Al Davis Stories

7/30/2019 Al Davis Stories

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Al Davis: a footballmaverick rememberedDuring his many years as the coach and chiefexecutive of the Oakland Raiders, Al Davis had one

simply stated motto: 'Just win, baby.'

ByPhil Elderkin,Contributor/ October 11, 2011

In this 1998 file photo, Oakland Raiders owner Al Davisgives a thumbs-up to fans prior to the game with theKansas City Chiefs, in Oakland, Calif. The OaklandRaiders announced Saturday, Oct. 8, that longtimeowner and Hall of Famer Davis died.Paul Sakuma/AP/File

LOS ANGELES

Brass knuckles were as right forBrooklyn-raisedAl

Davis, the owner of the NFL Oakland Raiders, as

diamonds were for the fingers ofElizabeth Taylor.

Davis, who died Oct. 8 at his home inOakland, never

did anything the conventional way. Al was a fiercely

impatient man who was also a calculated risk taker. It

didnt make a difference to Davis whether he was

taking on the commissioner of theNational Football

Leagueor his two original partners with the Raiders.

The fact that many of his best players were picked upfrom rival NFL teams who got tired of explaining their

off the field activities to police never bothered Al.

The name Al Davis first began to grow to billboard

proportions when he was an assistant coach atThe

Citadel, a military school inSouth Carolina, except

that this man who once sold hotdogs atEbbets

Fieldwas never an assistant anything.

From there, Davis joined the coaching staff at

theUniversity of Southern Californiawhere two years

of recruiting violations resulted in the Trojans football

program being put on probation.

When USC head football coachDon Clarkretired and

the Trojans gave the job toJohn McKay, Davis was

so upset that he joined theAmerican Football

LeaguesSan Diego Chargers. Even though most

fans have forgotten by now, it was Al who signed

future pro football greatsLance Alworthand Keith

Lincoln.

In 1962 the AFL's Raiders were a disaster area. They

turned in records of 2-12 in 1961 and 1-13 in 1962.

Co-owners Wayne Valley andEd McGahliked Davis's

nine years of experience as an assistant coach and

hired him to be both general manager and head

coach. The only boss Al Davis would ever have to

answer to was himself.

For many years, Davis was consistently able to find

quarterbacks, includingDaryle LamonicaandKen

Stabler, who fit the Raiders' long-ball passing game.

But whenJim Plunkettretired after the 1986 season,Al couldnt seem to find anyone to take his place,

perhaps the only time in his career when frustration

tackled him from behind.

Davis built an organization that basically was an

extension of himself. He didnt believe in titles.

Everybody under Davis was an administrative

assistant.

With Davis in charge the Raiders went 10-4 in Als

first year as head coach. After that came 15 division

championships, four conference titles, and five trips to

the Super Bowl. Three of those visits resulted in

Raider victories, in 1977, 1981, and 1984 the first

withJohn Maddenas head coach and the latter two

achieved underTom Flores, the NFL's first Latino

head coach (Davis also hired African-American,Art

Shell, a former Raider lineman, to break the league's
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coaching color barrier, and its first female chief

executive,Amy Trask).

The team's1984 Super Bowlvictory occurred while

the team was based inLos Angeles. It would take at

least another 500 words to explain why Davis, who

became a part owner of the team in 1966, moved the

Raiders to Los Angeles.

When rival NFL owners voted 22-0 against it, Davis

hit them with a $160 million lawsuit. Davis won,

collecting millions in the process.

One of the things Davis explained after being named

to pro footballsHall of Famein 1992 was the drive

that helped him build the Raiders into champions.

I always wanted to take an organization and make itthe best in sports, Davis said. I admired theNew

York Yankeesfor their power and intimidation. I

admired theBrooklyn DodgersunderBranch

Rickeyfor their speed and player development. I felt

there was no reason the two approaches couldnt be

combined into one powerful organization.

Phil Elderkinis a former sports editor ofThe Christian

Science Monitor.

_____________________________________________

A Brash Style and Power PlaysAllowed Davis to Wrest Control

Associated Press

Al Davis, head coach and general manager of the Oakland

Raiders, watching an A.F.L. exhibition game in Oakland in 1963.

ByRICHARD SANDOMIR

Published: October 10, 2011

When F. Wayne Valley hired Al Davis to coach

theOakland Raidersin 1963, he could not have

imagined that Davis would one day shrewdly

maneuver him out as the principal owner.

Robert Klein/Associated Press

Al Davis, center, talking

with Oakland Raiders

players at the team's

practice field in Oakland in

1963.

Davis, who died on Saturday, was the receivers

coach of the San Diego Chargers at the time.When Valley was asked what he saw in Davis, he

said: Because everybody hates him. Al Davis

wants to win and hell do anything to win. And

after losing all those games, I wanted a win, any

way I could.

Davis turned a dreadful American Football

League team that was9-33 from its inception in

1960into one with a 23-16-3 record in his threeseasons as the coach. He left in 1966 for a brief

stint as the A.F.L. commissioner.

When he returned later that year to the Raiders,

it was not as the coach. Davis had something

much grander in mind. Now he was a general

partner, head of football operations and a part-

owner after paying a reported $18,000 for 10

percent of the team. In 1969, he hired JohnMadden as the coach.

That would be one step in Daviss climb to

controlling the Raiders.

He got a piece of the team on the cheap and a

managerial grip on the franchise. Still, Davis was

a football guy without the wealth of other A.F.L.
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owners like Lamar Hunt (oil and real estate),

Barron Hilton (hotels) and Bud Adams (oil). Nor

was he as rich as Valley, a homebuilder, or

Edward W. McGah, a developer, another one of

the eight founding Raiders partners.

Valley rightly saw a rare commodity in Davis, butit did not ensure a smooth relationship. They did

not get along. Madden said of Davis on Monday

on KCBS Radio: He wasnt a pushover for

anyone. And he did like the battle. He did enjoy

arguing.

In 1972, Davis staged what looked like a coup

dtat. With Valley at the Summer Olympics in

Munich, Davis drew up a contract that he andMcGah had signed to pay Davis $100,000 for 20

years and further consolidate his power as

managing general partner. Once aware of it,

Valley sued to nullify it.

But Valley lost the suit, and in 1976, he sold out

to Davis, said Jack Brooks, a former Raiders

partner.

His relationship with Valley wasnt very good,

Brooks said Monday from San Francisco.

Peter Richmond, whowrote a book about the

Raiders of the 70s, said in a telephone interview

on Monday: Al became dictator and emperor.

