Man, I thought we made it out of the woods when Terrell Owens signed with Buffalo.

But, as usual, I was wrong.

I was really, really looking forward to Oakland Raiders training camp here in Napa this coming July for a totally selfish reason.

I thought it was going to be easy.

Easy as in, by the time camp rolled around, we already knew who the head coach was going to be (Tom Cable), hopefully the Silver and Black would have drafted an exciting prospect to cover — Michael Crabtree, anybody? — and the only real mystery would be how scary good the tandem of JaMarcus Russell and Darren McFadden could become this fall.

The goal was as mellow a camp as possible, the key word being mellow.

Silver and Black and Mellow.

Commitment to Mellowness.

That all changed Monday with the signing of Jeff Garcia, the former Pro Bowl quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers.

This is the same Jeff Garcia who has led the Philadelphia Eagles and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, his last two teams, to the playoffs.

Now, a disclaimer here:

Team-wise, for the organization and the fans, I think it’s a fantastic move.

I can’t think of a better proverbial insurance policy than Garcia in case something happens to Russell.

I also think he’ll push Russell in camp, either verbally or by example or both, to become the player he’s supposed to be.

Plus, Garcia’s a proven veteran, the team didn’t mortgage its future to get him, and there’s no real obvious downside to bringing him in.

But the media will find one, and that’s why the selfish part of me wishes it wouldn’t have happened.

See, I was scared spitless that the Raiders were going to pick up Owens, and that it would be a zoo in training camp trying to elbow the national media out of the way.

Reporters from all kinds of random outlets would be buzzing around every day, drumming up any kind of muck they could either from T.O. himself or any teammate that was willing to talk about him.

Believe me, it makes for a very awkwardly laborious afternoon of post-practice press conferences when the media is trying for a juicy sound bite from a player or coach who is obviously annoyed at the line of questioning.

I don’t think it will be as bad with Garcia, but still, the inevitable and obvious no-win questions like “are you happy with being a backup” or “do you think you can still play well enough to start on this team” are guaranteed to surface.

“Now RJ,” you might be thinking at this point, “aren’t you also part of the media that covers the Raiders?”

Well, sort of. We cover them in camp over the summer while they’re here, and then when the season starts we go back to covering local, local and more local youth, high school and college sports.

We let the wire pick up the Raiders in the fall.

Meaning, it’s just fine with us if camp is nice and quiet, then packs up and heads west.

A perfect example of “not nice and quiet” would be two summers ago, when Russell was the first pick of the NFL draft.

He held out all summer and missed the entire training camp, which usually lasts anywhere from three weeks to a month’s worth of workouts.

But, each and every day, the media would ask — teammates, coaches, anybody affiliated with the Silver and Black were fair game for “JaMarcus Russell Update” questions.

There’s nothing quite like 80 large, sweaty men pounding on each other for two hours in the hot sun, only to be bugged by a guy in a straw hat, sunglasses and flip flops what he thinks about a guy who’s not actually in training camp.

It made for a very long camp, to say the least.

Last year wasn’t too bad, because the Lane Kiffin-Al Davis debacle didn’t really heat up until after the regular season started.

There was the Javon Walker situation in Las Vegas, but since he wasn’t a major name on the roster it blew over relatively quickly.

Hopefully, Garcia comes in, is a good role model and mentor for Russell, handles the annoying questions like a pro and doesn’t serve up any verbal firestorms, and the team leaves Napa ready to play my Detroit Lions in the Super Bowl.

If not, we’ll still be there anyway.

Register.com Sports Editor Randy Johnson can be reached at rjohnson@napanews.com or 256-2222.