Gotta protect your privacy though so:

Take your last name. Add your favorite Texas # to the end of it. Then plug it in with .wmv at the end, to kiplange.com.

In other words, if your name was John Smith, and your favorite number from the Lone Star State was 86, you would put in:

http://www.kiplange.com/smith86.wmv

Paste that in your browser, but only do this somewhere where you have a high-speed connection and speakers.

If it doesn’t work, don’t worry about it, it ain’t exactly any big deal.

Cuz I wouldn’t want to play if it wasn’t fun anymore.

My father and I often discuss whether or not it would be 1 or 2 plays that would kill us in the NFL. I vote one. One hit from a pro NFL player, I’m most likely dead.

But it’s still gotta be fun, right?

Thanks Kip.

Now, remember, in HS, the Wellesy team mascot — the Red Raider — was gone, and the coaches basically tried to pump us up by having us identify with the then-L.A. Raiders. That’s when I first started looking at the Raiders.

I was living on the Berkeley/Oakland border when the Raiders came back to where they belong. You were there; you know what a big deal it was to have them back. Now, it was in college that I first *really* started watching football and trying to dissect it. The team I saw the most of was the Raiders, so I grew to love them — and the bad-boy image, too. Coupled with the “Raider Pride” thing still stuck in my head.

The year of the tuck rule, I had become a rabid Raiders fan. And that was their year. I firmly believe that. But after the tuck-rule game, I went along and rooted for my home-town team.

The next year, I began to follow them more closely. The Bledsoe years. I still think Drew Bledsoe’s actions during the 2001 season (and after, at the Cowboys, the way he handled being sent back to the bench…I thought that guy was a class act.

I initially hated Brady. I still don’t like Brady that much. I do think, however, that he is a very gifted athelete and that he’s worked very hard on improving himself.

Anyway…it wasn’t like I ever stopped rooting for the Raiders. I still do. I don’t get NFL ticket or anything like that, so I rarely get to see a Raiders game. If the Raiders, however, made the playoffs, and there was another Patriots-Raiders matchup, it would be win-win for me. I like both teams.

You also have to understand how much my father (who is a dual Vikings-Pats fan, although Pats are #1 for him) roots for the Patriots. There was a bit of that that wore off on me eventually, because my father was a better athelete than I ever was and…well, I really love my Dad.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I didn’t quite flesh out that post right. I’m still a Raiders fan. Always will be. I’m just also a Patriots fan. But they are my two favorite teams in football. If you made me pick, yes, now I would go with the Patriots first, but the Raiders are a quick second.

So I did not just “up and leave” the team, is what I’m trying to say. I followed the Raiders through many lean years. Hell, I followed the Pats through many lean years.

Part of my enthusiasm for the Pats this year was the prospect of the Holy Grail of football, the 19-0 season. Had any other team been doing it, I would also have been quietly rooting for them in some manner.

What I’m saying, man, is that I do love the Raiders. I still do.

However…being a professional athelete…I would think you would understand that ever since the much-trumpeted “parity” was finally produced by free agency, sometimes it’s hard to follow your heroes around. I rooted like hell for Bledsoe. I still think he got shafted.

I can only imagine the life of a professional athlete. I’ll never be on, so I’ll never fully grasp it, as you well know.

But…I mean…if you get traded to an expansion team, do you switch allegiances or do you, as a professional athlete, go out and play as hard as you possibly can for that team? I’m not saying you dump your love for your old team. I’m just saying I don’t understand how you could commit yourself to one team, and then go play for another team — without fully committing yourself to that team. Does that make any sense?

Anyway, the bottom line is, if the Raiders and the Patriots had faced off in the Superbowl this year, it would have been a no-lose situation for me. I haven’t given up on the Raiders. I just don’t get a chance to watch them anymore. I know, I know, I should get NFL ticket or something, but I’m already spending way more than I can afford for cable as it is.

You’re right, I can’t find anything in my blog about how happy I was to get Moss, either, which bothers me, because I could have sworn I wrote something about it. Understand that I was THRILLED to get Randy Moss. I was on Cloud 9 when they got the guy. As for why I didn’t write about it, I don’t know — as you can kind of tell, the blog goes in fits and spurts, it’s just an outlet for my writing when I’m taking a break from a project.

The Raiders are always going to have a special place in my heart, and I’m never going to fully dump the silver and black. It’s just that I switched #1 and #2. That’s all. I apologize for doing it, if you find it offensive, but I did do it.

For instance, even though I love Steve Young, I never really pulled for the 9ers when I was out in California. Always the Raiders. The 9ers game would be second on my list, and pretty much only because of the market (meaning I’m seeing only 9ers and Raiders games)…and also because I thought Steve Young was a tremendous athlete and I enjoyed watching him play.

Does that make you feel any better…?

Also, for what it’s worth, there is only one college football team I root for and only one I will EVER root for, and that’s Cal.

I have a ton to say about this but I hope my position is clearer now. I’ve always tried to avoid being one of those guys who just jumps on the bandwagon. Which is why you don’t see a ton of posts from me about the Red Sox, either, because although I do like the Sox, I’m just not really into baseball, and I’m not going to just jump on the wagon and root for them in a sport that I find somewhat dull. The same goes for the Celtics, but that’s because I really don’t understand basketball well at all, as I’ve said before.

Could talk about this all day but now I have to go to the dentist…don’t worry, he’s causing me a lot of pain, so consider it my punishment for switching the order of my #1 and #2 teams.

I wanted to comment on the most recent thread about Randy. I agree with you that he is a talented receiver and it is a joy to watch him play the game. I’m glad that you appreciate his abilities.

One thing that troubled me was the fact that, while you claim to have been a Moss fan for quite some time, I see nothing in your archives relating to your excitement about his becoming a Patriot after the trade was consummated. Randy was traded in April of last year and nary a peep out of you expressing your jubilation until a week or two into the regular season.

I understand that it is hard for you to comprehend the animosity that athletes feel towards fans that cheer for their favorite players and teams when it’s convenient, but trust me, it is real. To hear you freely admit that you were a fan of the silver and black up until they got beat crushes me. The fact that you could just up and leave a team like that makes people like me shudder. There is no shame in admitting that you had your questions about Randy as a Raider. However, it seems that you may really only like him as a record-breaking Patriot due to your lack of emotion when he was traded to “your team”..

Kip, I’m not trying to get down on you here, but please try to understand that the life of a professional athlete is a demanding one. You learn to love the people that support you from the jump and despise the ones that only come around when you are doing well. I’ve seen this many times over my career and it saddens me that your attitude seems to put you in the latter category.

If you love the Raiders, you love the Raiders. Simple as that. It is tough for me to stomach the fact that someone like you could dump your allegiance in favor of another team so easily, but I guess that is the world in which we live.