Door should be shown to AL Davis, not Lane Kiffin

**allengs** · 01-26-2008, 08:19 PM

If the latest flabbergasting fallout from the Oakland Raiders has even a grain of truth, a letter of resignation definitely should be drafted by the team on behalf of the franchise's long-suffering fans.

But it should be AL Davis to sign-not LK- for the inexplicable, unconscionable mutilation of his own once-proud franchise, No stranger to strangeness, particularly in recent years, Davis may have thrown down the final gauntlet of incompetence that unmasks him as a pathetic patriarch clinging to the legend in his own mind.

Because LK dares to have a vision of a respectable, unitied football operation that strays from Omnipotent AL's warped world of secrecy, general stupidity and power-paranoid vanity, Davis apparently has mulled the notion that "Lance"-the name he so feeby called Kiffin at his introductory press conference-may have to go.

Davis reportedly drafted a letter of resignation for his LK to sign three weeks ago after the two clashed over the makeup of the coaching staff, specifically defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, Davis also was reportely miffed regarding rumors that LK may have been interested in the vacant Arkansas job. LK refused to sign the resignation letter, because of compensation considerations to the three-year contract he signed last year. Good for LK if it's true. If more insiders stood up to Davis, maybe the Raiders wouldn't be in such a sorry state.

Sigh. Same old Raiders. Any sane person whould be beyond trying to figure out how this will all shake out, but whether LK stays or goes, this latest episode is another damning joke of the Raiders' own making. The mere fact that the smoke of organization discontent has become a raging brushfire of leaks and speculation in the media speaks loudly to the wholly dysfunctional level the Raiders franchise has sunk.

Davis has made a mess of things..again. Because he's irked that LK has acted immaturely on a variety of fronts-geez, how dare this punk want more control of his coaching staff after a 4-12 season-AL is exercising a series of power plays to put his independent-minded coach in his place.

LK clearly wanted Rob Ryan OUT-so clearly that the story that appeared in this newspaper three weeks ago stating that RR was going to be fired and would be taking a similar position with the NY Jets stemmed from Ryan himself. Ryan confided in people that was going to be the case..and well, word got out. Probably a good be Ryan wanted out, too.

Davis reacted angrily to the Ryan stories and decided-totally disregarding performance or internal harmony-that he was in control and it wasn't going to happen. LK went into a three-week silence as a result, which only added fuel to the farce.

Such shadowy in-fighting points up the inanity of how the Raiders operate under Davis. Volatile situations fester and leak into the public domain and by the time AL acts, he serves to make a bad situation worse. Without any doubt, the fractured state of the coaching staff-despite public hug-and-kiss statements from LK and Ryan at the Senior Bowl, where the Raiders staff is presiding over one of the teams-makes it difficult to believe the progress the team made during 2007 season can continue moving forward seamlessly.

It'd be hilarious if it weren't so sad. Or if you're a Raider fan, maddening, If Davis only comprehended just how stridently offended most Raiders fans have become by his five-year run of ineptitude-longer if you remove the years Jon Gruden temporarily resurrected the organization's credibility-he might be shocked into hands-off submission.

More and More fans by the week-many of them long-time supporters of the team-write Davis-derisive letters of discontent to this newspaper columnists, beat writers and blogs, Many assert Davis has totally lost it, that he's trashed his own wondrous Hall of Frame legacy with a series of questionable actions that have piled up to an embarrassing level in recent years. Tough to argue against the evidence. Now we add this debacle.

Davis surely will shift blame to the "media mongers" he believes are out to get him, just as he so lamely blamed the Randy Moss trade on his coaches a few months back. Hey, AL's never to blame. The six coaches he's hired since 1995? Their fault, not his, that they couldn't measure up to the Greatness of the Raiders.

There will always remain a core of AL Davis loyalists/lackeys who will support Davis to his death or theirs, But their numbers are dwindling, and if LK ultimately winds up leaving over a SILLY dispute over control, AL credibility will shrivel to next to nothing, even among Raiders die-hards, It's the die-hards who have become the most anti-Davis, because there is a consistent thread to every bad development that's happened with this franchise in recent years.

AL Davis sits in the owner's chair, and if he really is drafting resignation letters, perhaps it really is time for AL DAVIS to sign one of his own.

by Carl Steward "The Oakland Tribune" Saturday Jan 26th..Front Page..