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Once upon a time, Al Davis was a driving force in making professional football the juggernaut that it is today. He has been a coach, the commissioner of the AFL, and has managed the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders in some capacity since 1966, even though he didn't become the majority owner of the team until 2005.But most of you know that. Any knowledgeable fan knows what a huge impact Davis has had not only on the Raiders by making them one of the most successful franchises of all time, but on the sport as a whole.
However, that was a long time ago and now it may be time that Mr. Davis step down and relinquish his control of the team.
There's no reason to get into why Davis should be removed, because it would appear to be fairly obvious. Ever since 2002 when he "traded" Jon Gruden, he has a bad move which he tries to compensate for by making a worse move until his team is the laughing stock of the entire league.
Free agents don't want to come to Oakland unless they're incredibly overpaid, which gets them into cap trouble, which prevents them from ever building towards the future. It used to be a place where veterans could go, but still have some success. Now, they just go to collect a check.
Their $30 million quarterback couldn't care less, their coach beats his assistants, their first-round pick was a reach and has more names than receptions, players are sick of being there and will almost certainly jump ship at the first opportunity, and their owner is a shell of his former genius that made him an icon.
So, is it time to attempt to get Al Davis to step down from managing the team?
Well, unfortunately, for all the talk I doubt there's really anything they could do. The man got to where he is because he was stuck in his ways, and up until recently, his ways worked.
There's no way to convince him that he's lost his mind. There's no one who can step in and push him out, outside of maybe his son who is the direct heir to his estate, which obviously includes the team, but knowing Al Davis he would probably just write his son out of the will and remove him from the team completely.
The man has said he won't retire until he's won two more Super Bowls, or until he dies. Since the Raiders will never win another Super Bowl while he's got control, and since he's probably got enough money to keep him alive forever, perhaps the NFL should look at throwing the next two seasons.
It will be easy actually. The league can have a two-year lockout, but not inform Al Davis. Toss in some scrub semi-pro teams to play the Raiders (of course you'd have to have the semi-pro team tone it down and let the Raiders win), let them win two Super Bowls, and say goodbye to Al Davis.
Having a team as bad as the Raiders have been since 2002 is just an embarassment for the league, and is bad for business as a whole. It's to the point where the man is watering down the competitiveness of the league.
Recently, Antonio Pierce said playing the Raiders was "like a scrimmage."
He was probably being nice in his analysis of the Raiders, which has become more of a literal "Black Hole" than anything else.
So there's the solution on how to deal with Davis, now we just need to figure out how to get rid of the Fords, Mike Brown, Danny Snyder, and Randy Lerner.