Emperors become emperors for many reasons,

and one is the hunger for power. But Als hunger

for power wasnt to grind everybodys face in the

dirt. It became a thing where he could say, I can

build an empire and dominate it if I do well.

By 2003, McGah had been dead for two decades

and his family held his 31 percent of the

team.McGahs daughter-in-law and great-

grandson sued to dismiss Davisas the managing

general partner because he was denying them full

access to the teams financial records. They said

that Davis and the company he created to run the

team conducted themselves as if they were the

sole owners of the Raiders.

Here was an unusual turn of events: Davis was

being sued by the family of the man who usheredhim into the seat of total power with the Raiders.

But the lawsuit ended well for Davis. After it was

settled, Davis reportedly acquired the McGah

stake, raising his share of the team to an

estimated 67 percent.

At the time, Valleys son, Mike, saw something

familiar in the McGah familys battle against

Davis.

The power that is being exercised against the

McGahs today is the same power that was used to

pry my dad away from the team, Mike Valley

told The Contra Costa Times. I wish them all the

luck in the world.

A couple years later, Brooks said he sold his stake

to Davis, not to settle a feud, but to plan his

estate.

He did not divulge how much of the team he

owned, or what Davis paid for it.

We got along fine, Brooks said. We were good

friends, and Al never asked to buy me out.

He added: Als irreplaceable. When I met him

before we hired him as coach, I said, This guysdifferent from anybody else we talked to before.

By 2007, Davis had been associated with the

Raiders for 44 years. He decided to get some cash

flow out of his holdings and sold 20 percent of

his Raiders to three investors for $150 million.

_____________________________________________
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Posted: Saturday October 8, 2011 2:38PM ; Updated: Sunday October

9, 2011 1:40AM

Peter King>INSIDE THE NFL

Davis impacted football history, and did it

on his own terms

Story Highlights

Al Davis was one of a kind, a man who did it all a

Despite recent history, Davis' lifetime accomplish

Davis had a history of always doing things his wa

Al Davis: 1929-2011

Al Davis took a chance on hiring 32-year-old JohnMadden to coach the Raiders, but it paid off with a

1976 Super Bowl win.Ron Riesterer/Oakland Tribune

Remembering Al Davis

My favorite Al Davis story:

On a Friday night in April 2004, the night before theNFL Draft, Davis was giving me a tour of his offices at

the Raiders' facility in Oakland. In his inner sanctum,

there were four large TVs on the wall, in a diamond

configuration. He said he watched games in his office

quite often. "Basketball, women's basketball,

baseball,'' he said. "All the sports.''

"Women's basketball?'' I said, surprised. And I decided

to test him: "OK, what team took Diana Taurasi with

the first pick of the WNBA Draft?''

Disdainfully, he said: "Oh, come on. That's easy.Phoenix.''

Al Davis wanted you to know he paid attention to

everything in the world and knew something about

everything -- and knew much more than you knew

about football.

***

When I heard the news about Al Davis' death Saturday

morning, the first thing I thought was, Has there ever

been anyone like him? In pro football history, I mean.

I honestly can't think of one. George Halas and Paul

Brown are close; they founded and owned and coached

and scouted, and Halas played for 10 years. But the

number of jobs Davis did in football is staggering:

scout, assistant coach, head coach, general manager,

commissioner, team owner, team CEO. And

professional contrarian. He did many of those at the

same time.

The shame of being young today is all you've seen is

Davis' Raiders flounder. In the last nine seasons,

Oakland has been a bad team and adrift as a

franchise, and he'd been unable to bring in a smart

man to help him run the front office day-to-day. But

look at the first 42 years of Davis' professional career,

and it's clear he belongs on the Mount Rushmore of

football history.

In a 51-year pro football career, Davis scouted for the

Chargers and Raiders, was an assistant coach for the

Chargers, was head coach and general manager for

the Raiders, served as American Football League

commissioner in 1966, was one of the key burrs in the

NFL's saddle that forced the 1970 merger of the two

professional leagues, and presided over the Raiders'

AFL Championship in 1967 and was part-owner and

GM -- either in title or de facto -- ever since. No single

person played more of a role in 63-year-old Pete

Rozelle resigning in 1989; Rozelle was sick of fighting

Davis in court over the movement of his franchise. For

that reason, Davis was despised by many of the old-

line owners in the league.

In the bitter AFL-NFL signing war, Davis fired one of

the very first shots as a Charger assistant, signing

wide receiver Lance Alworth; he became the first AFL

player elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His

Raiders and the Steelers were the first teams to mine

historically black colleges for talent. He hired the first

black head coach in NFL history (Art Shell), the first

Hispanic head coach in NFL history (Tom Flores) and

he made Amy Trask the first female chief executive in

NFL history, a job she still holds. He loved giving

young people chances. The chance he took with John

Madden, hired at age 32 to coach the Raiders in 1969,

paid off. Madden coached 10 years, and he retired with

the best winning percentage in history for coaches who

won at least 100 games.

Davis' Raiders won the AFL title in 1967 and NFL titles

in 1976, 1980 and 1984. They lost a Super Bowl in

2002. The franchise is one of two to have appeared in

Super Bowls in four different decades.

Of the people I've met covering sports in the last 31

years, Davis was the most interesting personality.


5/17

Easily. He challenged me a couple of times over things

I'd written -- one time months later deep in a story

that even I didn't remember. Time after time, on issue

after issue, Davis would abstain from voting at league

meetings, often times his way of voicing his silent

protest over a bylaw he considered short-sighted. And

sometimes I'm convinced he did it just to be a

contrarian, just to say, "I never want to be in lockstep

with the NFL -- or with anyone. I'm my own man.''

Davis loved to take the new owners in the league and

spend time with them one-on-one, to talk about how

they could work in common and to tell them how he

viewed the present and future of the sport. One of

those men was Jerry Jones, who became close to Davis

over the years. It was that relationship, in part, that

helped embolden Jones to go outside the league's

exclusive advertising deal with Coke to make a deal

with Pepsi in the Dallas area. The league sued Jones,

but eventually adopted Jones' contrarian way of selling

and marketing beer and soft drinks both nationally and

locally in separate deals. Jones, through Davis, saw

the league was a collective entity, but also saw that

each owner should be allowed to pursue deals in his

own best interests.

Once, columnist Dave Anderson of the New York

Times described Davis, raised in Brooklyn, as

"cunning." When Davis saw Anderson he said, "Come

on Dave -- don't call me 'cunning' in the New York

Times.''

"But you are, Al,'' Anderson said.

"I know,'' Davis said. "But my mother reads the New

York Times.''

