A skunk ruining the Raiders locker room is a perfect metaphor for the start of their season
The Raiders stink ... literally.
The beginning of September hasn’t been great for the Oakland Raiders.
It started with a trade of their best player, Khalil Mack, to the Chicago Bears after a lengthy holdout due to his contract demands. Mack immediately got a $142 million contract and put together one of the most dominant defensive halves ever in his Chicago debut.
Then the Jon Gruden era officially kicked off with a 33-13 loss to the Rams on Monday Night Football that saw Derek Carr continue to show signs of regression.
Now the Raiders locker room stinks. Literally.
Jon Gruden just said a skunk got loose in the Raiders locker room this week. So yeah, not great times in Oakland right now.
— Lindsay Jones (@bylindsayhjones) September 12, 2018
Whew, that’s a metaphor if there ever was one.
Gruden joked that the skunk — which devastated the locker room at some point during the game Monday night — was what “screwed us up a little” in the second half.
Recap of Jon Gruden‘s press conference today, including his thoughts on the skunk that showed up at the season opener & how the defense will adjust as the @Raiders head to Denver. #RaiderNation pic.twitter.com/89Y706NJi2
— MJ Acosta (@MJAcostaTV) September 11, 2018
How a skunk got into the Raiders locker room is a mystery unsolved. Nobody caught, or apparently even saw, the culprit.
Reporter: "Did you see the skunk?"
— Lindsay Jones (@bylindsayhjones) September 12, 2018
Gruden: "You don't have to see a skunk, you know?"
The rogue skunk is still at large in the Oakland area, per Jon Gruden.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) September 12, 2018
It’s not unprecedented, though. There’s a long history of bunnies, foxes, squirrels, cats, dogs, and other critters making their way on to football fields during games. So it’s not that weird that a skunk could find its way to the locker room.
The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum — which also serves as the home of MLB’s Oakland Athletics — has a history of flooding with raw sewage. Relatively speaking, a skunk attack isn’t that bad.
But Gruden’s tenure in his return to the Raiders is off to a stinky start.