Born: 1929-07-04 – Died: 2011-10-08
Cause of Death: Natrual causes
Al Davis, the irascible owner of the Oakland Raiders whose feuds with the National Football League reshaped professional football over the last half century and helped spur its rise to pre-eminence in the landscape of American sports, died Saturday morning. He was 82.
The Raiders said he died at his home in Oakland, Calif.
Before there were sports franchise owners like George Steinbrenner, Jerry Jones or Mark Cuban, there was Al Davis, outspoken and brash, who was a central figure in the merger of the upstart American Football League with the established N.F.L., paved the way for the extravaganza known as the Super Bowl, and managed to win championships while irritating the rest of pro football.
Mr. Davis was a coach, general manager and owner of the Raiders for nearly 50 years. He left briefly, in 1966, to become the commissioner of the A.F.L., vowing to battle the older N.F.L. for the best players available. That attitude helped lead the N.F.L. to agree to play the A.F.L. in an annual championship game, which became the Super Bowl. In 1970, the leagues played a united schedule, creating the modern N.F.L.
For his part, Mr. Davis vehemently opposed the merger. And he feuded for decades with the former N.F.L. commissioner Pete Rozelle and sued the league in the early 1980s so he could move the Raiders from Oakland to Los Angeles.
Then, 13 years later, he moved them back.
“He is a true legend of the game whose impact and legacy will forever be part of the N.F.L.,” Roger Goodell, the league’s current commissioner, said in a statement Saturday.
Mr. Davis became the symbol of a franchise that garnered a reputation for outlaw personalities and a kind of counterculture sensibility. The Raiders were the first franchise in the modern era to have a Latino head coach (Tom Flores), a black head coach (Art Shell) and a female chief executive (Amy Trask).
He was also one of a dwindling number of N.F.L. owners whose riches came primarily from the business of football. There were no hedge funds or shipping companies in Mr. Davis’s background. He simply ran the Raiders — the team appeared in five Super Bowls under his ownership, winning three — and his business model could, for all intents and purposes, be summed up by the phrase that became his franchise’s motto: “Just win, baby!”
Mr. Davis generally inspired deep loyalty from his players, though he had an ugly battle with one of his stars, running back Marcus Allen, and when he got along with his head coaches (not a given) — most notably John Madden, who led the Raiders from 1969 to 1978, perhaps their most successful decade — they spoke warmly of him. Wherever the team called home, Oakland or Los Angeles, Mr. Davis was a fan favorite — until he wasn’t.
In league circles, he was not always viewed fondly. Known for, or at least suspected of, underhanded ploys like bugging the visiting team’s clubhouse, he infuriated other owners with his relentless self-interest; Dan Rooney of the Pittsburgh Steelers once called him a “lying creep.”
For his part, Mr. Davis once said of his fellow owners, “Not all of them are the brightest of human beings.”
Don Shula, the Hall of Fame coach, once said of Mr. Davis, reporting on a conversation they’d had, “Al thought it was a compliment to be considered devious.”
But he knew football. A shrewd judge of talent, especially early in his career, he became known for providing a home for gifted, wayward athletes, signing or trading for some players who were undervalued or given up on by other teams, like quarterbacks Daryle Lamonica, George Blanda and Jim Plunkett, and running back Billy Cannon.
He rehabilitated others, like receiver Warren Wells, defensive linemen Lyle Alzado and John Matuszak, and quarterback Ken Stabler, whose reputations were sullied (either before or after they became Raiders) by allegations of criminal behavior, drug use, gambling or other transgressions.
The Raiders’ colors, silver and black, were chosen by Mr. Davis to intimidate. So was their insignia, a shield emblazoned with the image of a pirate in a football helmet in front of crossed sabers. “Just win, baby!” reflected the forceful style of play he encouraged, featuring brutal physicality on defense and speed and long passing on offense.
Indeed, his allegiance to the so-called vertical passing game led to some ill-advised draft choices, especially late in his career, notably that of JaMarcus Russell, a big-armed passer from Louisiana State who was the first pick in the 2007 draft and who was out of the game three years later.
On defense, Mr. Davis’s Raiders were known for aggressiveness, meanness and borderline dirty play. The bump and run — a tactic in which a defensive back hits a wide receiver hardat the line of scrimmage to throw him off his route — was developed, if not invented, by Mr. Davis’s Raiders.
Their safeties and cornerbacks (most notably Lester Hayes) became known in the 1970s and ’80s for smearing their hands with Stickum, not only to amplify the potential for fingertip interceptions but to make it tougher for the bumped receivers to tear away from coverage. Raiders players attracted nicknames like the Mad Bomber (Lamonica), the Snake (Stabler), Dr. Death (defensive back Skip Thomas) and the Assassin, bestowed upon safety Jack Tatum, whose hit in a 1978 preseason game broke the neck of New England Patriots receiver Darryl Stingley and paralyzed him.
“I don’t want to be the most respected team in the league,” Mr. Davis said in 1981. “I want to be the most feared.”
