NFL

Al Davis.  It’s a name that used to symbolize greatness; it used to symbolize being a winner.  Now that name is similar to someone avoiding  a plague.  There is no current NFL coach or prospective coach that wants to have anything to do with working for Al Davis.  What Al Davis has done to Lane Kiffin is just wrong.  You could term it as an NFL owner performing Coach abuse.  For Lane Kiffin and his family to be on a “Wait and see if you get fired” watch after every game has to be just mentally brutal for them.  Everyone knows that it’s not a matter of if but a matter of when Al Davis will fire Lane Kiffin.  And when that moment happens, it will be a major loss for the Raiders organization.

Lane Kiffin has shown vast improvement with the Oakland Raiders in the short time that he has been at the helm. The players seem to have bought into his system, and they seem to really like to play for the coach. Everybody seems to like Kiffin but Al Davis.  He has shown the potential to be one very good NFL coach. Couldn’t you see Kiffin succeeding with another team and become Mike Shanahan part II.  And I’m sure alot of the Kiffin’s positive qualities that he has displayed were the same qualities that Al Davis saw and liked when he hired Lane Kiffin.  The only reason why he will be fired is because Kiffin has stood up to the Al Davis for what he believed would be the best for the team.  With Al Davis’s history of firing and hiring head coaches, what potential head coach would want to work for Mr. Davis, knowing that you will have little control over your coaching decisions?  What potential head coach would want to go to Oakland knowing that in a year or two it’s almost engraved in stone that you won’t be the head coach?   The new coach would be set up for failure from the beginning.  Who would Al Davis hire since he will be turned down by all of his NFL prospects?  Will he try to get the current USC quarterback coach like he did with Lane Kiffin?  I don’t think the water boy on USC’s sideline would want to work for Al Davis after his treatment with Kiffin. Okay after he sees the financial figures he would but you get my point. There were reasons why Davis hired Kiffin.  With the micro managing that Al Davis has displayed, it says a lot about Davis’s judgement.  It says that he doesn’t trust his decision that he made selecting a coach. The same way it has been the last couple of times Davis made coaching hires.

No coach will be able to excel until Al Davis either lets go some of the control or Davis meets his maker.  I know that he likes his retro look like he had in his glory days with the Raiders.  But these aren’t those Raiders and this is a different time.  Al Davis used to be an excellent NFL owner.  To bad he is ruining his legacy.