Quote:
Originally Posted by Sonic Raider
Hey guys, I'm not sure of where to put this. But we have all heard the story of how Mike Shanahan still thinks that Al Davis owes him money to this day. His hatred of Al Davis, the rest of the front office, & everything else about the Raiders is legendary. When he became head coach of our hated rival, the Denver Donkeys, & teaming up with Mr. Ed himself, it established an intense pure hatred for him like the Hatfields & the McCoys.
Since we fired him in 1989, I was way too young to even be aware of it at the time & I would like to know this: Why did Al Davis refuse to pay Shanahan his money & was he right for doing so? Just wanted to learn more about this.
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It's not set in stone that Davis owes him money, but it has to do with the contract and firing. Like with Kiffin, if Al fires him, he owes him money. If Kiff resigns, no money or less money is owed.
Non homer perspective here, even though I rarely give Al Davis the benefit of the doubt, I do here. I would think that if the money was that important to Shanahan or if it was owed LEGALLY, he could've sued for it and won easily since it would be under contract. I think it's in the $$250,000-500,000 range. That's not chump change, even to a coach who is now making millions. Why hasn't he sued? Is this money under contract? Al Davis can be greedy and a sneak, but the guy is so damn smart that any young, gullible soon to be head coach would sign to coach for a winning organization and not read the fine print that comes with being fired, all the while ignorant to the fact that he has a contract that does not benefit him if he fails and is let go. Could've happened with Shanahan. And at that time, our Superbowl appearance was five years removed and we still had 70% of a superbowl team on the field. Unlike today, we needed a few pieces. Like today, we needed a QB. It wasn't Shanahan's fault that 1987 our QB was bleh. But that story is for another day.
I personally think that Shanahan was bitter and embarrassed and uses the money as a rally in his favor, and it's a smart ploy since most people would assume Al Davis was guilty before proven innocent. It may be true, it may not be true. All I know is that if I had a vendetta against someone who fired me AND owed me money, I'd sue them to get the money, which is just as much payback as my company trumping there's 15-5 or whatever it is now.