by Tony Renteria

ALAMEDA–Former Miami Dolphin and San Francisco 49er Jonathan Martin wrote about suicide and bullying in the NFL and the kind of kidding around that happens in the locker room. The things that went on with Martin in Miami went too far but I don’t know what happened there that could force a strong willed person to want to hurt themselves. Someone whose trying to succeed in that level of competition would have a strong mental edge just through the years of discipline to play in the league and in the upper levels of professional football.

The WDBJ-TV double murder of reporter Alison Parker and TV cameraman Adam Ward and we just got done talking about Jonathan Martin and someone who has a mental illness and go to a story like this. The shooter in the case Bryce Williams whose legal name is Vester Lee Flanagan II is a former KPIX CBS 5 employee. The recording of the shooting from a first person of the shooting on his facebook page is beyond deplorable. It has sports media and players taking to twitter commenting on that story.

Flanagan apparently had a Go-Pro camera on when he did the shooting and downloaded the recording of the double slaying on his Facebook page before taking his life later. It’s not something that a normal person would do and then go to a park somewhere and end his own life in such a cowardly way. It’s a horrible story but I’m glad that there was some kind of resolution that ended quickly and this person couldn’t hurt anyone else.

Raiders defensive end Justin Tuck is back for the Raiders after watching the game in street clothes last Saturday in the rain in Minnesota. The Raiders host the Arizona Cardinals this Sunday for what is the final dress rehearsal for the Raiders. The Raiders have a game Thursday in Seattle. This is going to be the game where they put everything together and this is going to be the game where the starters play mid way through the third quarter and we get a look at the Raiders can do.

So this will be an opportunity to take a look at where the Raiders strength and weaknesses are going to be, they picked up safety Taylor Mays today who played in Cincinnati and was at USC and has ties with Ken Norton Jr and so it’s something to look forward to with Mays on the squad and it’s going to be interesting to see who the Raiders have for the first week of the NFL season.

Also the Raiders running back Roy Helu Jr is back from his hamstring injury as well as linebacker Sio Moore who returned from an undisclosed injury they should be a huge help for Oakland. It’s curious if these injuries were training camp injuries and it gives the Raiders time to get these guys rested for later in the pre season.

Tony Renteria does the NFL podcast each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com