Al Davis: An Enigmatic Legend

For most of us, we view the Raiders as a perennial loser who have been a perpetual joke for over 10 years. This was a team who had terrible drafts picks (remember: Jamarcus Russell and James Jett). It also fired coaches with zeal and never gave them a their paychecks in full i.e. Donald Sterling for the Los Angeles Clippers. In fact, this team was doing the opposite of their mantra: "Commitment to Excellence" or "Just Win Baby" as its owner and fearless leader Al Davis would say.

In fact, it was just a sorry parody for the product on the field that was playing every NFL season since that memorable Super Bowl run in 2003. Its glory years were now behind them as some would joke that the modern NFL had passed by this renegade franchise and its owner. There was a story that he would tape every practice and watch it at night during training camp.

Today, the Raiders lost its Renegade owner, coach and leader. Al Davis passed away at 82 and was indeed for a long time a great contributor to the NFL that has made it what it was today. He was an innovative football mind, who played by his own rules despite the criticisms about his ownership in his final years.

The Raiders would never be what they are today without him as he coached a perennial doormat in 1963 and until 2003 made it a great franchise. Davis was instrumental for helping to merge the AFL and the NFL into the NFL. Football for Al Davis was what he lived and breathed for up till his passing. His teams from the 1970s-80s won three Super Bowls with the last one in Los Angeles when they moved following a lawsuit in 1982 to buy the Los Angeles rights that allowed the Raider to move into the Los Angeles Coliseum until 1995.

During the height of his reign, the Raiders featured great players such as Ken Stabler, Cliff Branch, Fred Belitnikoff, Dave Casper, Marcus Allen, Jim Plunkett, Gene Upshaw, Ray Guy and Jack Tatum. This was a team that like it's owner played by its own rule and did whatever it took to win. They trusted no one but themselves and viewed everyone such as the NFL and the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970s as someone who can never be trusted.




Al Davis was also the first owner to hire a black coach in Art Shell, Latino coach, Tom Flores and the first woman CEO Amy Trask. He also hired John Madden, Jon Gruden and Mike Shannahan as well as USC head coach Lane Kiffen. They would all later realize that Al Davis was the man in charge even in his advancing age.

Evidently, he was also an enigma in that he would fire or trade players if he didn't like them as was the case with Marcus Allen and Mike Shannahan who both would later take delight in sticking it to their former boss (mostly Shannahan). He would sue in Northern California for failure to deliver sellouts that allowed the Raiders to move back into Oakland. Before moving back Oakland, he actually reneged on a deal that would allow Hollywood Park to become an NFL stadium for the Raiders but would include a second team in that proposed stadium.

For a man who did those things, he was extremely loyal with a mantra: Once a Raider, Always a Raider. Davis actually stayed with his wife for one month when she suffered a heart attack in the 1970s. In fact, if any distant acquaintance was ill, he would cover the medical expense no matter how expensive it was.

Despite all of his failings, criticisms and greatness, Al Davis was a deeply flawed man who was larger than life. The Oakland Raiders will continue to live on without the specter of this man. Yet, Al Davis was and is definition of a Raider.