Despite his team’s elimination from the championship hunt, Eddie Erdelatz still had personnel choices to make. After the release of Al Hoisington, Charlie Hardy was having to play virtually the entire game at receiver as the team had no designated backup at his position. As a remedy, Erdelatz planned to use John Harris on offense for the first time this year. Harris would still get his snaps in on defense but would spell Hardy periodically in the last two games of the season.
The Raider coach also said he was reducing practice time to an hour each day. “The players are in great physical shape and they know the plays backward and forward by this time, so I can’t see any reason for lengthy practices.”
In the front office, rumors of discord among the owners continued to brew. The latest topic was ticket prices for 1961. Chet Soda acknowledged that the team had discussed reducing prices for next year, though he said, “I personally do not think it’s necessary.” Addressing talk that there would be a change at general manager, he added, “It’s been mostly palaver up to now. There’s been a lot of talk and no changes yet, you’ll notice.” So far, the other owners had continued to refer all questions about the running of the team to Soda.
Soda also weighed in on Joe Foss’s decision yesterday regarding Al Bansavage. “It was a positive infraction,” he said, “What the penalty should be, I don’t know. But it should be a really stiff one to teach everyone in the league, ourselves included, that we can’t just go ahead and do as we please.”
Soda had good things to say about the team’s first experience at Candlestick Park. “The main thing we were concerned with was the wind factor,” he said, “but that doesn’t appear to be a problem this time of year. I think Candlestick is a very, very good place to play football. The visibility was outstanding. It certainly is a better spot than Kezar.” As far as continuing there next year, he said, “That decision has not definitely been made but we don’t have much choice.” The only negative that had appeared so far was a number of players complaining about burns they received from the lime used to mark the lines on the field.
Hayward Daily Review
Oakland Tribune