Hall of Famer - James Lofton

by David White

The Raiders have agreed to hire Hall of Fame receiver James Lofton as an assistant coach, though the deal is still being finalized.

What no one can agree on is how the team came to that agreement.

According to a league source, and reported this morning by a local media outlet, Raiders owner Al Davis made the decision to hire Lofton on Wednesday without informing coach Lane Kiffin. This has all the makings of yet another move to undermine Kiffin in their increasingly public power struggle, with Kiffin doing all the struggling.

The Raiders, however, said that couldn't be further from the truth. According to senior executive John Herrera, Kiffin decided to hire Lofton after interviewing him Monday and then passed the salary part of the process to Davis, who is currently negotiating the deal with Lofton.

"Lane vehemently denied that he didn't know about it," said Herrera, who spoke with Kiffin about the news report Thursday morning. "He did know about it. He was part of the interview process and he was totally in the loop. He told Mr. Davis to go ahead and get him on board. He turned it over to the organization to see if the organization could come to an agreement, which every organization does in regards to salary."

This much is clear: the national perception is Oakland has been, and remains, a devastating wreck. From stories about Kiffin's failed attempt to fire defensive coordinator Rob Ryan to Davis stripping Kiffin of power in a recent letter, the Raiders make it easy to understand why, at 19-61, they have been the worst NFL team of the past half-decade.

Be sure, perception counts for something. When Randy Moss is bashing the organization during Super Bowl week, and former players like Ray Buchanan do the same on NFL Network, their opinions carry weight with other players. One personnel official conceded this is making it that much tougher for the Raiders to re-sign their own free agents, let alone convince top players to come here from elsewhere when the free agent market opens at the end of February.

Stay tuned.