Oakland Raiders

ALAMEDA. - Equipment manager Bob Romanski has been working for the Oakland Raiders longer than head Coach Dennis Allen or any of his players have been alive. Yet that's only good for second place on the family list when it comes to service time with the team. Romanski's father, Dick, 84, who still reports to work as something of an equipment manager emeritus, joined the team a half-century ago at the invitation of an old Army buddy named Al Davis. And although the feisty, combative Davis went on to become the man behind the Raiders and their outlaw image, Dick Romanski might actually have been the face of the franchise.

After the first two weeks of the NFL season, we could have surmised: The San Francisco 49ers and San Diego Chargers were very good. The Oakland Raiders were very bad. The Arizona Cardinals were very lucky. But Sunday, oh, how the West was spun. California's two undefeated teams stumbled to humiliating losses, the 49ers losing at Minnesota to the Vikings, 24-13, and the Chargers falling at home to the Atlanta Falcons, 27-3. The Raiders, who had lost six of seven dating to last season, picked up their first victory by upsetting the Pittsburgh Steelers, 34-31.

Among rookie quarterbacks in Week 2 of the NFL season, the Indianapolis Colts' Andrew Luck, the Miami Dolphins' Ryan Tannehill and the Seattle Seahawks' Russell Wilson earned their first victories while the Cleveland Browns' Brandon Weeden rebounded strongly from one of the worst starts in NFL history. The Washington Redskins' Robert Griffin III, of course, was his dynamic self in a losing effort. Luck completed 20 of 31 passes for 224 yards and two touchdowns in a 23-20 victory over the Minnesota Vikings.

Oakland pulled the trigger, San Diego didn't. As the AFC West rivals open their season at the Oakland Coliseum in the second game of a Monday night opening-week doubleheader, classifying those coaching personnel decisions as prudent or panicked and patient or stagnant requires a closer look. Baltimore plays host to Cincinnati in the Monday opener. After losing four of their final five games, the Raiders fired Hue Jackson and replaced him with former Denver Broncos offensive coordinator Dennis Allen.

NAPA, Calif. — There was a time when Matt Leinart thought he'd wind up with the Oakland Raiders, but he never dreamed he would take the kind of roundabout path he has taken to get here. The former USC star and Heisman Trophy winner is backing up Carson Palmer with the Raiders — a flashback to their days with the Trojans — and Leinart, once widely projected to make a splash in the pros and possibly be a draft pick of the Raiders, is now grateful to be on a roster. "I don't listen to the people who say I'm a bust," said Leinart, 29, the 10th overall pick by Arizona in 2006 who was released by Houston after two seasons.

NAPA, Calif. -- The Oakland Raiders know their past, are surrounded by reminders of their past, and pay homage to their past. But they're no longer stuck in their past. That's the early indication, anyway, as the Raiders begin their next chapter with new owner Mark Davis - son of the late Al Davis - first-year Coach Dennis Allen, and top football executive Reggie McKenzie, the club's first general manager since the elder Davis began running the entire operation in 1963. Al Davis died in October, and control of the franchise was passed to his son. Even the team's 2012 media guide, finally printed in color, reflects the change, bearing the slogan "A New Era of Excellence" on the cover.

Ben Davidson, an iconic face of the 1960s-era Oakland Raiders and later a popular fixture in Miller Lite TV commercials, has died. He was 72. Davidson, who had been receiving treatment for prostate cancer, died Monday night, former Raiders coach John Madden reported on KCBS radio in San Francisco. If the late Al Davis was the creator of the renegade Raiders, then Davidson could be considered one of the founding fathers, cutting a larger-than-life swath with his handlebar mustache and intimidating 6-foot-8 physical presence at defensive end. His 11-year professional football career started in Green Bay with the Packers.

Anthony Wayne Smith, a former Oakland Raiders defensive end who is awaiting a retrial for his alleged role in the 2008 murder of a Lancaster man, has been charged with three additional murders, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office confirmed Wednesday. A criminal complaint, filed Monday, includes the original murder charge involving the slaying of Maurilo Ponce but also accuses Smith of the 1999 killings of brothers Kevin and Ricky Nettles and the murder of Dennis Henderson in 2001.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sent a memo about Los Angeles to the league's 32 teams Friday -- one that surely resonated with the San Diego Chargers, Oakland Raiders, St. Louis Rams and any others that might be considering relocation to the nation's second-largest market. "Although substantial uncertainties remain," Goodell wrote in the two-page document obtained by The Times, "stadium development in Los Angeles has advanced to the point where the prospects for a new facility are better than they have been in many years.

Matt Leinart was signed Tuesday by the Oakland Raiders to serve as a backup to quarterback Carson Palmer -- a role that Leinart held a decade or so ago at USC. This could be fun. Trojans fans obviously have a lot of fond memories of the two quarterbacks, with Palmer winning the Heisman Trophy in 2002 and Leinart doing the same two years later and leading the team to a pair of national titles. But Leinart has struggled as a pro quarterback. After being drafted 10th overall by the Arizona Cardinals, Leinart struggled as a starter and eventually lost his job to veteran Kurt Warner.