So did Davis. He read everything. Talk to him for 10

minutes and you realize he was a lot more than a

football man. Don't let the last nine years color

everything you think about Davis. Davis, in his prime,

was a holy terror for those he competed with.

____________________________________________

Updated: October 9, 2011, 7:44 PM ET

Al Davis (and AFL):

Something differentBy Jeff MacGregor, ESPN.com

Remembering A Pioneer

"Al Davis Passes" isn't a headline, it was his playbook.

This is not biography. Neither is it history nor eulogy

nor expert summing up of X's and O's. This is just a

sketch of how Al Davis and those pass-happy Wild

West AFL days of the 1960s seemed to me as a little

kid.

It's hard to remember now, but back then the NFL and

the AFL were as different in type and kind as any two

things could be. And not just different, but at war over

their differences. At war, we were informed at thetime, for this nation's very soul.

[+] Enlarge

AP Photo Daryle Lamonica undoubtedly had a receiver 20-

30 yards downfield in mind if he had time to get off the

pass.

Because the NFL was all slow-motion teamwork and

Norse mythology, a grinding siege of elbow grease and

high-top shoes, antacids and good intentions. The NFL

was as buttoned-up and buttoned-down as IBM or ITT

or McNamara's Defense Department.

The AFL was Bourbon Street. It was fun that felt

wrong. Like you woke up one morning to discover your

dad had traded the family Vista Cruiser for a Vincent

Black Shadow and was dating Ann-Margret. Al Davis

was the embodiment of this, of course. Maybe even

the cause of it.

On one side was the football establishment and its

fedoras and cashmere topcoats and its dull Machine

Age regimentation -- and over there was Davis, as

loose and sleek and daring as a cat burglar. On game

day his teams all looked like they had just made bail.

He was the most thrilling villain in football history --something I could understand even as a 10-year-old

boy in 1967.

Because in '64 or '65 or '66 if you chose up sides for a

sandlot game, it was even money you'd pretend to be

the Colts or the Giants or the Packers; a safe bet you'd

stand in the pocket of your imagination like Unitas, or

run the sweep like Hornung. It was straight up old-

time football, missionary football according to the

catechism of Halas and Lombardi.
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6/17

But by 1967, here comes Al Davis and his Raiders and

his quarterback, The Mad Bomber, Daryle Lamonica.

Your daydreams just got the upgrade. No more Starr

to Dowler on the 6-yard buttonhook. Instead it's

everybody go deep and I'll heave it.

As unfair as it is to pioneers likeLamar HuntorSid

GillmanorJohn Hadl, it felt like Al Davis was the one

who set us all free.

[+] Enlarge

Mario Tama/Getty ImagesShared attributes of Al Davis and

the Vincent Black Shadow: Dangerous, dark and exciting.

Maybe it was those black uniforms. Or that logo. Or

maybe because Davis embodied for me a very specific

kind of anti-hero at a very specific moment in history.

Lee Marvin in"Point Blank."Frank Sinatra in"Tony

Rome."Steve McQueen in"Bullitt."1967. 1968.

Fictional hard guys caught between the antique days of

Sam Spade and the new world order of Harry Callahan.

That moment in time didn't last long. But what Al

Davis brought to football was their aesthetic, their

vibe, their wardrobe. Their situational morality. He

wore the same wised-up tough-guy nihilism they did.

The same hot cool. The same sunglasses. This wasn't

the harmless ring-a-ding-ding of the Rat Pack just

passed; nor was it yet the turned-on, tuned-in chronic

fugue state of Fonda and Hopper and "Easy Rider."

Rather, it was a weird little break in our cultural

progression -- not quite out of the Fifties, but not fully

into what we now understand as the '60s. So a couple

of years of violent cinematic alienation and imminent

rage in wingtips and two-button suits; of Angie

Dickinson and Jill St. John. All of it overwrought corn

and inauthentic and completely American. One minute

it's hip to be square, the next thing you know it's the

Summer of Love and even the league bosses are

rocking turtlenecks and ankle boots.

And what's sort of endearing about Al Davis -- at least

to those of us who've traveled down the timeline with

him -- is how this remained his look and his sound and

his ethos for the next 40 years. The revolutionary

authoritarian. The anti-corporate capitalist. Just win,

baby, whatever the cost or contradiction or existential

consequence.

He seemed to me then and seems to me still a very

great and terrible man. An American pirate. An

original. An answer and antidote to the dismal little

pieties and uptight fictions of the National Football

League, he was a 60-yard go route just for the hell of

it.

He was the Raiders. He was the AFL. He was what I

knew of rebellion at the age of 10.

Looking back, what Al Davis brought to football was

sex and freedom. And for that The League can never

forgive him. And the game can never thank him

enough.

Jeff MacGregor is a senior writer for ESPN.com and

ESPN The Magazine. You can e-mail him at

[email protected], or follow his

Twitter.com feed@MacGregorESPN.

_____________________________________________

The advice Al Davisgave me ...

October, 8, 2011, 4:27PM ET

By Paul Kuharsky

In the summer of 1995, as I prepared to move across

the country and start the job that qualified as my big

break, I read Slick by Mark Ribowsky.

The biography of Al Davis was required reading, amentor had told me, before I started covering

DavisOakland Raidersfor The Oakland Tribune.

Its a gripping account of Davis life, and I felt I had a

good sense of him as I embarked on the move as a

raw 26-year-old whod written a lot but was about to

take on his first beat.

There was no sign of Davis as I struggled through my

first days at training camp in Oxnard, Calif.

But not too long after I started came several days of

joint Raiders-Cowboys practices in Austin, Texas. And

there, in the white sweatsuit, he emerged.

The three fields at St. Edwards University ran end to

end, so it was a pretty good walk from the second or

third down to a fenced-in pathway that led players and

coaches to the locker rooms. Reporters walked with

them as they left the field.
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7/17

I was ready to introduce myself to Davis. I waited a

reasonable distance from him as he signed autographs

and charmed fans until he stepped away to start that

walk. He knew of me and the Tribune's plan, he said,

and was welcoming. We chit-chatted about a variety of

things, including where I went to high school -- he said

hed heard of it, though we didn't have a football team

and there no reason for him to know it.

It had gone well, I thought. But we still had a distance

to cover and so my mind started racing. What else

could I turn to in an introductory conversation when it

was clear Id be walking with him all the way to the

building?

And the question I came up with produced the greatest

answer Ive ever gotten from a prominent sports

figure. It was something like this:

So can you give me some advice, one Northeasternguy to another? How do I adjust to California?

We had been walking side by side, but Davis stopped,

and turned to face me. I responded in kind.

