Have you ever had a boss like Al Davis? I hope for your sake, you haven't. I had a teacher sort of like him once, in seventh grade back in Spartanburg, S.C., but at least he didn't hold televised press conferences about our class's shortcomings.
Now I'm not saying that Lane Kiffin is God's gift to coaching. Perhaps even the most even-tempered, smart, understanding owner would have fired Kiffin from his job as head coach of the Oakland Raiders.
But Al Davis is none of those things. The guy who runs the Oakland Raiders has got to be a serious candidate for worst boss in sports. I mean, even when he hires the right guy -- like a Jon Gruden or a Mike Shanahan -- he manages to run them off. And did you watch any of Davis's rambling press conference Tuesday about why he fired Kiffin? Did you see where he read a letter that he had written Kiffin about their feud? Here's a link to the letter.
The Raiders have been a joke for most of the past decade, with that one Super Bowl appearance a notable exception. Who in their right mind would coach that team now?
Thousands of guys would, of course. It pays well, there are only 32 jobs like that in the country and they would be convinced they could turn it around. So now Tom Cable, the Raiders' former offensive line coach until this sudden promotion, gets his chance.
I feel sorry for Cable. And I hope he has negotiated a really good severance package.
We're moving!
9 years ago
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4 comments:
Raiders culture has always confounded me.
Al Davis is pretty bad, he didn't have to do Kiffen like that.All in all, I Kiffen was made out to be the scapegoat for the organizations failure. Al Davis could of just fired him just like the Rams just tossed their coach, "Quietly." But he had to make a fiasco out of it to try and reflect blame away from where it belonged.
I was thinking Mark Cuban was pretty bad, but at least the Mav's have been somewhat successful. I agree with you, worst owner in sports.
Sorry, Scott but you have a short Memory, Worst owner in sports is easy. We had a front row seat for it. George Shinn and his puppet. Who else could take a team that should have made a serious run at a title, one that had sell out after sell out and lead the NBA in Attendence and in less then 2 years breaks it up because he was to cheap to pay "Zo"
Sorry Scott but you have a short memory, How about an owner that taked a team that should have made a serious title run. A team that lead its league in attendence and in less the 4 years destroys it and losses all support because he started out to be to cheap to resign his players. (George SHinn ring a bell?)
I was a Raiders fan my whole life until 1995 and I pledged my allegience to the new local team. Al Davis is far worse than George Shinn could ever be. George is just a dope who didn't have the foresight to pay the right franchise player (LJ instead of Zo). Davis has been too senile to know what's really going on around him for about 15 years now.
I did have a boss once who shared Davis' insistent belief that whenever something went wrong, there was no possible way on earth it was his fault. He's definitely the worst owner ever.
But Scott, I disagree with your assessment that Kiffin should have been fired. Even in this "Win yesterday or else" culture of ours, you have to give a man 3 years to clean up the mess the Raiders were in when Kiffin was hired. But he only got 1.25 years. While still very poor, the Raiders are much better than they were at the end of the 2006 season. You'll see when the Panthers play in Oakland later this year. We'll beat them, but no way we will blow them out.
I wish Kiffin well and hope he gets another shot to be an NFL coach. I think St. Louis has an opening...
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