Al Davis Dead

[Eze]

Wow.

http://news.yahoo.com/team-raiders-owner-al-davis-dead-82-150118935.html

[Gunshot]

that's too bad....he was an innovative force in the 70's and 80's
I imagine the Raiders will be a better team without him though

[nuraman00]

Is there a cause of death released yet?

Who will be the heirs to his team?

R.I.P. Al Davis.

[PackfanMatt_12]

Raiders are actually worse off if you think about it. They now have no owner, General Manager or CEO. Plus whoever they bring in won't have that relationship with the players, agents, coaches

[nuraman00]

Did Davis' relationship with the following, help his organization or hurt it, lately?

A. Players. Did players want to play for Al Davis?

B. Agents. Did Agents like negotiating with Al Davis?

C. Coaches. Did coaches like coaching for Al Davis?

All things considered, I despite how vocal and hands-on Davis could be, I don't think a coach could hate Davis, while they were still the coach for the Raiders. Just because there's only 32 head coaching jobs in the league, so there's scarcity of job positions.

When coaches would get fired though, Davis did execute a General Sherman "Scorched Earth" policy against them.

[PackfanMatt_12]

players and agents loved Al Davis. Davis always took care of his players provided them with the best services out there. Meanwhile Davis was willing to pay the big money to his players, and made negotiating easier with agents.

[Eze]

Davis was pretty intricate in bringing the AFL and NFL together too. Bad as his rep was, he did do a lot of positives for the league.

[Gunshot]

Al hasn't even been out of his room this year......and I doubt he had much to do with the day to day ops last year
His son has taken over for the most part

His problem was this last decade he morphed into a micro-manager maniac with little common sense..
I'm a big Raider hater and now I'm worried

[nuraman00]

players and agents loved Al Davis. Davis always took care of his players provided them with the best services out there. Meanwhile Davis was willing to pay the big money to his players, and made negotiating easier with agents.

Thanks. Can you give examples of how Davis took care of his players?

For someone in the NBA, I can think of actions that Mark Cuban has taken. But I don't now enough about Davis in the NFL, and how he treated players.

[Blood Brother]

He became a punchline of jokes for the last decade or so, but he did a lot for football and was a brilliant football mind back in the day

Raiders are starting to show some life finally now, to. They have some real nice weapons developing there. McFadden is already one of the best RB's in the league and I like Jacoby Ford and Denarius Moore a lot at WR. They just need to find a better QB.

[ctba]

RIP

[Eze]

It was 1994 and Shanahan and Grbac were both with the San Francisco 49ers. Shanahan, the offensive coordinator, was working with Grbac before a game against Oakland. [...]

[...] Davis, as he does before almost every game, was walking the field, talking to players and others. Shanahan pulled Grbac aside, Grbac recalled, and gave an unusual order: ''See Al Davis over there? I want you to throw the ball right at him.''

A shocked Grbac replied: ''I can't do that. If I hit him, do you know what he could do to me?''

Shanahan looked at Grbac with his intense glare and said, ''Throw the ball.''

So Grbac did. He threw a tight, hard spiral some 30 yards directly at the head of Davis. At the last second, Davis saw it and ducked, the ball missing him by only a few inches. Davis, his hair ruffled, then made an obscene gesture at Shanahan, witnessed by a former Raiders coach who confirmed Grbac's story.

[ctba]

LOL