Raiders owner Davis: winner or out-of-touch meddler?

A USA Today report at the link below says that the Al Davis (pictured) legacy is shifting from winner to out-of-touch meddler.

Mr. Davis fired Raider head coach Lane Kiffin last week after a record of 5-14. Kiffin was fired without pay and it was done over the phone.

Firing a head coach without honoring the remainder of his contract is nothing new to Davis.

Davis fired Raider head coach Mike Shanahan in 1989 without pay. Davis still has not paid Shanahan for the remainder of his contract. Shanahan had a record of 8-12 with the Raiders.

The USA Today report briefly chronicles the storied career of Al Davis from his meager beginning to three Super Bowl wins.

Now, as the Raiders have fallen on hard times, Mr. Davis may well have become an out-of-touch meddler.

As the article says, it's easy to overlook the many contributions Al Davis has made to the NFL.

Besides three Super Bowl wins, they include moves that led to the AFL-NFL merger, making the league into the multibillion dollar corporation it is today.

They also include the hiring of the first black coach of the modern era — Shanahan's successor, Art Shell — and the first female CEO, Amy Trask, who unfortunately seems to have been left out of the decision-making process in the latest fiasco [the Kiffin firing]. She's one of the few levelheaded people currently in Oakland's front office.

To repeat a cliché: how far the mighty have fallen.

Link