Sports Byline USA Insight

The Raiders: The Great Freak Show

In all my years of covering and broadcasting sports I’ve never seen anything like the Raiders and Lane Kiffin's public name calling and p**sing match. Reality television has come to the NFL. When Al Davis says, “It’s the first time I ever let anyone go based on what I call just being a flat-out liar”, you know it’s pretty bad or Davis has been off his meds too long and has become paranoid. Kiffin’s public reaction and comments have been equal in venom.

Being here in San Francisco I’ve had a front row seat as each lobbed verbal mortar shells at the other. I feel bad for Al Davis, but the problem and pain is self-inflicted. When I came to the Bay Area, Davis was a maverick who tweaked the nose of the NFL, was a royal pain in the ass to Commissioner Pete Rozelle, did pretty much what he wanted, and backed it all up with a winning football team on the field. The league’s bad boys, Ken Stabler, Mike Curtis, John Matuszak, Lyle Alzado and others found a home for their wayward ways, and Davis cultivated the “us against them” image. It was part of the Raider mystic and winning ways. Davis now lives in a time warp and doesn’t understand that his winning ways of the 70's and 80’s don’t work in 2008.

The Raiders slide into oblivion and bizarreness began with their 48 to 21 loss to Tampa Bay in Super Bowl 37 in 2003. Offensive lineman Barrett Robbins went off his meds and on a bender in Mexico the week of the game. It was a portent of bad things to come for the Raiders. Also, the current Davis-Kiffin conflict is a repeat of other young coaches-Davis conflicts. Bucs coach Jon Gruden, like Kiffin in getting his first NFL head coaching job with the Raiders, grew tired of Davis’ micro management, game plan dictates, second guessing and overall meddlesome ways and forced Davis to let him go to the Bucs. Davis thought he had gotten the last laugh when he let Gruden go for a nice draft pick compensation package. But, Gruden had the last laugh when in his first year with the Bucs he stuck it to and embarrassed Davis and his team in the Super Bowl.

From 2003 ‘til the Davis-Kiffin “take that you lyin' SOB” meltdown, the Raiders have become a freak show. The Raiders have had 4 head coaches in 6 years and have a 20 and 64 record since their Super Bowl loss. The season following their 2003 Super Bowl appearance, coach Bill Callahan got so frustrated with the team’s lack of effort and professionalism that after a loss he called his team “the stupidest team in the NFL.” While truthful, the team gave up on him and he was fired at the end of the season. Now four coaches later, the Raiders are still inept losers. Add to that the freak show manifestations of Davis and others in the front office and you have something never publicly seen in the NFL, or anywhere in sports. The New York Knicks are the closest kin to the Raiders.

Lane Kiffin isn’t without blame. At 32, he was the youngest ever modern NFL head coach. With youth comes energy, new ideas, idealism and a sense of invincibility. Kiffin’s downfall was his idealism and belief that he was bullet proof. In his zeal and ego to become an NFL head coach, he failed to do his homework on the Raiders and its mercurial owner. In his youthfulness, Kiffin also failed to understand how to adapt to his situation. He fought Davis and everything the Raiders are and stand for. He saw their warts, mistakes and organizational arrogance and said, “Screw it, I’ll do it my way and whatever happens, happens.” Once he decided that, the countdown to his dismissal began.

Kiffin’s stubbornness was driven by the knowledge that his failure to succeed with the Raiders won’t keep him from getting another job in the NFL or a head-coaching job in college football. Actually, fighting the “evil empire” and Darth Vader makes Kiffin a hero in the eyes of his peers. “Oh you got fired by Al Davis, he called you a liar and he won’t pay you, congratulations, you’re a hero” is the general reaction. Denver’s Mike Shanahan and Norv Turner have preceded Kiffin in the Davis torture chamber, and both have come out happier and more successful than before. Shanahan, also young at the time of his Raider hiring, lasted 5 games into his second season as coach before Davis couldn’t deal with his individuality and lack of fear of Davis. Davis fired him and also refused to pay him his contract, just as he’s doing with Kiffin. Shanahan won his arbitration battle for his money, but Davis has yet to pay him. Davis is a ‘welcher” and that’s pretty low on the food chain. However, Shanahan usually gets payback each time his two-time, Super Bowl Champion Broncos play the Raiders. In week one this season, Shanahan and the Broncos kicked the stuffing out the Silver and Black 41-14. Shanahan kept his starters on the field long after the outcome was no longer in doubt, and scored every chance they got. In essence, they embarrassed Davis. And, how paranoid are Davis and the organization about Shanahan, check the Raider website and you’ll see the Raiders’ scores begin with week two, eliminating any mention or description of the Denver-Raider debacle.

Al Davis has had his day in the sun. He was a pioneer, a maverick, and is a worthy member of the Hall of Fame, but he’s ruining his legacy and a once proud and successful franchise. No matter how bizarre his actions are, he has every right, for any reason, to fire Kiffin or any coach. But, to nickel and dime Kiffin, Shanahan and anyone else he doesn’t like or agree with, is petty, unprofessional and smacks at being a vengeful old man. The only way this course of action will end is when they plant Davis six-feet under, then he'll probably still try to find a way to micromanage the Raiders. Davis forgets the main tenet of professional football, what have you done for me lately? What Davis has done lately isn’t flattering, and that’s what he’ll be remembered for.

I’m Ron Barr.

Ron Barr is an Emmy award winning writer and the host of the nationally and internationally syndicated sports talk show, Sports Byline USA.

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