Jack Del Rio is banking on the Raiders maintaining focus despite a flurry of outside distractions.
The team might move to Los Angeles. They might not. At the moment, all owner Mark Davis can say is that he's trying to work things out in Oakland. According to NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport, per a report during Thursday's NFL Total Access, they could end up in St. Louis or even San Antonio.
"We're not naïve to know that there are things going on but, really, our focus is just on trying to be as good a football team as we can be," Del Rio said. "Inside these walls, it's all about football, about competing, about learning the system and challenging each other and building a brotherhood, beginning to get that chemistry and that bond and all of that.
"I think those business issues are not issues that we're going to have a say in anyhow, so really it's best for us to focus on the job that we have, and that is to be as good on Sundays as we can and make sure that we're ready to put forth great effort every day to do that."
While we're in different times, this all reminds us a bit of what Bill Belichick had to deal with when the Browns were moving to Baltimore. The five hour and 49 minute drive from Cleveland to Baltimore is eerily similar to the five hour and 27 minute drive from Oakland to Los Angeles, per Google Maps.
And that is the least of worries for Raiders fans.
Still, it's admirable of Del Rio to keep his players looking straight ahead when everyone else wants to know where the games will be played a few years from now.
It's not easy, but it's admirable.
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