Matt Iseman & Akbar Gbajabiamila Talk ‘ANW’ New Season, Raiders & More w/Rich

Akbar Gbajabiamila did not want to answer the question. Rich made him answer it anyway, game by game, all the way down the Raiders schedule.

The verdict: 12 wins.

"Save this clip," Gbajabiamila said, "because you guys are going to want to use this." He allowed that he might miss on a game or two, but insisted the Raiders land "somewhere in the range of that 10, 11, 12 win season." Rich noted the win total sits at 5.5 and said he would take the other side.

Getting there took some doing. Gbajabiamila started by calling the Chargers, Broncos and Chiefs all better than Las Vegas, which got him accused of lying. Then the schedule went up on the screen. He had the Raiders beating Miami in the opener, winning at the Chargers and at the Saints for a 3-0 start, then losing to Kansas City, at New England and at home to Buffalo before the run turned. The finale was the flourish, an overtime win at Kansas City delivered like a punchline. "You thought I was going somewhere else with it, didn't you?"

Rich's read on where this leaves the Raiders quarterback: "Fernando Mendoza is going to be watching this in his hotel room going, somebody believes in us."

Gbajabiamila likes Mendoza, he just does not know when the rookie gets on the field with Kirk Cousins there. He credited the front office for the Cousins signing and for spending on a center, and he described his own fandom as calibrated. "I don't want to get too high because you get too high, then all of a sudden you're back at that feeling disappointed."

That drew a laugh from Del Tufo, who compared it to parenting advice, and a shot from Matt Iseman, who has spent time around the Gbajabiamila family. "If you aren't finding world peace or curing the most difficult disease, you are a failure," Iseman said.

The Raiders talk started because Gbajabiamila's rookie year arrived one season too late. His locker room included Charles Woodson, Rod Woodson, Rich Gannon and Charlie Garner, with Jim Harbaugh as a quality control coach, and it came the year after the Super Bowl run. "Since that year the Raiders have not been what the Raiders should be," he said. Rich had a diagnosis: franchise mush.

Bill Romanowski owns the best story of the segment. As an undrafted rookie stashed in the auxiliary locker room, Gbajabiamila hid behind a door on cutdown day, watching the time on a sponsor's Nike watch under his glove, and finally sprinted out at 12:57 rather than risk being late to practice. He got a slap on the backside and turned around expecting the Grim Reaper. It was Romanowski, asking if he had a nickname. "It's two syllables, bro. Akbar."

Iseman remembers the audition that started the television partnership. Warren Sapp had tried out and was good, he said, but when Gbajabiamila walked in, the room started slow clapping. "That's the guy America's going to fall in love with," Iseman said.

Season 18 of American Ninja Warrior brings the triple header, three ninjas on the course at once, and Gbajabiamila argued the format shift matters more than the stunt. The finals used to be one athlete against a monster course. Now the fastest and strongest race each other, with one competitor chasing back-to-back titles.

They shot it in Vegas, and the sport is Olympics-bound as part of the modern pentathlon. Iseman would like an invitation. His other priority is seven months old. James McIntosh, known as Big Mac, is already testing the crib fence.