The Raiders are still mad that Mark Sanchez ate a hot dog

Yahoo! Sports

Fri Sep 23 10:07am EDT

The Raiders are still mad that Mark Sanchez ate a hot dog

The Raiders are still mad that Mark Sanchez ate a hot dog In the midst of a 2009 clobbering of the Oakland Raiders, New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez (notes) got hungry on the sidelines and wolfed down a hot dog. Despite his best wiener-concealing efforts, television cameras caught him snacking, and he apologized after the game. It somehow became a national story.

Given that it was a 38-0 game, Sanchez had been ill and hadn't eaten much that week, and the opposing quarterback was JaMarcus Russell (notes), and who knows what was in his Gatorade bottle, I never thought the hot dog scandal was a big deal.

But apparently the Raiders did, and still do. They have not forgotten, and head coach Hue Jackson has incorporated the dastardly wiener-munching into his pregame motivational tactics. From Conor Orr at NJ.com:

"Coach showed that to us," Raiders defensive tackle Tommy Kelly (notes) told the Oakland Tribune. "It was just a reminder. We're going to remind him of that during the game."

Oakland coach Hue Jackson didn't come right out and admit it, but he did make reference to making Sanchez pay for the mistake.

"I hope we can make it more interesting for him so he doesn't have to eat hot dogs," Jackson said. "Hopefully we can take the mustard and the relish and the onions and all that and put it away and play a little football."

I say if it's 38-0, you get to eat all the hot dogs you want. In fact, the other team should have to gently feed them to you. I can't imagine any Raiders players truly getting any motivation from this, but if they do, more power to them. Whatever works.

But if it's fair game for them, it is for the Jets, too. I say they sign Takeru Kobayashi to a one-week contract, start him at wide receiver, and make him eat three hot dogs between every play in the third quarter.