He put a hand on my shoulder and he said: You dont

adjust. You just dominate.

_____________________________________________

Chuck Klosterman:Remembering OaklandRaiders Owner Al DavisPosted Saturday, October 8, 2011 4:48 PM

Chuck Klosterman

Malcolm Emmons/US Presswire

What is one to make of a Jewish person who is

fascinated by Adolf Hitler? How do we comprehend a

man who goes out of his way to study the most hated

thing he can imagine? In 99.9 percent of all possible

scenarios, such paradoxical absorption would be dark

and meaningful. It would be twisted and bizarre, and it

would be perceived as the ultimate manifestation of self-

loathing. Unless, of course, the Jewish person in

question was Al Davis. Then it makes perfect sense. Of

course Al Davis was interested in the Nazis. Of course he

was. Somehow, it would have been more surprising if he

hadnt been.

When I woke up this morning and discovered that Al

Davis was dead, I was surprised. Now, how could this

be? How could I be surprised by the death of an 82-year-

old man who already seemed unhealthy in 1988? Yet I

was. It did not seem like Davis was killable. He was a

hard man a genius contrarian who seemed intent on

outliving all his enemies in order to irrefutably prove his

ideas were right. No one ever personified a sports

organization the way Davis embodied the Raiders, and

no one ever will. No one can. Its not possible. The league

he helped invent no longer exists in the manner he

devised. Its difficult to visualize another man who could

coach a team, then manage that team, and then own the

team. Equally amazing was the way Davis remained at

the organizations dead center on all three levels: As a

coach, he created the attack the Raiders have stubbornly

used for almost 50 years (run between the tackles, pass

vertically, and feed off intimidation). His gambling

personnel philosophy throughout the 1970s and '80s

built the superstructure for three Super Bowl victories

speed came first, reputation mattered least, and loyalty(or at least his weird definition of that word) was placed

above all. As an owner, he was always (always!) in

control of the ship, even when the ship was on fire and

hitting an iceberg. Was he impossible to work with? Im

sure he was. He did not merely have more power than

anyone else in the organization; he had more power than

the rest of the organization combined. If God had wanted
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8/17

to trade Cliff Branch, he had to convince Davis first. And

Davis probably would have said no.

Certainly, Davis did some troubling things during his 49-

year tenure with the Raiders. Even his friends

considered him ruthless, and Davis probably wouldnt

have been friends with them had they thought otherwise.

Marcus Allen gave an interview to ABC in 1992 in which

he openly claimed that Davis was trying to destroy his

life and ruin his legacy, even though Allen had essentially

won Super Bowl XVIII for him. It occasionally seemed

like Davis was trying to wreck the NFL out of spite; no

man ever made Pete Rozelles life more complicated and

less comfortable. (Although it must be noted that upon

Rozelles unexpected resignation, Davis was the first

person to shake the commissioners cigarette-stained

hand.) His behavior was impossible to predict. He

enjoyed holding grudges. His clothes seemed to matter

more than half the players he ever drafted. He was my

favorite owner, ever. I have no idea if he was a good

person.

When writing about the history of any sport, its

common to use the phrase the modern era. What those

words signify is the historical point where a game begins

to resemble whatever it is now; in pro football, we often

use the advent of the Super Bowl, the AFL-NFL merger,

or the 1978 rule changes that opened up the passing

game. However, football is still relatively young.

Someday (unless America becomes a dystopia), it will be

hundreds of years old. Someday, it will be ancient. And

when that moment is reached, the so-called modern

era will be defined as starting today. It will begin with

the death of Al Davis. He was the final survivor of pro

footballs seminal period; he designed the way aggressive

teams play, he was the heart of the AFL, and he was the

last man to carry the total burden of a team for his entire

adult life. He wasthe Raiders. Thats a clich, but its

absolutely true. There was no one else. In his final years,

Davis looked strange. He looked like a skeleton. He

looked a little like the logo on the Raiders' helmets (all he

needed was the eye patch and the knife). He physically

became what he emotionally was. And that will never

happen again. From here on out, its just football.

Chuck Klosterman is the author ofsix books. His

novelThe Visible Manwas released this month.

_____________________________________________

Insider: Al Davis wastrue 'godfather' ofNFLPosted Oct. 09, 2011 @ 5:34 p.m. ETBy PFW staff

The following quotes are from NFL scouts, coaches andfront-office personnel, speaking on the condition ofanonymity. "Nobody worked harder or sacrificed more than Al

Davis in building the NFL into what it is today. He gaveEVERYTHING. He was the true 'godfather' of the NFL. He was one of a kind. I don't agree with everything hedid a lot of people would probably agree with that but everyone respected him."

"QB is the most important position on the field. Youneed to have a plan or short list at all times. You can'twait until there is an injury to know who is available. (Dolphins GM) Jeff Ireland is being exposed when ateam works out all the quarterbacks on the street thatis a sign he doesn't know who can play or who to sign.(From my perspective,) it was embarrassing."

"If you are one of the bottom teams in the league for acouple of years, you better be able to turn it around. Withthe new CBA, teams are not going to get strangled by arookie contract for $50 million. I don't think you'll seeanother team like the Colts going to the playoffs nineconsecutive years with the new rules. It's going to beharder and harder. And if you look at it, is it good to haveteams like the (New York) Yankees in the NFL or is itgood to have a new Super Bowl winner and six newteams in the playoffs every year? That's how the leaguewas built trying to level the playing field so everyonehas a chance every year."
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9/17

"Left tackles are difficult to find. I don't think you candraft tackles and cornerbacks by always picking that(low) in (each round). Look at New England andPittsburgh (the Steelers) had that bad year wherethey drafted (11th overall) and they used it to get(Ben) Roethlisberger. Pittsburgh has not been highenough to draft a tackle. The top two tackles are usuallyoff the board by (No.) 20. Do you draft for need or doyou draft the best player on the board? If you look at

the best drafts, they are always looking for the bestplayer at priority positions."

"Players in Pittsburgh are starting to see throughMikeTomlin. You've got to remember he's not much olderthan some of the players there. The team is old and verymature. That is a well-oiled operation now. If he had ayoung team like Raheem Morris (does) in Tampa, whoknows how it would be going? I think he would have aharder time. The guys that are (in Pittsburgh) now they keep the locker room in line."

"You have to give (Packers GM)Ted Thompson credit

for letting Brett Favre go when he did in the sense thatBrett would have continued to hold the team hostage,not wanting to go to camp, but wanting to play. Throw allthat aside, and look at the amount of money invested instarting quarterbacks. It eats up a very healthy piece ofthe salary cap. You look at what (the Colts) are payingPeyton Manning you could have a couple morestarters right now if he were not consuming as much capspace as he is. They are the one organization I think thatdeserves a pass for how they started (in 2011)."

