NFL's Las Vegas Raiders 'Go for Woke' With Tone Deaf Tweet After Chauvin Verdict

I “might” have laughed out loud when I saw this report, last night. Reason being, nobody in professional sports has more embarrassingly prostrated himself or herself before the Black Lives Matter altar and pretend-systemic racism over the last year than National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell. As a result, his full-metal buy-in to the narrative has driven untold numbers of once-loyal NFL fans away from the league altogether.

So along came the Las Vegas Raiders, the perennial badasses of Oakland (until moving to Los Angeles, then Las Vegas), with the tone-deaf tweet of tone-deaf tweets, following the Derek Chauvin guilty verdict, proving yet again that sometimes when you try to go too “woke,” you end up going “broke.” Check it out:

pic.twitter.com/eeWbMYHK3U

— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) April 20, 2021

As one sportswriter put it, “Oh no, Raiders, what are you doing?”

What the wokified Raiders were “doing,” of course, was suggesting that because of the guilty verdict, handed down on April 20, 2021, America can now breathe, again.

Setting aside the politics and whether one believes the verdict was correct — I am one of those people — the question remains, Raiders. What the hell were you doing? What the hell were you thinking — or not, as was clearly the case?

Bleacher Report‘s Tyler Conway had similar “WTF” thoughts:

“[T]he fact that there were MEETINGS that went into approving this graphic and y’all made it your pinned tweet shows you gotta have the most tone deaf [sic] social media staff on the planet.”

Amen, brother Tyler.

the fact that there were MEETINGS that went into approving this graphic and y’all made it your pinned tweet shows you gotta have the most tone deaf social media staff on the planet

— Tyler Conway (@jtylerconway) April 20, 2021

As I referenced, above, Sports Illustrated senior writer Chris Herring tweeted:

“oh no raiders, what are you doing” [sic]

Take your time to answer, Raiders. We’ll wait.

oh no raiders, what are you doing

— Chris Herring (@Herring_NBA) April 20, 2021

pic.twitter.com/RqGNiP3C1R

— Chris Herring (@Herring_NBA) April 20, 2021

Baltimore Sun sportswriter Daniel Oyefusi used snark — love it — in skewering the Raiders.

“I’ve seen a lot of bad tweets on this app but this might be first-ballot Hall of Fame worthy.”

First-ballot inductee, Daniel.

I’ve seen a lot of bad tweets on this app but this might be first-ballot Hall of Fame worthy https://t.co/ejyfrxZynf

— Daniel Oyefusi (@DanielOyefusi) April 20, 2021

Raiders owner Mark Davis stepped up to the plate (baseball metaphor, NFL — I know) and took the heat for the tone-deaf tweet — while defending it at the same time, as reported by the Las Vegas Journal-Review.

“That’s my tweet. That was me. I don’t want anyone in the organization taking heat. I take full responsibility for that,” he said. “If I offended the family, then I’m deeply, deeply disappointed,” he added, but said the tweet would not be deleted.

That’s the Raiders that “Raider-haters” came to know and “love” through the years.

Here’s more reaction to the verdict, NBC News style.

Finally, Orlando Sentinel senior writer Desiree Stennett hit the nail on the head with a simple, spot-on observation:

“So many opportunities to say nothing are being missed today.”

The same is true, today, of course, as asinine comments abound on both sides of the issue and everywhere in between. Put simply, the “shoe on the other foot” test continues to be failed in flying colors, across the fruited plain. Then again, it always is.