Oakland Raiders to Richard Seymour: You play for us or you play for nobody

September 10, 10:42 PMNew England Patriots ExaminerSean Crowe

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(AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

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The Raiders have sent Richard Seymour the infamous five day letter. In it they made it perfectly clear that they were not interested in getting their 2011 first round pick back from New England.

They want Richard Seymour and if they can't have him, nobody can.

So what does this mean?

Seymour has five days from when the letter was received to report to Oakland. If he doesn’t report, the Raiders can (but don’t have to) put him on the reserve / left squad list.

Once you’re on that list, your season is over, the paychecks stop coming, and you get to try again next year under the exact same circumstances.

Basically, Seymour has two choices:

Report to the Raiders, play out his contract, and hope they give him ridiculous money next offseason rather than franchise him, or retire.

There’s no point in not showing up and then going through the same thing next year. It would make no sense. He’d be a year older, still a year away from free agency, and worth significantly less money because of the lost season.

If Seymour ends up on the reserve / left squad list, his career is over.

So Seymour has a very simple choice. Continue playing football in Oakland or stop playing football.

It’s as simple as that.

Update 11:09pm: Boston.com's Christopher Gasper made a great point that I completely whiffed on. The five day letter basically means Seymour is no longer the Patriots' problem.

The Raiders decision to send Seymour the letter is good news for the Patriots. It is basically an admission by Oakland that Seymour, who was traded to Oakland on Sunday for a 2011 first-round pick, is now their property and their problem, not that of the Patriots.

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Questions? Comments? Insults? You can email them to Sean Crowe at scrowe@gmail.com.