Throwback Thursday: Al Davis

Probably due to my recent reading of Michael MacCambridge's biography of Kansas City Chiefs and American Football League founder Lamar Hunt, I've been thinking about Al Davis. It's a little scary. I think that some people forget that Davis was an innovative football coach before he was a rebellious owner. Only George Halas and Paul Brown took a similar path from football man to football team ownership. Many see Al Davis as a bit of a wild man, a little crazy but his football career was remarkable and influential.

Davis refined his football theories with the San Diego Chargers under the guidance of Sid Gillman in the early days of the AFL. Much of the passing that we see today on Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays and even Saturdays can be traced back to the teaching and coaching of Gillman. His influence on offensive football is as great as any coach before or after. Gillman influenced Davis and Don Coryell who in turn influenced Bill Walsh, Joe Gibbs and Norv Turner and on and on. As long as footballs are thrown and route trees are run, Gillman will be on the sideline. But this isn't about Gillman. Al Davis saved the Oakland Raiders when he was hired as coach. He also started acquiring ownership of the team. The Raiders were a mess but Davis would soon change that. He brought a new way of doing things. He brought an attacking offense and a ferocious defense. The team on the field perfectly reflected the man that created it. He spread the opponents defense by stretching it vertically. Big-armed quarterback. Fast receivers. Although I always found it interesting that his greatest receiver was one of the slowest to ever play the position in Fred Biletnikoff. This was really more of an example that football ability was his first priority. Davis brought football respect to Oakland and it stayed there for most of the next 40 years

I felt that Davis' "us against them" view was a little naive. His hatred of NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle was, in my opinion, misdirected. He felt personally wronged by Rozelle in the AFL-NFL wars. Davis was the AFL commissioner when the two leagues agreed to merge. He may have felt that Rozelle stole that continued title from him. His anger would have been better directed at his fellow AFL owners. They negotiated the truce behind his back. You'd think as commissioner that Davis would be a part of those talks. He wasn't and that had nothing to do with Rozelle. His feud with Marcus Allen was sad and unfortunate. It didn't seem that Davis could forgive or forget. If all of his personal issues against pretty much everyone was used as motivation for his team it mostly worked. His Raiders won three Super Bowls and seriously contended for several more. Davis put a lot of "stuff" out there that annoyed a lot of people. Mixed in with all of that was some great, great football. His legacy really should rest more on that.