HOT CORNER
A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, heard, observed, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here. One exception: No products will be endorsed.
What: Raiders at Universal CityWalk.
The assembled throng, some people with faces painted, others in wild costumes, took Jerry Porter by surprise.
The Raider receiver apparently did not expect such a clamor -- so far from Oakland -- when he agreed to sign autographs for the opening of a team merchandise shop at Universal CityWalk on Friday.
“I don’t think they got the memo,” he said, glancing at the 1,000 or so people pushing in from all sides. “We don’t play here anymore.”
That doesn’t seem to matter to Raider fans. And that’s why the team has opened yet another in a series of stores in Southern California.
Executives are banking on people who remember the team from its Los Angeles days. Fans such as the Lewis family, who left their home near Bakersfield at 11:30 the night before to be first in line outside the shop at 2 a.m. “I don’t do drugs, I don’t do alcohol, I do this,” Charles Lewis said, flashing Raider rings on both hands and a Raider watch on his wrist.
Adan Rios and his cousins arrived soon after, pushing a big chair shaped like a Raider helmet on a furniture dolly. They wanted to get it autographed.
“It’s the love,” Rios said. “It’s dedication.”
Besides, where else can you get a silver-and-black Christmas nutcracker or an official team valance for the living-room window?
Inside the small shop -- with its silver-gray carpeting and walls and black ceiling -- the merchandise ranges from a $350 neon clock to a $1.99 packet of Jerry Rice’s Playmakers, which a saleswoman described as “vitamin-charged gummy snacks.”
There are all manner of flags, pennants and banners. Nightlights, baby booties and pillows. Earrings, whiskey flasks and wallets.
On Friday, management said, the most popular item was the authentic Tim Brown jersey, which was on sale for $189.99.
Brown himself was on hand, sitting beside Porter at the autograph table, not nearly as startled by the turnout. “I’ve known for 15 years that we have tons of fans down here,” Brown said.
His teammate learned as much. Porter said the NFL should take note.
“I don’t think they should get another team,” he said of Los Angeles football fans. “If anything happens, they should get us back.”
