SILVER AND BLACK GETS A LAUGH.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

There's trouble in Raider City, where the pro football season's first week has seen the doghousing of a key player, charges of sideline disloyalty and a desperately bad loss to a rival.

All I can say is, Gee, who'da thunk?

It's a mystery when things like this happen to a great owner like Al Davis. It's downright baffling that things like this happen to Davis' team year after year. What a shame Davis has given up on moving the Raiders back to Los Angeles, where we all could have tried to work on a solution.

Let's go over the days surrounding the Raiders' 27-0 loss to San Diego on Monday night, a quick review for the benefit of those who quit following Oakland just because it has lost 37 of 50 games since the 2002 AFC championship game, the worst record in the NFL in that span, even the worst record in the Bay Area in that span.

Three days before the opener, wide receiver Randy Moss does a radio interview. He describes the Raiders atmosphere as ``crazy'' and ``fishy'' and said players are ``walking on eggshells.'' Moss also says he's ``disappointed'' that receiver Doug Gabriel was traded away. Moss also says, when asked about the changes at receiver that included Jerry Porter's benching, ``This is not my team, I'm only playing here.'' Not to worry, Moss says, ``Hopefully, we can win some games.''

Against the backdrop of such sunny preseason optimism, the Raiders kick off the second era of head coach Art Shell. They lay a fish egg, absorbing their first shutout on any of their home fields since before they moved to L.A. and back.

Quarterback Aaron Brooks gets pummeled as he stands and searches in vain for open receivers, a situation that could be traced more or less directly to the unexplained trade of Gabriel to NewEngland for a fifth-round draft pick and the deactivation of Porter after a training-camp blowup with Shell.

The chatter the next day is about the San Francisco Chronicle report that Porter, taken off the active roster and wearing a sweatsuit, is spotted laughing and pumping a fist as Brooks is sacked for the seventh time in the game.

Porter quickly seeks to correct the impression -- without actually improving it -- saying Tuesday the laughter and fist-pumping is in response to something some fans were saying, that he couldn't have been laughing at the way the game was going, because he isn't paying attention to the game.

Know who should be laughing at the Raiders? Marcus Allen should, Steve Beuerlein should, and we in L.A. should.

Not to absolve this man Jerry Porter, a seventh-year pro from West Virginia who was recognizable in training camp by the big middle finger pictured on his T-shirt and who might listen more closely to the bosses who are paying him $10 million guaranteed on a five-year contract.

But Al Davis and his acolytes get what they deserve.

Disrespectful talk and behavior by players usually happens when a franchise is in disarray already, when the motives of its leaders are in question, when the owner is the object of ridicule.

In Davis, the Raiders see an owner whose way of fixing a team that falls behind the times is to bring back Shell, 12 years after his last head-coaching job, and let Shell bring back offensive coordinator Tom Walsh, six years after his last football job (in the meantime Walsh did become mayor of Swan Valley, Idaho).

In Davis, the Raiders see an owner whose idea of loyalty consists of decades of wham-bam moves and near-moves to and from cities up and down the map of California.

In Davis, the Raiders see an owner whose ``Just Win, Baby'' motto is backed up by benching good and great players in order to deliver very different messages.

In days of yore, it was Allen and Beuerlein being benched, a ball-carrier who went to the Hall of Fame and a quarterback who went on to play a dozen more seasons in the league.

Now it's Porter, the Raiders' leading pass-catcher with 76 in 2005.

Ego attracts ego, hence Jerry Jones' inevitable trouble with Terrell Owens in Dallas. Instability attracts instability, thus it was Frank McCourt's front office having to clean up the Milton Bradley messes at Dodger Stadium. And an insincere Commitment to Excellence attracts an incomplete commitment to the team.

Jerry Porter laughs? He's not the only one.

heymodesti(AT_SIGN)aol.com

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(color) In the past, Al Davis has sat Raiders players down. The team's struggles could be karma catching up with Davis.

Scott Boehm/Getty Images