Flores plans to meet with Badain and Davis soon to discuss taking on a different role with the teamGETTY IMAGES
Raiders radio analyst Tom Flores said that he will "not return" on the team's broadcasts this season, according to Matt Kawahara of the S.F. CHRONICLE. The 81-year-old Flores said that Raiders President Marc Badain "told him the team was making a change." Flores, a former QB and coach with the Raiders, said that he "plans to meet with Badain" and Owner Mark Davis soon to "discuss potentially taking on a different role with the team." After hearing of Raiders radio play-by-play voice Greg Papa's reported departure, Flores said his dismissal was "not a surprise" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 7/19). Flores said, "All things come to an end. I was hoping I would last through the first year in Las Vegas, but it's not going to happen" (FRESNO BEE, 7/19). In San Jose, Elliott Almond writes yesterday was also a "day of reflection for those who followed Papa's broadcasts." Former Raiders RB Napoleon Kaufman said, "Maybe there is something I don't know, but yeah, I am shocked" (San Jose MERCURY NEWS, 7/19).
END OF AN ERA: In San Jose, Jerry McDonald writes when Brent Musburger takes over for Papa as the radio voice of the Raiders, it is another "vestige of the Al Davis era removed from the history of the franchise." It is "no secret Papa never had the same kind of relationship with Mark Davis as he did with Mark's father." Papa "considers himself the gatekeeper to Al Davis' memory and legacy." It was a "blind spot in his objectivity, but a fascinating one." It was "perhaps inevitable" there would be a split between Papa and the Raiders, and that he would "go the way of Hue Jackson, Amy Trask and others who weren't necessarily aligned with Mark Davis in a way they were with Al Davis." But the "losers in this change are the listeners" (San Jose MERCURY NEWS, 7/19).
