Can You Walk in Al Davis' Shoes: Coached, Owned, Or Been a Commissioner?

Early on this Dec. 5th morning, the question came to me: Can you walk in Al Davis' shoes? Coached, owned, or been a commissioner?

The question is the title of the article.

Here is the framework. Years ago, I worked for the first African American in Texas who was officially recognized as a millionaire. His name was Mack H. Hannah.

At 74-years-old, he was a smart, tough, cantankerous senior citizen who hired me to be an administrator of his construction company, Standard Development Corporation. I learned a lot from Mr. Hannah. He was a big man, who towered over most of the staff, and he used a cane to walk.

Mr. Hannah once told me that if you are going to own a company or run a company, you need to know the "ins and outs" of it, from A to Z. He indicated that it is impossible to do a good job if, in fact, you have not done the jobs below the top position in the company.

Now, so many bloggers and fans are writing articles and comments, telling Al Davis what to do with the Oakland Raiders. This is a country where free speech prevails. So, keep at it, keep telling him what you think.

But, consider this question: Can you walk in Al Davis' shoes? Have you coached, owned, or been a commissioner?

Now who out there can answer: Yes, Yes, Yes.

The person who can say "Yes, Yes, Yes" to all three jobs, is the person to whom we should listen to.

Some folks have never even played a game of football, yet they are good fans of the Oakland Raiders. Let's pose a question: You look at a beautiful house. Does that mean you can build the house? I don't think so.

Imagine Al Davis saying to us, using the words of Emily King's song:

See everybody's got their own problems that their going through
I take it day by day, its only thing that I can do
so I live for me as you live for you
But you can't be me unless you walk in my shoes

[Repeat Chorus x 2]

walk walk, walk walk, walk walk—walk in my shoes [x 2]

You gon do you, and ima do me

The proposal and questions for Dec. 5, the day before our big game with the Steelers: Have the fans ever put up a billboard telling the Oakland Raiders how much we love and appreciate what they did in the past?

Have the fans ever sent a vitae of a person to Al Davis who could serve as the GM for the Oakland Raiders?

Is there someone out there who has walked in shoes similar to Al Davis and can understand and advise us on how to deal with the situation in which we find our team?

There are more questions. The challenge is for us to search out the answers.

And, if we take the advice of the brilliant senior citizen who sat me down and got my attention years ago, we know that we should not take a job at the top of an organization without being fully cognizant of what it took to build that organization.

Why was Mr. Hannah tough on me and the other so-called young, sharp people who surrounded him in 1976? He said we had a lot of book-sense, and vicarious information, but we lacked the hands-on experience to run the company.

Those comments may be relevant to the situation with Al Davis.

Yes, we will continue with our concerns and comments, but be reminded that what we say would probably make more sense to Al Davis if we could present to him a spokesperson with experiences similar to his, who he might at least try to listen to, and then change his ways or strategies in running the Oakland Raiders franchise.

So, who is that person? Find him, and send him to talk to Mr. Al Davis.