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Napa police reopen probe into attack on Raiders coach
Saturday, August 22, 2009
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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.
9 comment(s)

firststreetmayor wrote on Aug 22, 2009 8:53 AM:

" Great another loss for Napa, after the D.A. is finished with the Oakland Raiders high profile case , Big Al will pull out of Napa with his team and all the extra revenue for Napa business's next year.. "

yetiyet wrote on Aug 22, 2009 10:52 AM:

" NPD should be ashamed of wasting taxpayer dollars on this frivolous, headline grab of an "investigation". As a taxpayer (your boss ultimately) I require that you focus my hard earned dollars on resources to help you focus on criminals in my community, which there is no shortage of. Not wasting unknown amounts on an argument which ended up in something Hanson clearly has earned. Wake up! "

mumble wrote on Aug 22, 2009 1:08 PM:

" yetiyet: you obviously don't understand the concepts of the law. If a victim wants to press charges, it is the law enforcements responsibility to conduct a thorough investigation. And the whole line about your tax dollars paying the police officers' salaries....if you do the math, about $3.25 of your annual property taxes go towards police services (that is provided you are a homeowner). Don't knock the police for doing their job. If they just swept it under the carpet, then someone would be complaining that the police were trying to cover it all up because of money. "

blackbeard wrote on Aug 22, 2009 2:03 PM:

" Good for the Napa PD. Investigating a felony falls under the catagory of "Doing their Job" It doesn't matter if the victim "Deserved" it or not. As far as this "Team" contributing anything to the local economy..Forget about it. Exept for keeping the Police busy. Good Riddance to them next week. With any luck, Al Davis will forget where Napa is by next summer... "

Raven wrote on Aug 22, 2009 2:42 PM:

" so firststreet, the standard is that if you bring money to the city, you are exempt from obeying the law?...

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:

" I require my Police chief to exercise prosecutorial discretion in cases where two grown men had a disagreement and know that this is not what my hard earned tax dollars are meant for, much less to clearly grab headlines, get a life and go get the real bad guys. "

AreYouSerious74 wrote on Aug 22, 2009 6:09 PM:

" Yetiyet
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:

" Good for PD. Our football buddies have acted like 5 year olds..to not cooperate with authorities which IS our dollars. I would send them packing!!!End of Story!
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:

" Football is a business and the rules of civility must still apply. It the editor punched out and broke the jaw of the sports editor he'd be fired at the very least. Civility is not exempt at the NFL. "

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