To motivate his team after an 0-4 start, Raiders interim head coach Tony Sparano buried a football to symbolize a fresh start. Oakland went on to lose six more consecutive games before winning its first in Week 11, so it worked, eventually. Sparano might have been replaced by Jack Del Rio after the season, but the football remains in the ground. Jerry McDonald of the Oakland Tribune found it:




Nothing will ever grow from that patch of land.