Barton is the man...

[BK]

12 tackles, 1 sack and what a nice hit he laid on Lelie. He's been one of the best, if not the best player on D so far this year. Now that I think about it, maybe I should take some credit for his standout play. On Saturday, October 5th, a day before the Buffalo game, I was outside, trying to get autographs at the team's hotel, and Barton was hanging out waiting for a friends of his to meet up with him. I said "How's it going Barton?" he replied, "just waiting on Trav and Rod to get out here." As he is signing my ball, I said to him "man, it must get annoying everyone harassing you for autographs all the time, it must take time to get used to it." He said " Nah man, no one knows me" I replied, " You keep playing the way you're playing, you'll be the main man on defense, you'll have fans begging you for an autograph more than anyone else on the team." He smiled a thanked me for the compliment. We continued to bull**** about defensive schemes, playing in the nfl and he was very impressed with the 40+ signatures I had obtained from that weekend. Since then he's been on fire, playing extremely well, week after week. Maybe all it took were a few words of encouragement. :P

[javdog2001]

Cool story. I agree that he is turning out to be an excellent player for the Raiders. They're going to need that kind of performance from him every week.

[Rhode Raider]

When he hit the ball carriers they knew they had been hit, that is what was missing the past month...Solid hits.

[crizpynutz]

Definitely the most pleasant surprise on the defense this season. He's become the total package. Run D, pass D, pass rush, solid tackling, aggressiveness, speed. As he continues to improve in all areas of his game we might start seeing some Pro Bowl appearances out of EBart. Keep up the good work.

PS Hey raiders2002, could try talking to a few more players from now on!