In this era of media overkill, one story has been under-reported: Busgate.
Did the Raiders’ bus caravan really take a victory lap around Arrowhead Stadium after they beat the Chiefs 40-32 last month? If so, I have new respect for head coach Jon Gruden and the Raiders.
What a spectacle that must have been! One report said the Raiders’ caravan was six buses, and NFL game-day bus caravans always have heavy police escorts, so that’s a lot of moving parts and bright lights and sirens. It must have been like the Rose Parade on steroids.
Sadly, we may never know what really happened, because Chiefs’ head coach Andy Reid clammed up about the issue after he raised it, and because Gruden cut off questions with a snarky (ie: Grudenish) answer.
Like, did Gruden really order the victory lap because of a comment his bus driver made as Gruden climbed aboard after that big win? If so, fantastic.
Guaranteed: There will be no mystery Sunday, when the two teams meet again, this time in Vegas. If the Chiefs win, their postgame bus caravan out of the stadium will get heavy media coverage.
I want to see Reid hanging out a bus window, waving a sparkler and a can of beer.
If the Raiders win, I want to see the players take a postgame car-caravan victory lap around the Death Star, spinning donuts as they go.
The bus-caravan victory lap could become the NFL version of the bat flip. I can’t wait for the coaches’ comments Monday.
Reid: “My apologies to the Raiders’ fans for our buses speeding through their postgame tailgate parties at 70 miles per hour, but we were late for our flight.”
Gruden: “I had nothing to do with those tack strips. Next question.”
Deep thoughts, cheap shots & bon mots ...
• College football 2020: Hopscotch in a minefield.
• Full approval here of the Warriors’ top draft pick, James Wiseman. Anthony Edwards, the other player the Warriors had their eye on, reportedly showed up overweight for his NBA team workouts. That’s like coming to your job interview in a bathrobe with pancake-syrup stains.
• LaMelo Ball on draft night sat on a couch between his parents, wearing headphones. Sure. Why share the magic night with the people who raised you, when you can groove in your own world to the Beach Boys or Lil Wayne or whoever?
• Please, NBA, drop the ritual of new draftees donning baseball caps. Thousand-dollar suit, meet cheesy, ill-fitting five-dollar hat.
• How about this: Have the draftee put on an appropriate hat. You get drafted by the Celtics, you put on a green leprechaun derby. Kings, a crown. Warriors, a combat helmet. Spurs, a sombrero or cowboy hat. Bucks, an antler hat. Orlando, a magician’s top hat with a rabbit popping out the top. Charlotte, a hornet’s nest. And so on.
• You love lists? Who doesn’t? Here’s one. The Warriors’ three biggest ifs for this season. One, Wiseman, age 19, expected to play 79 more games than he did last season. Two, Draymond Green. Three, Eric Paschall. If those three play up to expectations, it’s all good.
• Hey, 49ers’ fans, hope you enjoyed your team’s surprisingly stout defensive effort against the Saints, because it will cost you. Also taking notice: Every NFL team that will be looking for a new head coach. Robert Saleh is so gone.
• Irony is hard to define, but let’s give it a shot: Among the museums shut down by the latest round of pandemic restrictions: The Museum of Things We Used To Do Before The Pandemic. I loved the Hall of Handshakes.
• Kyle Shanahan, on fans and media criticizing Jimmy Garoppolo, says he remembers 49ers’ fans being unhappy with a 14-2 Steve Young. Yeah, no. Jimmy ain’t no Stevie.
• Suggestion for the NFL: Say bye-bye to the bye. The bye week is the worst idea since sliced bread, sliced the long way. Sure, it’s a rest and healing week, and every team needs that, but it’s really just the league’s way of milking the cash cow for an extra week every season. This Sunday, 49ers’ fans will be waiting at the bus stop for a bus that’s not coming.
• Not many have been kicked around harder by Year 2020 than Tim Flannery, back in the hospital after a enduring a setback in his recovery from multiple surgeries to address a staph infection. Here’s a guy who plays tons of gigs with his band to raise money for charity, flat on his back. Karma, please pick up the white courtesy phone.
• Robinson Cano grabs some pine again, a one-year suspension for flunking the PED test for a second time. Can’t blame the guy for trying. Last season, at age 37, he hit .316 and had his highest OPS since 2013.
• In one hole at the Masters last Sunday, Tiger Woods got as many splash hits as Mike Yastrzemski hit all season.
• Rae’s Creek? Henceforth it will be known as Tiger’s Creek. Whatever you call that creek, Woods was up it, without a paddle. Does Nike make a paddle?
• The NFL’s first all-Black officiating team will work the Monday night game between the Rams and Buccaneers. Here’s hoping the TV crew gives a proper shout-out to the late Burl Toler, graduate of USF, who Jackie Robinson’d the NFL officiating ranks in 1965.
Scott Ostler is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: sostler@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @scottostler
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November 22, 2020 at 05:25AM
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Raiders put the thrill back in bus travel. Is caravan victory lap the NFL’s batflip? - San Francisco Chronicle
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