When I heard the news yesterday afternoon that New England had traded Richard Seymour to Oakland, I wondered if a third or fourth rounder was enough for the Raiders to acquire the 3-time Super Bowl champion defense end.  Upon learning the terms of the deal, however, it was hard to pick which was more shocking, the Hooded Casanova’s lack of a conscience, or Al Davis’ ineptitude.  Jeff Pearlman is mostly fixated on the latter, proposing that such an exchange warrants the NFL’s intervention.

My brain wants to ask, œAre the Raiders completely insane?”but, really, why utter the obvious. This already goes down as one of the most lopsided trades I™ve ever seen, right there with Herschel Walker to the Vikings and Lou Brock to the Cardinals. Right now, all the Raiders have is hope”hope that young players pan out; hope that the drafts are deep; hope that, well, things get better. The best way to squash that hope? Trade your first-round draft pick for a 30-year-old defensive end who can walk at the end of the year.

Seriously, it™s time for Roger Goodell to think about stepping in and doing something here. It wouldn™t be unprecedented. In 1976, Major League Baseball™s Bowie Kuhn told Oakland it could not sell Rollie Fingers to the Red Sox and Vida Blue to the Yankees. Based on the ineptitude of Cleveland Cavaliers owner Ted Stepien in the early 1980s, the NBA passed a rule prohibiting teams from trading away first-round draft picks in consecutive years. (This rule is known as the œTed Stepien Rule.)

Has Al Davis reached this level? Undeniably yes.