Mark Davis quashed a story that circulated this week by saying the Oakland Raiders will paint the 50-yard line numerals on their field in gold as soon as baseball season ends.
The Raiders were accused Tuesday of refusing NFL directions to paint the 50-yard line numerals at O.co Coliseum in gold as part of the league’s “On the 50” campaign. Though an NFL employee said that was just because the team has to share the field with the Oakland A’s until the end of baseball season, the Coliseum’s GM said otherwise. He said the Raiders were not planning to do it at all, even after baseball season ended. Davis says they will.
“We’re waiting until the baseball season’s over,” Davis said Wednesday via the San Jose Mercury News. “We don’t paint our shield on the field, we don’t paint the end zones, we don’t paint gold things, but we’ll be painting them for the Denver game.”
The Denver game is on Oct. 11 and it is the team’s next home game. Davis also dismissed the notion that the Raiders were rebelling in protest of Santa Clara getting the Super Bowl.
“Nobody respects the Super Bowl more than Raiders,” Davis said. “I think we had a little bit to do with the merger. We’ve played in 10 percent of the Super Bowls and we hope to play in the next one.”
Well, there you have it. Either the Raiders are caving to public pressure due to all the attention from the story on Tuesday, or there were plans all along to follow the directions.
