NFL

Raiders Fans Awaiting Death of a 79-Year Old Man

It may sound a little harsh, but the cold, hard reality of the Oakland Raiders is that their franchise is doomed to failure until Al Davis dies. There is an option of resuscitation if Davis were to retire, but we all know for damn sure that that isn’t happening.

I feel your pain, Raider fans. I lived in Phoenix, covering the Arizona Cardinals for 11 years. Lucklily for me, I didn’t have to cover the Cardinals that entire time, but I was on the Cardinals beat for several years. And not the good ones (by good ones I mean 1998).

There was a reality that we were all familiar with during this time, and that was that the Cardinals had zero chance for success as long as Bill Bidwill was alive and calling the shots. During the period after the Cardinals improbably went to the playoffs and beat the Dallas Cowboys, the Cardinals went eight straight years with a losing record. Of course, that 9-7 miracle year was the only winning record that the cardinals have had since 1984. That’s right, in 23 seasons, the Arizona/St. Louis Cardinal franchise managed just once to win more games than they lost, and only twice finished at .500. You have no idea how bad it can get, Raider fans.

But here’s the upside. Something amazing happened around the turn of the century. Bill Bidwill, the awful, awful owner of the Cardinals started to see the light. He finally began to understand that you need to spend money and cede power in order to have success in the National Football League. This meant resigning good players, pursuing free agents, hiring coaches that were the guy you wanted, not the one you could afford, and most importantly — moving out of the college stadium you’ve called home for so many years and finally getting your own place.

The Cardinals got the help of the taxpayers (barely) to build a new stadium. Bill Bidwill put his son, Michael, in charge of far more than anyone expected, and some changes began to be made. For a while, they weren’t that great, but to those of us on the inside, it was ground breaking. Free agents were visiting for more than just leverage against other teams. Dennis Green, a successful, albeit overrated, coach agreed to take the reigns of the worst franchise in football. Still no success, but there was progress.

Now, the Cardinals are coming off an 8-8 year (the equivalent of winning the Super Bowl in most towns) and are in position to possibly win the awful NFC West this year. All of this was assumed to be impossible in 2001 if we all knew that Mr. Bidwill would still be alive and owner of the Cardinals. But changes have been made there, and while that franchise in it’s current form still has almost no hope, it’s far better than we all imagined.

Now, back to the Raiders. Yes, you too can have hope that your pathetic owner will see some light and try to catch up to the times that have outrun him over the years. You too can hope that someone will convince Al Davis that his control is hurting the team. But let’s be realistic. It’s not happening while Davis is still there.

As awful as it sounds, the Oakland Raiders franchise has absolutely no hope with Al Davis alive and in control. It’s at the point where the hope that they are relying on is afraid to meet with Davis. Who are they going to get to coach this team? No one wants the job.

The Raiders are on their sixth coach this decade. Gruden, Callahan, Shell, Turner, Kiffin, and now Cable. Gruden took the Bucs to the Super Bowl the year after getting “traded,” and Callahan met him there with the Raiders. They’ve had good coaches. There was no reason to get rid of Gruden, and since hiring Gruden, Davis is yet to make a good decision.

As long as Al Davis is still alive, he’ll own and control the Oakland Raiders. As long as Davis owns and controls the Raiders, they will not be able to hire a competent coach, and they won’t be able to lure important free agents. Therefore, as long as Davis is alive and in control, the Raiders cannot be successful.

The Oakland Raiders’ only chance to be successful in the foreseeable future is to get a visit from the biggest free agent of all — the Grim Reaper.

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Ed. Note: This article is not to be taken as an inspiration to kill Al Davis. I should not have to point this out, but I am dealing with Raiders fans here. Please, Raiders fans, don’t commit murder. Accept that your football team is doomed to failure, and allow the reason for this failure to live out the remainder of his life naturally, no matter how painful it may be as a fan of this team.

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