WALNUT CREEK, Calif. ? When
Oakland Raiders coach Tom Cable told his assistants after a sloppy Aug. 4 training-camp practice that he planned to meet privately that night with the team?s defensive backs, Randy Hanson was sure how things would play out.
?You know what?s gonna happen there,? Hanson, a defensive assistant who had worked closely with the team?s secondary, predicted to a small group of fellow staff members. ?Tom?s gonna come out of the meeting and say I?m the problem, that I?m the one confusing them and blame it all on me.?
Hanson was right: Later that night, Cable informed him that the Raiders? cornerbacks and safeties had pegged him as ?the problem,? exacerbating the tension that Hanson says had been festering between the two coaches since January, when Hanson was hired by owner Al Davis before Cable had been offered a permanent head-coaching role.