Keith Grieve is 28 years old and lives in Princeton, New Jersey. His sports journalism background includes two years as Sports Director for Cortland State Television at SUNY Cortland, where he did play-by-play commentary for football, basketball, and hockey. He's been a senior writer for eSports for about three years now. His day job is in retail management, but he still finds time to play hardball -- that?s right, not softball -- in an attempt to recapture his youth. Oakland Raiders' wide receiver Jerry Porter's antics are nothing short of ridiculous. What should the Raiders do with him? Read on to find out.
The list of professional athletes that could answer the question about who needs a priority check is probably too long to list here. However, there is a recent addition to it that needs addressing -- Oakland Raiders wide receiver Jerry Porter.
Now, for those of you who are unfamiliar with Porter, he is the former second-round draft pick from West Virginia that enters every training camp with the expectation of having a breakout season -- only to disappoint.
The Raiders have been in disarray since their trip to the Super Bowl following the 2002 season, and new-old head coach Art Shell has been hired to right the ship. Only Jerry isn't happy with some of the things that have been asked of him.
The main sticking point this past offseason was apparently that the new coach wanted his number two pass catching threat to train with the team in California.
Porter wanted to train in Florida and that didn't make his coach very happy. So much so that Shell is not being overtly friendly with Porter anymore.
Shell doesn't deny it and Porter wants to be traded. However, the Raiders are asking for two 1st round draft picks in exchange, so that doesn't seem plausible.
The fact of the matter is that Porter, while laden with potential, has done nothing to demand a coach cater to him. He is not the best receiver on his own team, and since he has disappointed time and time again, one would think that he would want to do whatever he could to improve his play.
Porter has other ideas.
Now the Raiders will probably hedge their demands if Porter makes enough of a fuss, but I'm hoping they don't. I hope they make him play and that he plays poorly and damages his ability to command free agent interest.
Porter has established himself as a selfish player and a team that has won 13 games in the three seasons since that trip to the Super Bowl doesn't need that. However, he should not be rewarded by being given another chance with another team.
I hope you read this Jerry and I hope you realize that what you just did was turn off every fan who likes to think that at their core, players still care about wins and losses.
You supposedly have the ability to lead, why not show it?