's name. I asked if it was Harley Davidson or Black Flag which some have speculated, but Jim said no, laughing at the prospect.

I sat next to Atkinson on the bus, and he talked about the old days almost the entire trip. He really is an approachable guy, and I felt like I'd met a new friend since we kind of hung out together the rest of the day.

We arrived in Napa at 3:15, but practice was not due to start until 3:50, so we waited in the sports bar there at the Marriott. Morris Bradshaw and Amy Trask (Raider attorney) met us about 3:30, and briefed us about how to conduct ourselves while on the practice field. The players had requested that we not applaud, cheer, or make comments of any kind based on their play. They also did not want to be approached while on the practice field. We were told not to take any photos of team formations, but I did not bring my camera as I had been told no cameras were allowed at all.....oh well, maybe next year.

We entered the practice field at 3:50, and it felt like we were walking into CIA headquarters in Langley or something....the entire field is encircled by a high fence with fabric covering the fence so outsiders could not see in, except for the fence along one side where there were a few houses. The players were all on the field doing warmups and stretching.

It's funny that somebody mentioned a story about Jeff George not doing his warmups, because you could really notice he was not putting in much effort. Of course, a lot of them did not look like they were the rah rah types, Tim Brown and Rickey Dudley included. They were laughing and joking the entire time with each other.

After stretching they all went off to their own groups; RB's, WR's, LB's, etc. They did some running drills for a little while, which was kind of boring to watch, so we walked to where Leo Araguz was punting. Man can this kid boom them! He was kicking from his own 40, and regularly putting them between the 10 and the goal line, with a few exceptions. I was timing his hang time and he was consistently right around 6 seconds. I can see why Al didn't bring in any competition for him.

Then the action started. We had the second team offense on our side of the field (there are two football fields side by side, and we mostly stayed on the side not looking into the sun) and they were playing against the first team defense. They ended up rotating offensive and defensive units around the field, running three 7 on 7 drills. I noted Eric Turner played extensively, with no signs of the groin pull he previously had. He did take a break on the sideline for a few minutes, but he was right in front of me and was not stopping due to any pain from what I could tell. I was concerned that Larry Brown looked like crap.....consistently! He tried for the intercept twice, missing badly and letting his receiver get the reception for what would have been big gainers. He was just as bad later when they did a 9 on 9 drill.

During the 9 on 9, they set up trash cans to simulate the offensive linemen. They were working out on their own, and we did not see them practice at all. They had guys like Fenner and Tim Hall in blocking so the pass blocking was not very realistic. Jeff George looked hot and cold. He completed maybe 2/3 of his passes, but missed badly on two. It was obvious they were working on more mid-range passes, since he did not throw any bombs. He puts a lot of zip on the ball, much more than I thought from watching his play from further away. He hit James Jett right on the numbers on a slant pattern across the middle, and Jett promptly dropped it, falling to the ground and yelling "damn" quite loudly....as if it was his 5th drop of the day. Dudley looked excellent, as did Tim (as usual) and surprisingly Desmond. Truitt dropped an easy one right in his hands, as did Branscomb. Shedd showed off his speed and ran crisp routes, but only had one pass thrown his way which was broken up...by Larry Brown. Ok, he had one good play.

Jeff threw one INT, picked off by Morton. Klingler threw one as well, and I think the receiver of that gift was Biekert. During the 11 on 11, there was great coverage downfield on one play, and Jeff ended up not throwing the ball at all. Bugel was full of praise, yelling "all right men....all right men!" Eric Turner walked up to the line and yelled out, "You don't want to give me one Jeff", implying he wanted the INT. One thing I liked seeing was after every completion from George, he walked up to meet the returning receiver and they tapped fists with each other. There seemed to be a genuine unity there between the receivers and Jeff George.

On one slant pattern Tim was overthrown and it looked like Albert Lewis was going to pick it off, but Tim grabbed his jersey and yanked him out of position. Albert laughed and yelled "let me go Timmy". Tim laughed, turned around and walked back to the huddle. Albert picked up the ball and threw it at Tim, nearly missing him. Albert looked over at our group and gave us a smile....it really looked like the veterans were having fun out there.

Kaufman and Tim Hall were the only RB's getting any work, and Kaufman has some moves that would make a cat look slow. He is just as much fun to watch in practice as he is during the game. He had a run right past us and his speed is quite unbelievable.

Harvey Williams was lined up at the TE spot, and he caught two passes, one a tough grab along the sidelines.

The last thing we watched was full team kick returns, all being returned by Desmond Howard. They did about 6 of these, changing the side they kicked to and the side Desmond ran to each time. Desmond caught all 6 kickoffs cleanly, and Cole was putting them right at the goal line each time. He showed his brilliance on each return, and I just know he's going to be breaking a few for TD's in the very near future. He just seems to have a knack for finding the seams, and he has blazing speed even when he's making lane adjustments.

I noticed Pat Swilling was absent, but I think I saw him working out with a trainer over by the extensive weights they had set up. They did not take us over that way so I could not be sure.

I can't think of more details at this point.....and I don't want to ramble on too long.

We got back on the bus so we could head off to a private dinner at Sterling Vineyards. On the bus I talked more with Atkinson. He had mentioned when I won the Raider hat that he had not seen it before and he would have to see if Jim could get one for him. He was wearing a Raider hat that the players have been wearing on the sidelines this year, that according to Atkinson was unavailable to the public at this time. I took a shot and asked him if he wouldn't mind trading his hat for the one I had won, since I liked his better. He said "Sure, I can do that!", and I now own George Atkinson's hat! :-)

One last note (I don't want to bore everybody with more mindless chatter)....on the ride back to Oakland after dinner, Atkinson was talking about that Super Bowl piece they did with John Madden for the last Super Bowl, where a bunch of the former Raider players were sitting around a poker table and talking Raider football. The piece that aired in Madden's special was only 15 minutes, and I remember it was a great piece for me to watch as a Raider fan. George said they actually taped for 2 and a half hours, telling stories the entire time, but they edited it down to 15 minutes for the show. George went on to say that he had a copy of the entire 2 and a half hours on tape...that they had sent it to him. I asked if I could borrow the tape, and he initially must have thought I was joking, because he just laughed. When I told him I was serious, he said if I really wanted to see it, he'd be happy to loan it to me.

My thought is this.....I'm going to make a couple of copies of the tape, and perhaps we can get a distribution list for interested Raiders fans on this list that can mail it from person to person. I'll let you know more after I see the tape, and we can go from there.

If I can think of anything more that would be of interest to you, I'll be sure to post again! Looking forward to this Saturday's game!

- R8der