"I think one of the biggest problems you have inJacksonville is that the head coach's time ran out a few

years ago. Any time you have a situation where a coachis sticking around only because his contract is too muchto swallow, you have an unhealthy situation.Unfortunately, Jacksonville is in a market that puts thefranchise at a competitive disadvantage. They don'thave the resources the cash on hand to becompetitive in that division. The other three(Indianapolis, Tennessee and Houston) do have theresources. So it's a frustrating organization."

"(Bills owner)Ralph Wilson has good intentions, buthe has always been extremely meddling. He gets anidea in his head from somewhere or somebody and hegets stuck on them. He needs a patient GM that'swhy a lot of good ones left."

__________________________________________________

Plunkett on Davis: Heunlocked the best in meBy Jim PlunkettSpecial to Yahoo! Sports Oct 8, 2:18 pm EDT

I can remember the mounting, self-imposed pressure tothis day and, most importantly, how Al Davis handled itso perfectly.

In 1980, my 10th season in the NFL and my third withtheOakland Raiders, I was at a crossroads. As we gotready for the sixth game that season Don Coryellsoffensive juggernaut from San Diego was coming totown I was going to get a chance to start for the firsttime in more than two years.

For most of my life, starting was a foregone conclusion.But after seven mostly unproductive seasons onstruggling teams in New England and San Francisco, Iwas relegated to backup status with Oakland. For a timebeing a backup was OK. It was a chance for me to getmy confidence back. But now, I had this chance to proveto fans and the rest of the league that I still could play. Idesperately wanted to show everyone that I wasnt ahas-been, a former No. 1 overall pick and HeismanTrophy winner whose athletic highlights seemingly cameand went by the time I was 23.

And that was just the personal side. Throw into the mixthat the Raiders were 2-3 at the time. I had played a rolein that, coming in as a backup the previous week whenDan Pastorini broke his leg. I threw five interceptions asKansas City won for the first time. I could explain awaythat performance a little as getting thrown into a badsituation. Those games happen.

This game against San Diego was different. This was mychance to be on stage again, to be the man in chargeand to be at the center of what was probably going to bea high-scoring game. Thats when Al came up to me anddid everything he could to make the pressure vanish.

Thats when Al helped turn my career around.

Its not important you play well, Al said. Its importantwe win. If you go five of 15 and we win, thats OK. I was good that day, going 11 of 14 with one touchdown.More important, the Raiders were great that day, winning38-24, and from that moment forward. The rest of thestory of that season is well-chronicled. We went 9-2 therest of the season, made the playoffs, won the SuperBowl against Philadelphia. I was Associated PressComeback Player of the Year. I was the Super BowlMVP. I proved everything I wanted to and more. Threeseasons later, we won the Super Bowl again before Ifinished the rest of my career as a backup, finally retiringin 1986.

Of all my moments with Al in the more than threedecades I have been with and around the Raiders, Iremember those three sentences and 21 words most. Aldid for me what he had done for so many others. Heunlocked the best in me.

That, to me, is the real story of Al Davis, who diedSaturday at 82.
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10/17

Sure, you can get lost in the controversies. Thats easyand, to a large extent, Al liked it. He liked the image heprojected of himself and his team. He liked being amaverick. He liked the mystique.

But he always did that with the intent to achievegreatness. While critics will look at the last decade or soas a sign of how much Al had lost, you have tounderstand how much he had. Al wasnt just a brilliantfootball man, both on and off the field. He wasnt just agreat coach and personnel evaluator. He wasnt simplydedicated to being great for himself. He was all thosethings. Plus, he was the antagonist who drove hisopponents to be great just so they could beat him. Whilesome people dismiss him as sinister, he was the verydefinition of sand in the oyster.

Without Al, the NFLs journey to becoming the crownjewel of American sports would have been much longer.Al was more than happy to play the villain. He poked andprodded and cajoled the best out of everyone. He madefootball more than a great sport; he made it a drama withthe Raiders as one of the teams you either loved or

loved to hate.

For me and many other Raider greats like JohnMatuszak, Lyle Alzado and Ted Hendricks, he also wasable to coax something out of us that didnt materializeat other places. Sure, a lot of that had to do with talent,but it was more than that. In some cases, he drove us tobe champions just by giving us another chance. Thatwas especially true for Matuszak, Alzado and me. Eachof us had the talent all along, but for a variety of reasonsit didnt come out completely until we got to the Raiders.

Jim Plunkett knew a side of Al Davis many didn't get to see.(US Presswire)

When I got cut by San Francisco after the 1977 season,

I was devastated, depressed. It was the low point in astring of years I never expected coming out of Stanford.That offseason, my agent, Wayne Hooper, set up ameeting with Al. Hoopers office also was in Oakland, soit was easy. There were several teams interested, but Ididnt want to pick up and leave the Bay Area again.

More important, when Al came to meet me, all he didwas talk about how much he liked me coming out ofcollege, how tough he thought I was and how much headmired what I had done under the circumstances. With

Al, you always had to listen for a while when he gotgoing.

I signed to back up Kenny Stabler, and I truly was abackup. My first year, I never played. In 1979, I threw 15passes. When Stabler and the Raiders got into acontract dispute in 1980, he eventually was traded forPastorini and I stayed the backup until Pastorini got hurt.What I learned to appreciate during that time was howdedicated Al was to the team and the players. Al wasmore than an owner. On most teams, the owner is theowner, you dont see him very much. Al was at practiceall the time, especially the heavy practice days onWednesday and Thursday. He was always yellingencouragement or teaching. Youd hear him say, Holdthe ball high when youre dropping back.

The most important quality is that he treated us like menAt that stage of my career, I wasnt going to be able toplay for someone like Dick Vermeil, who ran everythinglike a boot camp. Al let men be men. If you were twominutes late for a meeting, he didnt fine you. If you werehabitually late, it got taken care of by the players. There

was structure even if it didnt seem like there wasstructure. Al picked guys who might have been a littledifferent OK, some of us were a little nuts buteveryone cared about winning. You might not get everyguys undivided attention during the week, but comeSunday everybody was ready to play.

Al understood that and he could expect it because theguys saw him all the time. They saw his dedication. Hewas accountable and the players couldnt help but feelthe same way. I think that may have been part of theproblem the last few years. Al just couldnt physically beout there as much as he got older. I think the current

players didnt get a chance to see what Al real ly wasabout, and the accountability was lost. The same wastrue of personnel. When Al could see the players upclose and really understand who they were, he wasamazing at picking guys who could help us. Maybe thisguy could be a good third-down back. Or this linebackerwho got cut by some other team, Al saw that he had acouple of good years left and could help us as a passrusher.

