As if Jon Gruden didn’t already have enough pressure on his return to the Raiders, the stakes were raised this week by national sports provocateur Bill Simmons.

Before Wednesday, the Raiders were needing to make the playoffs for the same reasons as everyone else. But now they need to make the playoffs so that Simmons will have to eat a testicle.

Yes, you read that right.

“If the Raiders make the playoffs, what’s the most disgusting thing I could eat,” Simmons said on his latest podcast. “You know what, I’ve always swore that I’ll never eat testicles. Those, like, the brains, you know, like cow testicles are a delicacy. I’ll eat testicles on the podcast. And they can be human testicles, cow testicles, I’ll eat some pair of testicles on this podcast if the Raiders make the playoffs. It will never happen.”

This is something that needs to happen.

Generally, the nature of the content you find in these parts isn’t of this variety, but after a devastating week where the Raiders traded away their most beloved player (other than Derek Carr), something was needed to lighten the mood.

Bull testicles will do the trick.

twitter: @raidersbeat