Derek Carr’s crybaby routine for Raiders deserves scorn (not support)

Following a loss that was worthy of tears, Raiders quarterback Derek Carr turns on the waterworks and slams teammates for not caring as much as himself.

There is no bias in the world quite like that of a Kansas City Chiefs fan with disdain for the Las Vegas Raiders. In the wake of quarterback Derek Carr’s emotional post-game press conference from Sunday, however, I don’t believe bias plays any role in negative talking points against the Raiders QB.

After a disappointing loss to the Indianapolis Colts— a team led by a first-time head coach, an analytics specialist as an offensive coordinator, and a previously benched 37-year-old quarterback under center—Carr was rightfully upset. The way in which he shared his feelings, though, was rather pathetic.

I don’t mean to say that men shouldn’t cry, or that the Raiders’ season hasn’t been worthy of tears. I mean to point out the prestigiousness of NFL head coaching and starting quarterback roles. There are only 32 individuals who don each of those titles every week, and they come with a great deal of pressure and expectation. The NFL is the most cutthroat professional sports league and there is a short leash on each of those individuals ahead of every season. For Carr to believe that he is deserving of any lesser expectation because of how passionately he feels about the Raiders’ organization is what I find pathetic.

I can only imagine the ease of devotion to an organization that not only supports you throughout an objectively unsuccessful career but pays you as if you have been elite. That’s a feeling that I cannot even remotely connect to, as each of my employers has demanded at least above-average performance from me. Carr has repeatedly finished seasons at the bottom of the top third, or right at the league median in passing yards and touchdowns, and yet, the Raiders handed him a contract that made him the seventh highest-paid QB in the league on an annual basis.

In his blubbering post-game spiel, he made repeated remarks suggesting a lack of overall buy-in from the locker room. He said, “As a leader that pisses [him] off.” My overwhelming confusion with the outcry of support that he has received online following the presser is simple: if he is the leader of the locker room, as the longest-tenured individual on the team, is it not his responsibility to create that buy-in? If he is unhappy with the locker room culture, is it not his job, as the leader, to correct it? If he feels so strongly about “this place” and is so pissed off about lesser feelings from his teammates, is there not a better way to go about it than crying to the media?

Make no mistake, I absolutely hate the Raiders and have been an outspoken Derek Carr naysayer for the better part of a decade. Truly, though, I find myself as perplexed as ever by his supporters today. He is an incredibly average NFL quarterback and has been nothing more for the past eight years. He has yet to win a single playoff game, has more third and fourth-place divisional finishes than he does runner-ups—he’s never won and won’t any time soon—and has skated by on the most blatantly astounding mediocrity that NFL fans have borne witness to over the past decade.

Josh McDaniels probably won’t make it past next week as the Raiders’ head coach, and the next hottest seat in the building is the $121.5M throne that Derek Carr sits upon. It is difficult to comprehend the organization’s fiscal commitment to him, and he clearly doesn’t see the same sheen on the silver spoon in his mouth as I do. If I could offer a bit of advice, should he see this and not block me, it would be simple: either get a grip on your locker room or start working on your clipboard grip in case someone out there is dumb enough to pick up that contract of yours.