Als vision went beyond the field. He saw the future ofpay television and of marketing the team. Whenever theleague would do a marketing deal with one company,you always saw Al work with the other company to worka deal. He knew he would have to upgrade the stadiumand he knew he never was going to get the cooperationfrom Oakland. Thats why he moved to Los Angeles.When Los Angeles didnt follow through on the promisesmade to him, he had to go back. Really, I think thatworked out better. The Raiders really never were an L.A.team. They were a small-town team, a neighborhoodteam. Oakland fit much better, but Al knew he had topush the business side of the team.

Of course, there were the lawsuits and thecontroversies. I think some of that took away from his


11/17

focus on the team, but it wasnt like he was off doingsomething else. Again, everything about Al was aboutbeing great in football. If you returned that dedication, heloved you and he was loyal. You look around theRaiders, and you see all the old players who work for theteam maybe in scouting or coaching or somewhereelse. I used to hear from other players that they couldntget jobs with their team. They had to go somewhere elseto get started after they were done playing.

That wasnt how Al ran things. He was all in and if youwere all in, there was a bond. It was always aboutfootball, always about pushing the right buttons withpeople, like what he did for me.

Or like the times, hed call my house late at night duringthe week of a game. Al would call between 10 andmidnight all the time, just to find out what I was thinkingabout the game, what was on my mind. A couple oftimes, Id be out drinking with some friends or whatever,and hed end up talking to my wife. This was before cellphones, so shed take a message, but he always wouldbe a little upset that I wasnt around.

That was Al. All day, every day, he was all about thegame and being great.

_____________________________________________

Combative Davis made hismark on the game

ByJason Cole, Yahoo! Sports Oct 8, 2:11 pm EDT

In August, one NFL owner was asked to discuss Al

Davis place in NFL history. The owner, who asked to

remain anonymous, looked at the ground uncomfortably

before answering.

Obviously, Al is important, nobody would ever say thats

not the case, but , the owner answered and paused

for almost 10 seconds before finishing. Sometimes you

just wondered if he really had to do it the way he did.

Davis, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and

one of the icons of the modern game, died Saturday

morning at 82. He was considered a driving force in

turning the NFL into the nations most popular game, as

well as turning the Raiders into a three-time Super Bowl

champion. He did that with an uncompromising and bold

sense of competition that often pushed the boundaries of

what some people thought was acceptable.

In the 1970s, for instance, Davis funded a lawsuit filed

by former Raiders safety George Atkinson against

Pittsburgh coach Chuck Noll for defamation. Noll had

accused the Raiders of having a criminal element after

Atkinson hit Steelers wide receiver Lynn Swann with a

blindside forearm to the back of the head. Although

Atkinson eventually lost the suit, the tr ial heightened the

already bitter rivalry between Steelers and the Raiders,

and caused huge rifts throughout the league between

Davis and other owners.

Those rifts continued when Davis went to court time and

again, such as when he moved the Raiders to Los

Angeles in 1982. Davis even had rifts with his own

people, such as when he fired former coaches such as

Mike Shanahan and Lane Kiffin or warred with running

back Marcus Allen. In a sense, Davis life story is long -

running joust.

You cant overstate how great Al Davis has been for the

NFL,Dallas Cowboysowner Jerry Jones said earlier

this year. Jones, who was very close to Davis, then

smiled wryly and said, But he was different.

The cause of Davis death wasnt immediately released

but it is believed that he had a long battle with skin

cancer which severely hindered him physically over the

past six years. During a business meeting within the past

year, Davis had a brief seizure. Mentally, however, Davis

remained incredibly sharp, even if he was sometimes

perceived as paranoid.

When you would see him, it was really quite scary,

another owner said with complete sincerity. I remember

walking into his suite when we played the last time. My

wife had her arm around mine and when she saw Al, I

could feel her grip tighten. It was fear and it was sad. But

when you talked to him, he was still clear, quick-witted

and incredibly focused.
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12/17

Longtime Oakland executive Amy Trask once told a

group of NFL executives: When you see Al, its

heartbreaking. But when you talk to him over the phone,

its the same Al Ive always known.

Many believed that Davis physical constraints had a

direct relationship to the downturn of the team in recent

years. After making the Super Bowl in the 2002 season

(when they lost to Tampa Bay), the Raiders went on a

horrendous run of seven consecutive seasons with at

least 11 losses. That streak ended last season when the

Raiders finished 8-8.

Prior to that downturn, Davis, who first served as a

coach when he broke into the NFL, had a huge impact

on the on-field operations of the team. He not only

handpicked the personnel, he had a strong say in who

played at a given time, particularly on defense. On Sept.

30, as New England was preparing to play at Oakland

last Sunday, Patriots coach Bill Belichick fondly

remembered being interviewed by Davis in the late

1990s before Davis hired Jon Gruden.

We had a good couple days of conversation, Belichick

said. I told him when I got out there, it really seemed

like a waste of time because I felt pretty certain that he

wouldnt hire a defensive coach because he hasnt since

Eddie Erdelatz in [1960]. Its a parade of offensive

coaches out there. Hes really a defensive coordinator

and has been. You know, it was good because we talked

a lot about football and hes very, very knowledgeable

about the game, personnel, schemes, adjustments and

so forth. He was asking a lot of questions about what we

did defensively. You kind of dont want to give too muchinformation there because you know, hes running the

defense. He wasnt really too interested in talking about

offensive football.

Hes a great mind. It was unlike any other interview Ive

ever had with an owner because he was so in depth

really about football, about Xs and Os and strategy and

use of personnel and acquisition of all the things really

that a coach would talk about, thats really what he

talked about. That made it pretty unique. But he hired a

good coach, Gruden. Which is again, in all honesty, the

way that I expected it to go because thats been all the

Oakland coaches from Art Shell to Mike White, Joe

Bugel, Shanahan, you know right down the line, Lane

Kiffin, theyre all offensive coaches.

Davis style helped create a player-driven atmosphere

that both insiders and outsiders said walked the narrow

line between driven and chaotic. In the glory days of the

Raiders, players like Ken Stabler, Ted Hendricks and

Lyle Alzado were the face of the team. Later, as the

team fell apart, it was the likes ofJaMarcus

Russell(notes)andJerry Porter(notes).

