It’s pretty difficult to make a 6-foot-6 man – one referred to by his teammates as “a beast” – vanish. But apparently Houdini had nothing on the Oakland Raiders for making something disappear into thin air.

The Raiders – who thought they traded a 2011 first-round pick for Seymour on Sunday – are still waiting for Seymour to appear in Oakland. Seymour is laying very low, though there have been reports that he’s still at home in New England.

The Raiders will practice tonight at the Oakland Coliseum, in an attempt to prepare for their Monday night opening game against the San Diego Chargers and LaDanian Tomlinson. Tomlinson has averaged 111 yards per game against the Raiders over the past eight years – emblematic of the Raiders overall problems against the run.

That’s why they wanted Seymour – they stink agains the run. That’s why Seymour doesn’t want to come – they stink. And he’s accustomed to excellence. He must be understandably horrified at the thought of not only playing for the Raiders – after spending his career with one of the league’s best – but at the thought the team could use the franchise tag on him.

It’s a standoff, directed by agent/magician Eugene Parker, who is also in a standoff with the other Bay Area NFL team. He’s Michael Crabtree’s agent and Crabtree to has vanished into thin air. He has yet to report to the 49ers, who open in Arizona on Sunday. It is harder to figure out his thinking than Seymour’s. Does Crabtree really want to leave a year of his career and millions of dollars on the table?

Here is a column I wrote earlier in this week for SI.com about how Parker has become the most important man in the Bay Area’s NFL scene. Pretty sad comedown for the land of Walsh, DeBartolo, Madden and Davis. Used to be players wanted to come to the Raiders or 49ers.

Seems like a very long time ago. Now our teams are only good for lame magic tricks. Can either team pull a potential superstar out of a hat?

Tags: Michael Crabtree, Raiders, Richard Seymour

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 8:31 pm and is filed under Bay Area Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.