Napa police reopen probe into attack on Raiders coach
By JOSH DUBOW
AP Sports Writer
November 27th, 2009
November 25th, 2009
November 23rd, 2009
ALAMEDA — The Napa police department on Friday reopened its investigation into an attack that left Oakland Raiders assistant coach Randy Hanson with a broken bone in his face.
Hanson was hospitalized following the Aug. 5 attack that he told police was initiated by a member of the Raiders coaching staff at the team’s training camp hotel in Napa. Internet reports said head coach Tom Cable attacked Hanson during a meeting with some of the team’s defensive coaches.
Cable would not comment when asked Friday about the news that the police had reopened the investigation. Earlier in the week, he said “nothing happened.”
“When all the facts come out, everything will be fine,” Cable said Thursday.
The police said earlier this week that the case was closed because the victim was unwilling to cooperate. On Friday, the department announced that it had been reopened, apparently after Hanson agreed to cooperate with authorities.
Messages left for Hanson at the Raiders headquarters in Alameda and for Hanson’s San Francisco-based attorney, John McGuinn, were not immediately returned.
The NFL is already looking into the case to determine if Cable violated the league’s personal conduct policy. According to the policy, a coach or player can be disciplined for “violent or threatening behavior among employees, whether in or outside the workplace.”
According to the Internet site the National Football Post, the attack happened after Cable told Hanson he was being relegated from an on-field coach with defensive backs to breaking down film.
The report said Cable attacked Hanson after the assistant verbally contested something defensive coordinator John Marshall had said.
After being told by owner Al Davis that he could not get his old job back, Hanson reportedly decided to cooperate with police in the investigation.
Hanson was also a key player in the dispute that helped lead to coach Lane Kiffin’s firing last season. Kiffin suspended Hanson after the assistant criticized the coaching staff in a meeting following a 41-14 season-opening loss to Denver. Davis later reinstated Hanson and Kiffin was fired a few weeks later.
While coach attacks in the NFL are rare, they are not unprecedented. In 1989, Buffalo Bills assistants Tom Bresnahan and Nick Nicolau got into a fracas while watching game film.
Nicolau decked Bresnahan with a solid uppercut, grabbed Bresnahan in a headlock and drove his head through a wall in the team’s administration building.
The goal of the story comments section at NapaValleyRegister.com is to have an open, thought-provoking, civil community forum for all issues.
What gets your comment posted?
• Staying on topic
• Keeping your comment to 300 words or less
• Avoiding name-calling
• Addressing your comments to the message rather than the messenger
What gets your comment deleted?
• Personal attacks
• Derogatory remarks
• Name-calling of any sort
• Going off-topic
• Hate speech
• Racially-insensitive comments
• Implying guilt of a subject in a crime story before there is a court verdict
• Posting e-mail addresses
• Posting comments of a commercial nature
• POSTING WITH ALL CAPITAL LETTERS
• Linking multiple comments together with "to be continued..." to get around the 300 word limit.
The fine print
- Comments are either approved or denied. We do not edit comments.
- You are welcome to modify and resubmit a denied comment.
- Comments may take several hours to be posted.
- Comments posted are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of NapaValleyRegister.com, its employees or its parent company.
- Do you have information on a story? Please go to our
virtual newsroom to send us a news tip.
- If you feel a posted comment has violated our guidelines, please contact
online@napanews.com or add a comment indicating you have an issue and our moderators will review the comment in question.
firststreetmayor wrote on Aug 22, 2009 8:53 AM:
yetiyet wrote on Aug 22, 2009 10:52 AM:
mumble wrote on Aug 22, 2009 1:08 PM:
blackbeard wrote on Aug 22, 2009 2:03 PM:
Raven wrote on Aug 22, 2009 2:42 PM:
and yeti, if you assault someone, you are one of those criminals you want the police to focus their energy on. "
yetiyet wrote on Aug 22, 2009 4:25 PM:
AreYouSerious74 wrote on Aug 22, 2009 6:09 PM:
The police Chief does not have prosecutorial discretion. They just take the report and submit it to the DA who does have the discretion. In this "Win or do not play" at all mentality that our judicial system seems to have they may just pass on it.
Sad that it is not about right and wrong. If I look you in the eye and say a derogatory remark you do not have the right to assault me. "
LMW wrote on Aug 22, 2009 7:33 PM:
Nationwide news allows us to send message. Not in our town!we care for our children "
abouttime wrote on Aug 22, 2009 11:01 PM: