<p>Desmond</a> Bryant is smarter than the average Raider -- latimes.com</p>
<p>Excerpt:</p>
<p>Stop if you've heard this one.</p>
<p>He's talking about gray matter, a pair of almond-shaped masses in the temporal lobes. He wants to know whether any players are familiar with these regions of the brain that process fear and sadness.</p>
<p>Here comes the punch line.</p>
<p>A defensive lineman blurts out: "The amygdala."</p>
<p>But it's no joke. Last month, the Raiders invited a psychologist to counsel rookies about keeping their cool and the lineman who spoke up was Desmond Bryant, newly graduated from Harvard with a degree in psychology.</p>
<p>So it's a fish-out-of-water story, right?</p>
<p>An Ivy Leaguer passes through the looking glass and tumbles into the land of Al Davis, a mad circus of renegade athletes and near-pathological fans adorned in spikes and chains.</p>
<p>"Yeah," Bryant says with a chuckle. "Seems a little strange."</p>
<p>Except the big guy with the baby face doesn't quite fit the Harvard stereotype, not with his baggy shorts and flip-flops and a wad of chewing tobacco stuffed in his lip.</p>