AP

The Raiders think they’re rolling the dice on Richie Incognito. In reality, they could be playing with fire.

The folks at BuffaloRumblings.com spotted this passage from the AP story regarding Oakland’s decision to sign Incognito: “A person with direct knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press that security was stepped up at the Bills headquarters around the time Incognito announced his retirement on social media. Though he wasn’t entirely barred from the facility, security personnel were placed on alert if Incognito arrived, the person said, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly.”

As a league source explained it to PFT, the perception/reality regarding Incognito based on his time in Buffalo is that he’ll be fine for an extended period of time, but that he’ll fly off the handle without warning, causing some people to fear for their safety. That meshes entirely with the report that the Bills increased security during the slow-motion social-media campaign by Incognito to retire, to unretire, and to demand his release from the team.

Obviously, the Raiders currently believe Incognito is fine, and he may be fine for a while. But what happens if he once again flies off the handle without warning? Will it be enough in the aftermath of whatever he does for the Raiders to say, “Well, we did our homework, we talked to an awful lot of people, we talked to Richie, we told Richie what we expected both on and off the field, we expected him to adhere to that, and by the way you can’t have all Boy Scouts”?