The Raiders made a controversial draft pick when they selected Oklahoma defensive tackle Stacy McGee in round six. It was controversial due to his rocky past which included an arrest for DUI, and citations for drug possession, and drug parafenalia. Those incidents also resulted in his being suspended from the team several times.

He was a sharp turn away from the character values of the new regime in Oakland but the Raiders saw something in McGee that convinced them he had put his past behind him.

"I was surprised when they called," said McGee. "But like I said, that was something from the past, and something I'm looking to move forward from, grow as a person, become a man.

I asked him what he said to the Raiders that has him so convinced his troubles are behind him.

"I was just myself and let them see that everything they heard about wasn't really me," McGee responded. "It was just mistakes that I've made in the past."

In many ways, McGee reminds Raiders fans of Rolando McClain who has been arrested three times in the past 17 months and was finally cut by the Raiders last month. All of McClain's issues with the law occurred in his hometown of Decatur Alabama. McGee feels like his problems stem from his associations from back in Oklahoma.

"it's getting from my family and changing my life and changing the people I'm around, will help a lot."

Dennis Allen believes McGee has moved on from his mistakes and is ready to become a positive contributor on the field as well.

"You know, we're big on character," said Dennis Allen. "We want good character guys. Guys are going to make mistakes, nobody's perfect. When we did all our research on him. We felt like he was a guy we wanted to give a second opportunity to. We've had a lot of conversations with him. I think he understands the mistakes that he's made in the past. He's ready to learn from those and move on from it. I think if he can do that, then he's got a lot of ability, and there might be a football player there for us. "He's got really good size and strength and for his size, he moves really well. He's a guy that I think has got really good ability to stop the run, pass rush is an area where he can continue to improve on, but he's a guy that I'm anxious to see when he really gets a chance to get out there and work."

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