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Davis isn't solution for what ails Raiders
Davis: Kiffin 'immature'
Video: Al Davis had some choice words as he announced Lane Kiffin's firing Tuesday. Check out what the Raiders owner about the shake-up in Oakland.In his old age, Davis was better off as an Oz-like figure hiding behind the curtain, his failures cloaked in a little mystery. So the overlord of the Oakland Raiders did himself no favors when he emerged from seclusion for the sake of calling his coach a fraud.
Davis said he fired Kiffin for "bringing disgrace to the organization." If that's the standard for getting whacked in Oakland, Davis should've fired the man in the mirror a long time ago.
He was born on the Fourth of July, Al Davis was, a year before George Steinbrenner was born on the same date. But here's the difference between the football and baseball owners who have brought the most controversy and shame to their respective leagues:
For all of his impetuous moves, Steinbrenner listened to enough of his baseball people -- Gene Michael, Buck Showalter, Bob Watson, Brian Cashman and Joe Torre -- to build teams that would win four championships in five years and advance to the playoffs in 13 consecutive seasons before surrendering control of the Yankees to his sons.
Davis? His real roundtable of decision makers consists of Me, Myself and I. That's why Oakland's on pace to become the first team in NFL history to lose at least 11 games in six straight seasons.
Once upon a time, Davis' good friend, Pete Rozelle, saved a dysfunctional franchise from itself by erecting a bridge between the feuding factions of the Mara family that owned the Giants. The bridge was named George Young, a compromise executive who pieced together the rosters of two Super Bowl champs.
Roger Goodell has no shot here of doing the same. Davis has sued the league more often than he's changed coaches -- Wellington Mara once referred to Davis' actions as "atrocities" -- and the Raiders' owner isn't about to let anyone occupying Rozelle's old desk tell him how to run his renegade team.
Davis actually revealed Tuesday he's looking at an executive to help him run the team, a guy he might hire in the offseason.
Yeah, and Davis will reinstate Kiffin before he ever defers to this phantom executive-to-be.
"We'll get back. We'll be back. The Raiders will be back," Davis pledged at his bizarro news conference, where he appeared in his team jacket. "I just know that the fire that burns brightest in this building is the will to win, and we will win."
The Detroit Lions will win it all before the Raiders do. To reach that conclusion, all you needed to see was a small sampling of Davis at his announcement, a desk lamp illuminating his prepared script — a three-page cease-and-desist letter he'd allegedly sent to Kiffin, who had the audacity to discuss Davis' management style for public consumption.
A projector threw the contents of the letter up on the wall behind Davis, who wore a mask of exhaustion under the petrified remains of his pompadour. The scene was as absurd as the Raiders' typical pregame parking lot.
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Vikings 20, Giants 19 -- Recap | Box
Panthers 33, Saints 31 -- Recap | Box
Packers 31, Lions 21 -- Recap | Box
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Texans 31, Bears 24 -- Recap | Box
Patriots 13, Bills 0 -- Recap | Box
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Eagles 44, Cowboys 6 -- Recap | Box
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"I picked the wrong guy," Davis said of Kiffin.
That's bound to happen when there is no right guy for the job. Davis fired a young Mike Shanahan, who went to Denver and won two Super Bowls. Davis traded away a young Jon Gruden, who went to Tampa and embarrassed the Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII.
The Buccaneers' defensive coordinator in that game, Monte Kiffin, devised a scheme that reduced the Raiders' MVP quarterback, Rich Gannon, to an interception machine — the Bucs picked off five passes and took three back for touchdowns.
Davis couldn't even the score with Monte Kiffin, so all these years later he took it out on his son.
Lane Kiffin could've handled this better, that's for sure. In his 20 games on the job, he also could've held a couple of more fourth-quarter leads and won a few more games.
Only Kiffin isn't the common thread snaking through the Raiders' 20-64 record since they lost the big game to the Bucs. That would be Davis, who surrounds himself with employees ordered to treat him like the iconic maverick who won three titles from '76 to '83.
No, Davis isn't that same force of rebellious nature anymore. He's a sad shadow of that force, just another out-of-touch owner who blames others for his own flaws.
Kiffin joined a large parish of those who have felt his misguided wrath, including Rozelle, Marcus Allen, Shanahan, Gruden and the good people of Irwindale, Calif. — a community of rock quarries and 1,100 residents that once gave the Raiders' owner $10 million in the hopes of landing his team, only to see Davis take the money and run.
"I don't want to evaluate Al Davis one way or another," Wellington Mara once said, "and that's as nice a way as I can put it."
Davis demands the kind of loyalty from his players and coaches that he rarely offers his fellow owners. The double standard was kind of cute when the roguish Raiders were fielding championship-level teams and driving NFL officials mad.
Only nothing about the Raiders is cute or charming anymore. They've had three winning seasons since their return to Oakland at the start of '95, and it's hardly likely Tom Cable will reverse the trend.
If Oakland desperately needs a strong figure to wrest control of football operations from Davis' hands, well, Davis is on record saying he won't retire until he wins two more Super Bowls. He must plan on living into the 22nd century.
For now, he's preparing to fight Kiffin to the contractual death over the relatively modest wage the coach was scheduled to earn. This is heading straight for a deposition, where Davis owns the heavy home-field advantage.
"A flat-out liar," the owner called his newest fall guy.
Davis said he fired Kiffin for "conduct detrimental to the Raiders." But if termination is the penalty for this crime, Al Davis should have followed his coach right out the door.
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