When Al was around the team only saw who wasfocused and into it, but he drove those guys to be behind

him because he was so devoted to them, former

Raiders quarterback Jim Plunkett said. Guys wanted to

play hard for Al but I think some of that was lost when

he couldnt physically be around as much.

Former Oakland defensive end Trace Armstrong once

said, Al loves the players, no question. But some guys

didnt always get it and when the older guys left, therewas nobody around to run the asylum.

Davis death Saturday morning creates a mountain of

questions throughout the NFL and perhaps paves the

way for the league to return to Los Angeles, where Davis

once saw the future and then had to abandon it.

IN the immediate, Davis wife, Carol, and son, Mark, are

expected to assume control of the team. However,

numerous sources around the NFL believe that neither

will want to keep control of the team in the long run and

are expected to sell relatively soon.

Al tried to float the idea that Mark would run the team,

but most people look at that as Als dream, not a reality,

an owner said earlier this year. I dont see any wa y

Mark holds onto the team. Hes just going to cash out.
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13/17

NFL owners are scheduled to meet Tuesday in Houston.

The Raiders were on the way to that city Saturday to

play the Texans.

_____________________________________________

Jim Otto on Al Davis

Jim Otto (left) with Al Davis at Otto's induction to the BayArea Sports Hall of Fame in 1986.

Pro Football Hall of Fame center Jim Otto had aparticularly close relationship with Davis. Hereswhat he said in an interview with Chronicle StaffWriter Steve Kroner.

Ive been loyal to him and hes always been loyalto me. The passion that he had for people andlife was phenomenal, witnessed by his time spentwith his

wife when his wife was deathly ill. He never lefther side until she came out of her coma. His

passion for life was tremendous with regard toeveryone, not just his people, but other people,too, that he wanted to help.

In the early to mid-60s, the passing game. Hewas very instrumental in the passing game, thewide receivers, the split ends and spreadingacross the field for the passing game and goingvertical. That was his game. Basically, he also ranthe West Coast offense before the West Coastoffense was run. We did all that type of stuff. Bill Walsh got the West Coast offense from us andhe took it where he went. Mr. Davis was aninnovator of all those things.

He was quite serious in private, too. His sense ofhumor, he derived it himself. When he wanted to

be funny, he would be funny and it wasintentional. He was a little different than other

people with regard to a sense of humor. He wasvery much an all-business man: It was football,

football, football and there werent too manyfunny things that happened with football.

People scorned him for his successes. A lot ofpeople dont like successful people and Mr. Davis

has been very successful in the things that he hasdone. People dislike that very much.

He was a very loyal person. I know a lot of peoplehave said that. (He was) very loyal to me and my

family. Ive had a lot of physical problems since Iretired. There were several times when I was veryill. Every time I was ever in the hospital and Iwas in the hospital many, many times he calledevery day, checked me out, made sure I was allright. Sometimes, I found out later that he wasvery disturbed by the way I sounded. Thank

God, Im here and I always came through it. Heworried about me and he worried about a lot ofdifferent people. Thats the way Mr. Davis was.He was a caring man, very caring man. Manytimes, he told me how much he loved the Raider

fans in Oakland and as we were coming back toOakland, he couldnt get back there fast enough.

_____________________________________________

Tom Flores on Al Davis

Tom Flores (right) and Al Davis in 1981.
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14/17

Former Raiders coach and current Raidersbroadcaster Tom Flores talked with ChronicleStaff Writer Steve Kroner in the wake of Al Davispassing. Heres what Flores said.

First of all, the fact that he passed was notsurprising but the fact that he passed wasshocking if that makes any sense because weall knew that he was in poor health and was

struggling and doing the best he could to do whathe had to do, but its sad. How else can you sayit? Its just sad when reality hits you right inthe face, and thats what happened, reality hit usright in the face this morning when I wasawakened very early. Ive known him for 48 years.We were both young people when we first startedand trained together.

It was quite obvious, his passion for the game,the game of football itself, the people that

played it, the people that coached it and owned

teams and were part of the growth of the game.And with that came his compassion and passionfor players that have played for him and playersthat have played elsewhere. He just loved the

game and respected it so much. His loyalty tothose that were close to him was just withoutequal. He was my coach, my mentor, but mostof all, he was my dear friend.

One of the things that I remember vividly is whenI was in Seattle and my wife took ill. She hadbreast cancer, and the first call that I got was

(from) him. I wont go into any detail but thefirst call that I received was from Al. How heheard about it, I dont know, but he called and hewas there. Some of the things that he did thatyou never hear about. You just never hear aboutit because he did it quietly, without fanfare, buthe did it because of his love and respect forwhomever he did that gesture.

First of all, his vision for the game sometimes wastaken out of context, but then as the years wentby, people would look back and say, Well, Al wasright about this. Al was right about that. He wasbig on size and speed. Speed and size were alwaysa big part of his evaluation and his direction. Heloved the wide-open game. He loved the big plays and all of those are a part of the game today.This league has turned into almost a passingleague. I dont know if he envisioned that asmuch as it is today, but he certainly liked that

part of the game when I was involved with him,which was a long time. There are so many things.Right now, its kind of hard to reflect oneverything because its such a sad day.

I think sometimes people didnt think he had aheart, but his heart was bigger than life.

_____________________________________________

"For when the One Great Scorer comes to mark against your name,

He writesnot that you won or lostbut how you played the Game."

GrantlandAl Davis' StrategicLegacyWhat the "vertical pass" guru contributed to

football

By Chris Brown OCTOBER 11, 2011

Andy Hayt/Getty Images

In recent years, it became easy (and sometimes evenappropriate) to mock Al Davis and his beloved Oakland

Raiders. From the poor on-field results and questionable

personnel moves to Davis'infatuation with speedand his

seemingly never-ending quest to find a modern version

of the "Mad Bomber," Daryle Lamonica, the past few

years have been ugly. And nothing, perhaps, was uglierthan the Raiders' ill-fated selection of quarterback

JaMarcus Russell with the first overall pick of the 2007

NFL draft. Russell had a strong arm, but he ate

androbo-tripped sipped sizzurpuntil he became persona

non grata in the NFL. But none of this should

overshadow what Davis built and also what he left

behind, even if at the end he seemed to be grasping at
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15/17

the shadows of the Raiders' past success. Among his

greatest contributions is the least well understood: the

vaunted Raiders "vertical passing game."

