First of all, let’s acknowledge how awesome it is that Las Vegas Raiders linebacker Robert Spillane can still function on an NFL field with a broken hand. Never mind forcing the critical turnover on Sunday Night Football to help his team move to 5-5 and right in the thick of the STACKED AFC playoff race where 11 teams are at .500 or better.
Take a bow, Mr. Spillane, for having the grip strength to squeeze this latest ill-fated Wilson throw, which Mike Tirico couldn’t have summarized better in real time if he had 100 more cracks at it:
Instead of wasting any more space and giving any more oxygen to Wilson’s general ineptitude, let’s appreciate Spillane. Plays a lower-profile position. A former undrafted free agent out of Western Michigan. Not exactly a household name.
Well at least he wasn’t until last night. Upon parlaying his big interception into the postgame interview spot, Spillane revealed that he and his wife are expecting their first child in June!!
What a flex this is. How can you not love it? In the locker room later on, it seemed like everything hit Spillane all at once. The gravity of what he just pulled off on the field, on top of the massive occasion he declared to millions of viewers.
Have a feeling if Spillane keeps playing like this and the Raiders keep winning, his INT celebration will become the stuff of memes across many corners of the interwebs:
Good for the Raiders getting out of the shadow of fired coach Josh McDaniels, buying into what interim coach Antonio Pierce is preaching, and smoking all the victory cigars and hamming it up with each other amid an exciting transition to winning football.
Kind of feels like they’re going to crash back to earth when they face the off-a-bye Dolphins in Miami next Sunday. Oh well. I already kind of dumped on the Raiders’ midseason parade in this morning’s coverage of the Dolphins Hard Knocks trailer, so I’ll spare them any of that here.
Robert Spillane though, right? What a hell of a model American. The 27-year-old signed a two-year contract this offseason at just under $7 million. He came over from Pittsburgh in hopes of a bigger role. Spillane has certainly gotten that, with a team-high 81 total tackles to go with 2.5 sacks and three INTs. Easily one of the most underrated free-agent bargains of the year.
Give this man a raise, Mark Davis!
