The Las Vegas Raiders are currently running the Maxx Crosby trade sweepstakes, which has been an ongoing circus for a couple of months now. Rumors have been surfacing everywhere about Crosby’s desire to stay or go and the Raiders’ preference to trade or keep him, but Micheal Silver of The Athletic went way beyond rumors to expose some of what was apparently happening behind the scenes in Las Vegas.
Silver used anonymous sources, but some of what he came up with was shocking. Former Raiders coach Jon Gruden was the first to struggle with Crosby’s wayward ways, but as Crosby’s talent and star power emerged, Silver said that Gruden’s coaching successors, Josh McDaniels, Antonio Pierce and Pete Carroll, “found themselves powerless to contain him. "
Crosby’s “Mad Maxx” rebellion routine started with batting down passes in pracitices during Gruden’s tenure, at which point Gruden threatened to cut him. But according to several witnesses from this season's debacle, the Raiders' defensive lineman progressed to making contact with quarterbacks wearing the red no-contact jersey and getting away with it.
“His attitude was, ‘If you don’t want me to do it, then block me,’” one witness said. “And nobody was in position to challenge that.”
Crosby also had something of a power struggle with Alex Guerrero, whose title was “wellness coordinator.” Guerrero is a friend and confidant of minority owner Tom Brady, and according to Silver he was also a conduit to Brady, acting as a back channel to report whatever was happening to Brady, who lives in Florida.
Crosby was one of many people who was frustrated with Guerrero, who pulled some of the same moves with the New England Patriots before former coach Bill Belichick finally banned him from the Patriots' Foxboro facility.
The upshot of the report is that it illustrates what a mess new coach Klint Kubiak is inheriting as he takes over. It seems impossible to reconcile all this and restore peace and integrity within the Silver and Black realm, although stranger things have happened.
The rumor mill has been heating up at a furious pace when it comes to the possibility of Crosby being traded, and multiple experts with credibility think it will happen this week. It’s still hard to tell who’s running teh show in Vegas, but a trade would indicate that Kubiak is being given a little more power than his predecessors as he takes the reins in his first head-coaching job.