Crime? A millionaire football coach isn't worried about crime in a part of the city he doesn't live in. You're making this a political decision.
Baltimore is one of the best run franchises in the league. The Raiders have been a joke for 24 years.
Coaches wanna win and what opportunity gives me the best chance to achieve that.
I merely laid out a few different things that factor in. I will say, just a couple years ago, the needle for me would swing a lot more towards Baltimore, no question. Mark Davis' history over the last decade or two has been atrocious. He's got former players in his ear, in the building too much, and he was one of the poorest owners in the league.
Maybe I'm being hopefully naive but I really do think Davis is a lot more hands-off this year, he's sold out minority ownership to various other factions (like Brady) and Yes, I do think Brady is going to bring something to the room. I'm also a big John Spytek fan. The vibe I get from everything I've read is that Davis is going to listen to the adults for once and not a bunch of former Raiders.
As far as The Athletic article (I'll have to read it but I'll assume the gist of it from your post), I think you can get a wide variety of answer depending on how you frame the question. Of course, if you're asking recent history, a general question regarding the last few decades, everyone would answer Baltimore. Without question.
But I think the answer would/could be different if you asked the question about TODAY; some will value the #1 overall pick higher than others, the amount of available cap space the Raiders have, etc. And since the move to Las Vegas, Davis is suddenly cash flush and money and resources to burn. The NFL Players Report Card that they did these last two years have the Raiders stadium and facilities basically at the top of the league. I've toured the Henderson facility and it's f*cking incredible.
And YES, I really do think the contract situation with Lamar is going to be a f*cking mess. Representing himself basically, it was a mess the last time they went to the negotiating table.
For any particular coaching candidate, what's important to them will be different for different people. We'll disagree on this and that's fine. Who they manage to land for a HC will say a lot I would think.
Lastly, as much as I hate to admit it, they're right about the Cardinals. I really do think they have a lot of good young talent on the roster (they'll have to figure out QB in the coming weeks), I like the GM, Luverne, MN native Monti Ossenfort, but the owner is a complete f*cking dumbass, he's cheap as hell, and he just doesn't seem to get it. Sad state of affairs