Davis picked up the aerial bug from passing-game guru

Sid Gillman when he was one of Gillman's assistants

with the San Diego Chargers in the 1960s. Gillman, the

"Father of the Modern Passing Game," introduced

several innovations to the air attack, the first of which

was timing. Gillman preached meticulous practice to

sync the precise timing between quarterback and

receiver, or, more precisely,between the quarterback's

dropback and the receiver's route. If the quarterback

took a five-step drop, the primary receiver had to run his

route based on a precise number of steps, such that

quarterback would throw the ball before the receiver had

turned to look for it. The secondary receiver in

thequarterback's progressionran his route a split

second after the first receiver, so that the quarterback

could look for the first receiver, reset his feet, then look

for the second and still throw before that receiver turned

to look for the pass. Nowadays, this emphasis on timing

is so universal in theory if not entirely in practice

that it's difficult to believe how influential Gillman was

in establishing it. His second insight was to understand

pass defenses and how to defeat them at a level far

beyond the old command to "get open." Defeating a

man-to-man defense, then as now, is about identifying a

receiver who can get open versus a particular defender.

Zones, on the other hand, require more thought. Gillman

realized that the key to defeating zones was spacingbetween receivers; specifically, if a defense had only four

underneath defenders, then five stationary targets

even five trash cans spaced evenly horizontally across the

field are uncoverable. The defenders are

outnumbered. Thus, the idea of the zone "stretch" was

born.

When Davis left Gillman's staff he took Sid's playbook

and, more important, his ideas with him.1But Davis

wasn't content to stretch the field horizontally; he

wanted to get vertical. If Gillman could get a trash can

open against a zone, Davis tested how good he'd do if he

added his favorite ingredient: speed. Gillman, of course,

used "vertical stretches" passing concepts that spaced

receivers not left to right, butdeep to short but for

Davis they became the centerpiece of his offense. Indeed,

this is what Davis meant when he brought the "vertical

game" to Oakland. It was not a matter of throwing deep

bombs (though it was sometimes), but was instead the

science of stretching defenses to their breaking point.

With receivers at varying depths, a small defensive error

often meant a 15-yard pass play for Davis' offense, and a

serious mistake meant a touchdown.

Davis continued to tweak the Gillman offense by adding

more formations, adding options for running backs in

the passing game, and generally expanding the

possibilities of what an offense could do with the

football. This was innovative stuff, so much so that it had

an outsize effect on a young Raiders assistant coach by

the name of Bill Walsh, who went on to craft his own

multi-Super Bowl-winning offense with the 49ers that

looked a lot like what Davis had created in Oakland. As

Walsh explained in his bookBuilding a Champion:

"[Al Davis'] pass offense included an almost unlimited

variety of pass patterns as well as a system of calling

them, and utilized the backs and tight ends much more

extensively than other offenses. To develop anunderstanding of it took time, but once learned, it was

invaluable."

This is not the description of the Al Davis offense you

usually see as some kind of simplistic, backyard,

"heave it up" strategy. Sure, Al wanted to hit the long

ball, but it was all part of his system. Al Davis' "vertical

game" was, in short, built on stretching the defense
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16/17

vertically while using all available receivers deep,

intermediate, and short to take what the defense gave

up anywhere on the field. It's not Al's fault that defenses

often yielded big plays to the Raiders.

In Davis' offense, as is the case today, the ultimate

vertical stretch passes are true "flood" or three-level

vertical stretches, with one receiver deep, another at an

intermediate depth, and a third short. Pass defenses

generally have onlytwo layers of defenders deep

safeties and underneath coverage players so when

there are receivers at three depths it is extremely difficult

to cover them all. For example, Davis' early Raiders

teams often used the "strongside flood" route,a pass

concept still popular today. On the play, an outside

receiver runs a "go" route straight upfield, trying to beat

his defender deep and otherwise taking the coverage

with him. An inside receiver here the tight end runs

a corner route at 15 yards, breaking to the sideline while

an underneath receiver here the running back runs

to the flat. On the backside, the outside receiver runs a

post route as an "alert" for the quarterback. He's not the

primary read, but if the deep defenders overreact to the

three receivers to the right, the home run shot is always

available. Because the defense has only two defenders

(the corner and the safety) to cover three receivers, it

shouldn't be able to defend the play. Al's secret and it

is the same secret Gillman discovered and Walsh

extended is that the surest way to hit those deep

passes is to consistently hit the underneath ones.

Courtesy of Chris Brown

Davis also pioneered the use of "slot" formations, in

which the tight end lines up to one side by himself, and

two split receivers position themselves to the opposite

side. From this they could run all manner of vertical

stretches, but one the Raiders used quite well (and which

many teams also use today) began with the slot receiver

running vertically downfield and the outside receiver on

adeep square-in or "dig" route. This pattern more

directly attacked the deep safeties and linebackers,

defenders Davis knew would be vulnerable to his fleet-

footed receivers.

Courtesy of Chris Brown.

These vertical stretch passes help explain why Davis

became obsessed with speed. Obviously, speed gives a

vertical receiver a chance to get behind the defense, but,

even if he does not actually get open, he

still stretches the defense, thus opening up the entire

field. Speed distorts defenses, forcing them to cover

wider swaths of the field, and thus exposing the weak

defenders and the voids around them. If Davis could

have a receiver like Warren Wells, who in 1969 totaled
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17/17

1,260 yards on only 47 catches for the Raiders a

staggering26.8 yards per completion then his other

receivers would have plenty of room to roam.

And yet, while Davis may have been hooked on speed

and the vertical game, those addictions weren't

responsible for the Raiders' struggles in recent years.

Instead, the Raiders have been derailed by weaknesses at

the two most important positions for implementing

Davis' vision as owner: head coach and quarterback.

Throughout the 1970s, Davis had John Madden, a coach

who could make Raiders football a reality. And for more

than a decadeOakland had two quarterbacks, the "Mad

Bomber" Lamonica and Ken Stabler, who could execute

the sophisticated vertical passing game the way Davis

wanted.

But long after Madden, Lamonica, and Stabler left the

Raiders, Davis remained. As the years went on, Davis

couldn't expect his coaches to run the offense exactly as

he'd taught it to Bill Walsh nor did he want them to, at

least not exactly. But he always knew how he wanted it to

look, and at times the Raiders achieved something close

to the brilliance that had once been the norm. In

football, great teams and great organizations exist only

in the moments before the next signing season or injury

or retirement, or even the next death. It's simply not

reasonable to expect what Davis accomplished early in

his Raiders career to continue into perpetuity. But,

despite whatever bitterness or decay emanated from the

Raiders in recent years, the fact remains that Davis gave

all of us more than we gave him. He didn't just mold his

football team and his coaches and his players in his

image he molded the game itself.

Chris Brown runs the websiteSmart Football. Follow

him on Twitter:@smartfootball.

_____________________________________________
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