Sporting News Article (on Yahoo)

[Arch Monkey]

Wonder what your take on this is:


You look at the Raiders and see a wretched team with sullen players. You see coaches who are overmatched. You see a front office that is outclassed. The organization is stumbling through its fourth straight season of humiliation and you see no reason the ineptness will change anytime soon. All that is left is for Al Davis to fire himself.

It's almost inconceivable it has come to this, that the Raiders finally have lost every bit of the edge once associated with their name -- the physicality, the arrogance, the rogue players who won a lot and flirted constantly with improper decorum. They had an aura of invincibility, of being the rowdy guys at the end of the bar. This current crew should be drinking tea and eating crumpets. Bars should scare them.

The franchise courted its outlandish image, massaged it constantly. Davis never cared whether anyone in the NFL liked him. He was the guy in the old movies with the handlebar mustache you knew you had to boo the moment he appeared on screen. It was part of the edge he was seeking. He never fit in, and he didn't care whether he did. It was just about the Raiders and winning and self-serving proclamations of greatness. Take your pick: The club is the "team of the decades," and "the greatness of the Raiders will continue in its future." That's what Oakland's media guide says about the franchise, as if nothing has changed. But of course it has because Davis, 77, has changed.


He is old and frail, and his once masterly feel for personnel has betrayed him. He had that touch -- with trades, with quality draft picks, with the ability to bring in a veteran near the end of his career who could produce one last sterling effort.

Now Davis has a roster that is barely competitive. It's embarrassing to watch these impostors. The old Raiders beat up teams on defense and threw over the top of them on offense. In the offseason, these Raiders settled for Aaron Brooks to solve their quarterback woes. Did they watch Brooks in New Orleans the past few years? If they had, they would have seen an inconsistent, undisciplined, pressure-challenged player who lacks the requisite skills to play the vertical offense Davis relishes. It made no sense at all: replace Kerry Collins, who had a decent 2005 (20 touchdowns and 12 interceptions), with someone who had 13 touchdowns and 17 interceptions.

But that is the Raider arrogance. Put Brooks in Silver and Black and somehow that will transform him into something he isn't, which is an efficient downfield passer. That is how it once was, so many times. Not anymore.

The Raiders are stuck in the past because there is no future. Jon Gruden was the team's future, but he left for Tampa after the Raiders' 2001 playoff run. Gruden wasn't good enough; he wasn't a Raider, a Davis guy. So now the answer is Art Shell, who couldn't keep his job the first time despite three playoff appearances in six seasons.

Shell, who lately had been an executive with the NFL, came in unprepared to hire a staff. His offensive coordinator, Tom Walsh, was a college football analyst on radio the past seven years. Oh yes, he also was a Raiders assistant from 1982 to 1994. That is the only pedigree he needed to return.

Once, players wanted to be Raiders. Now, Jerry Porter wants out, yet the club seems unable to figure out what to do with him. Phillip Buchanon was going to be the next great Raiders cornerback. Marques Tuiasosopo was going to be the next great Raiders quarterback. Neither happened. The team has high draft picks starting and can't compete. The record says it: Since playing in the Super Bowl after the 2002 season, the Raiders have gone 4-12, 5-11, 4-12, 0-3.

Davis was the reason for all the success. Now he is the reason for the collapse. He still meddles in the draft, still oversees the front office and the coaching staff and everything important that happens within the paranoidal walls of the organization. But it's not working anymore.

Yet he has no successor, at least not one he has identified. Davis owns 51 percent of the club. Who takes over when he can't continue? There is no NFL team more vulnerable to prolonged incompetence.

But don't expect the Raiders to understand this. It's hard to be humble when you still are the greatest.

[kennyrat923]

Sad but a lot of it's true. This article is repetitive of what a lot of people on this site have been saying since I've been here. A lot of people here feel Al should give up some of his control.

This part could have been left out:
But don't expect the Raiders to understand this. It's hard to be humble when you still are the greatest.

I don't think any Raider or anyone on this site is dumb enouth to think we are the greatest team playing right now. THe greatest team to cheer for? Yeah but saying we think we're the greatest team without any humility was stupid.