ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP) -Raiders punter Shane Lechler has no plans to intentionally try to hit the video boards in Dallas this week, although the idea is tempting.
“I’m not going to go for it on purpose (but) if it’s there, it’s there,” Lechler said Tuesday as the Raiders prepared for their first Thanksgiving Day game since 1970. “I’ll check it out during pre-game, see how high it is.”
Lechler leads the NFL in punting, is on pace to break the league’s single-season record and appears headed for his fifth Pro Bowl appearance.
Yet none of that will come into play Thursday when Lechler is on the field below the Cowboys’ 160-foot long, 90-foot high video board, the largest of its kind in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records.
Aug. 21, causing a minor controversy as officials and the league wrestled with how to handle it.
Shortly after Trapasso’s kick, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell met with the league’s Competition Committee and instituted new rule changes regarding the scoreboard, one of which calls for the down to be replayed if a punter hits the screen.
Dallas coach Wade Phillips doesn’t think Lechler will try to hit the screen, which hangs down from the middle of the Cowboys’ stadium, simply because of his style of punting.
“Nobody’s even come close except the guy that kicked it straight up in preseason to try to hit it,” Phillips said on a conference call. “Shane doesn’t kick ’em straight up. We haven’t had anybody that had any problem with it.”
Still, Lechler’s teammates will be watching closely before and during the game to see if he’ll take a shot at it.
“I’m sure he’ll probably be a little amped-up to try to hit it just because of all the controversy it had in the preseason,” said Raiders long-snapper Jon Condo. “(But) if he’s focusing on hitting the scoreboard then more than likely he’s not going to get a good punt off.”
That is Lechler’s thinking.
While he says he’ll definitely try to hit the scoreboard in pre-game warmups, Lechler insists it would be selfish to attempt it during the game, especially since hitting it would require a re-kick.
“If that guy in Tennessee hit it, I can hit it,” he said. “I mean, if I hit it I hit it. It’s kind of a tough spot to put our guys in, though.”
Notes: LB Jon Alston is still suffering the effects of two concussions and will not play against the Cowboys. “He’s having some residual effects from the last concussion he had,” Oakland coach Tom Cable said. “When he showed up Saturday ill, that’s when we started to figure out what’s going on. He was throwing up, dizziness and things like that so we’re still looking into what’s going on with that.” … DL Richard Seymour, who strained his lower back early in Sunday’s win over Cincinnati, practiced without limitations and is expected to play against Dallas. … Former Cowboys DE Greg Ellis, slowed by knee and shoulder injuries, is also expected to play.
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