ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher/Writer
Stop the presses. Las Vegas Raiders punter A.J. Cole was speechless.
Indeed, it was a rare occurrence Wednesday when the words didn’t flow from the chatty, quick-witted, anecdote-filled punter.
As Cole sat at his locker at the palatial Raiders HQ and training center after a triple-digit outdoor temperature practice, LVSportsBiz.com asked Cole to come up with ideas for Raiders/Aces owner Mark Davis to attend both the Aces’ WNBA Finals Game 1 in Las Vegas and the Raiders’ season-opener against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Sunday.
Davis faces a conundrum. He has the Aces game in Las Vegas at 12 noon and the Raiders game in LA at 1:25PM. He enjoys attending games of both his teams in person.
At first, Cole was stumped.
The Pro Bowl punter in his fourth season with the Raiders, who is known for his storytelling ways, confessed he didn’t have any good ideas for Davis to witness the two games in person Sunday.
“I don’t know what to do with that situation,” Cole said probably for the first time in his life.
But the wiry, six-foot, four-inch punter with the shoulder-length hair would not be denied.
Slowly, his brainstorming mode began to kick in.
And he booted a few ideas beautifully into the coffin corner like suggesting the WNBA move the basketball court floor right into SoFi Stadium next to the football field and have Davis parachute in to the venue from a jet.
And here’s the kicker: Play the Raiders and Aces games at the same time with the action going on during each game’s halftime, timeouts and play stoppages.
“You can stagger the games during the timeouts,” Cole said.
Another colorful character in the Raiders locker room is wide receiver Mack Hollins, a 28-year-old joke teller also known for his out-of-the-box ideas.
“Take the PJ,” Hollins advised Davis to attend the Raiders game after the Aces Final Game 1, referring to the “private jet” option.
“He got the bread,” he noted. “It’s not a bad flight.”
LVSportsBiz.com has inquired about Davis’ game plan for Sunday and if we hear back we will share our info.