Sunday it signaled an end to all those tedious games and delivered us to the part of the NFL calendar we now enjoy most:

Coach Hiring Season.

Sadly, the 49ers have already settled on an offensive coordinator. You can be excused if you missed it a quick check of the buzz meter reveals that the hiring of Jimmy Raye II failed to move the needle off the peg.

But the Raiders have yet to officially announce a new head coach. And as we've learned, there is no more exciting play in Football than watching Al Davis thumb through resumes.

Multiple sources have reported that Davis has decided on Tom Cable, who was the Raiders' interim head coach before his contract expired last month. The Raiders have denied this, but not very convincingly.

There has been speculation that Davis has been biding his time until he can talk to Arizona Cardinals offensive coordinator Todd Haley, who is now off the clock. Haley is highly regarded, but based on what he told the New Jersey Star-Ledger last week "I think I've got a chance to be a good head coach some day when it's right and it feels right" the Raiders may not be the opportunity he's waiting for.

Davis has interviewed pretty much everyone else who would consider the job despite its inherent flaws. And so we wait. Which, as we noted earlier, is as exciting as pro Football gets around here now that the SaberCats are on hiatus.

Like the holiday season, that pregnant pause never seems to last long enough. Eventually Davis pulls the trigger, whereupon a great many of us break our New Year's resolution to refrain from rolling our eyes every time we hear the words "Raiders," "Davis," "autumn" and "wind" in the same sentence.

But here's a thought maybe we're looking at this the wrong way. We can't resist applying perfect-world standards to the team's annual search for a head coach. In a perfect world, a guy like Haley interviews with Davis and seriously considers the job. Unless a guy like Raheem Morris or Josh McDaniel has beaten him to it.

Of course, in a perfect world Football players don't hop around like self-absorbed imbeciles after making a routine play in a game their team is losing by two touchdowns. But we digress.

Maybe a better way is for us to view this in a real-world context. In the real world, Morris was hired by Tampa Bay, McDaniel was hired by Denver, and Haley would appear to favor the opening in Kansas City, having worked previously with new Chiefs GM Scott Pioli.

Moreover, Bill Cowher isn't coming out of retirement, neither Mike Shanahan nor Jon Gruden is returning to the scene of the crime, and Bill Parcells isn't ditching Miami to become the Raiders' head of Football ops.

Maybe "as good as it gets" is a more realistic standard. By that measure, Cable looks pretty darned good.

Start with his record. His .333 winning percentage is better than that of the three Raiders coaches (Lane Kiffin, Art Shell, Norv Turner) who preceded him. He got the team to play hard through the end of the season, which is more than can be said for Bill Callahan, Joe Bugel or Mike White.

Even though he is out of contract, he has continued to show up for work, even representing the Raiders at the Senior Bowl. Recall that Kiffin attended last year's Senior Bowl while under contract with the Raiders, but refused to wear team apparel.

Cable comes recommended by his players (yes, so did Bugel; hey, work with us here). He seems perfectly comfortable indulging Davis' inner micromanager. He's not hung up on money. He's not playing footsie with Arkansas or Notre Dame.

He understands the Raiders culture, and still he wants to be here. Top that.

All that remains is for Davis to make the right call at least as right as it can be in a world where the sky is black with silver clouds.

Contact Gary Peterson at gpeterson@bayareanewsgroup.com