Technically, it is breaking news, but we all knew this was coming. The sad reality is that this turn of events has been a trend for this franchise for far too long. This firing has brought up the full range of reactions from fans and people league wide.
There are several people in the Raider Nation that are happy that Lane Kiffin was fired and there are several more that are simply pissed that they have to endure another ridiculous decision.
Lane Kiffin can leave with his head held high by showing a lot of class when his antagonist refused to act his age, again. There will be another coaching opportunity for him.
Al Davis also dropped the last classless act that he will not honor the contract with Lane Kiffin. You would imagine that it will be prorated at least. Although it is a known fact that Mike Shanahan was treated the same way and is still owed money.
I have a feeling that the above-mentioned issue and the firing will be an issue heard by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for resolution.
So who is the next contestant that can hold a clipboard and take orders from an out-of-touch owner, while having absolutely no authority and a 300-pound gorilla on their shoulders? Who will be the next guy that knows his place, behind Al Davis?
We know the answer to that one, only someone who is already on staff. Look for Tom Cable, Tom Rathman, James Lofton or Gregg Knapp to be named next guinea pig/person-to-be-fired later/next whipping boy/next victim/new Head Coach.
Offensive Line Coach Tom Cable is said to be the favorite. He will now have to choose his words carefully.
The Raiders, as a team, like their former young head coach, did not quit, and it is a known fact that they played hard.
The fact of the matter is that they didn’t make enough plays to win games against the Broncos, Bills, and the Chargers, two of which were there for the taking.
Al Davis fired Lane Kiffin just because he could, and we’re led to believe that the state of the franchise is entirely his fault?
16 comments Last one added 9 months ago — Leave a Comment
Molly Gray 9 months ago
So how does one go about changing the owner of a sports franchise?
Jeff, you might find this comical considering the circumstances surrounding the Raiders
http://www.projectfranchise.org/site/
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Jeff Little 9 months ago
It is very difficult in the Raiders case seeing as Al is the only one with any authority. Think of a line from a Kanye West song that goes " you can't tell me nothing".
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Max Iascone 9 months ago
I completely agree, I used to love the guy for what he brought to the NFL over his career, despite the fact that I'm not an Oakland fan. Whenever he had a "moment, fired a coach, or drafted yet another skill player/defensive back, (although I will admit that McFadden was probably the best choice despite need because of his mammoth potential.), I would say to myself "he was such a great commisioner/owner/coach/whatever" but I always overlooked the crucial modifier "was". His contribution to the NFL has been great but right now, he's just a stubborn, cantankerous old nuisance who is a detriment to his franchise and to the NFL. You also should've mentioned that Al Davis intends to not honor Kiffin's contract, citing "cause", simply classless. (if you did mention that I apologize for missing it.) Good work, something needed to be said.
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Jeff Little 9 months ago
Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment, Max. I agree with alot of your takes but let's call those moment what they truly are, Senior Moments. McFadden was the correct pick, I say that even though I said at the time the pick should've been a DT due to the team not drafting one in the last five years.
The way he treated Lane Kiffin in its entirety was a classless act. You hit the nail on the head in regrads to Al a key modifier 'was', he is no longer.
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Chris X 9 months ago
I agree we are not going anywhere with Davis. I also think we'd all be fired as well in our jobs if we had done what Kiffin did.
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Jeff Little 9 months ago
Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment, Chris. I know you feel my pain. You've got a point, Lane shouldn't have been as forthcoming with the media as he was that mistake was on him. The level of anger Al had was in a word just strange.
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Pete Boyd 9 months ago
Thanks Jeff as always, so we know it's Tom Cable now which is probably the best we can hope for all things considered. I've read a lot of internet traffic about this guy and let's face it what he has done with our shambolic OL can only be construed as miraculous, not perfect by any means but a serious upgrade considering the past and the personnel he had to work with.
Through this I maintain I'm an Oakland Raiders fan regardless (tough as it is) but to quote Max (eloquent reply incidentally) my crucial modifier is that I 'was' an Al Davis fan once...
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Jeff Little 9 months ago
Thanks for the compliments and comments, Pete. Dark days for Raider fans, I do like Tom Cable and the job he has done with the O-Line. He has a lot of experience and I think it can translate to him leading the team. It is extremely tough to be a Oakland Raiders fan but I will still support the team but Al Davis is a different story and I agree with Max's quote as well "my crucial modifier is that I 'was' an Al Davis fan once..."
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Walter Thompson Jr. 9 months ago
The raiders will rise again. Simply put this game is about winning and if you don't win you deserve to get fired. I liked Lane Kiffin but he was not winning and that is what this is all about. If we were 3-1 there is no doubt Al Davis would have bit his tongue and kept Kiffin. By not winning and being critical of the organization Kiffin gave Davis reason to fire him. If he would have kept his mouth shut he probably would still have a job even if he was not winning.
This is Al's team and if you are not a fan of him then you are not a fan of the raiders. I've seen darker days than this and we will rise again.
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Jeff Little 9 months ago
Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment, Walter. To coach in the NFL is all about winning and Lane wasn't winning. Lane said some things he shouldn't have said, some things that Al felt were detrimental to the organization. But let's be honest between the two who has been more detrimental to the Raiders Al Davis or Lane?
The fact of the matter is that no one is above scrutiny. If what you're doing isn't working and hasn't worked for years it is only human nature to look at ways of changing things for a better outcome. For any coach in Oakland, under Al Davis it is all about Al Davis. He wants a guy that knows his place behind Al Davis.
I watched to entire Al Davis press conference and he said that even if the Raiders 3-1 he would've still fired Lane for cause. That tells us that he lost faith in the coach he hired before last season was over and this firing was inevitable and should've been done in the off-season and that it went beyond winning in Al Davis' eyes he felt that he couldn't trust the guy.
Everyone knows its Al's team, it was Al's team when he ran off several solid coaches Mike Shanahan, John Fox, Jon Gruden, Norv Turner to name a few, and with him being in charge or the leader that means that he isn't above scrutiny, no one is. He has made good and bad decisions. But to say that he isn't at fault for the state that the franchise is in means that you're looking at things with rose colored glasses and that you need to step back and take a look at the whole picture.
No one is questioning anyones loyalty or fan-hood for your team, and I'll be damned if anyone questions mine but check out everything before you blindly say Al is above it all.
The NFL is a business and with any business when you're not being successful you have to evaluate what has happened to figure out what is going wrong. Any business that has a quarter that isn't successful that business would address what has gone right and what has gone wrong and make changes, when it has been six years that screams that someone is asleep at the wheel.
When the major change has been firing coaches and bringing in free agents and still losing what else does it take to prove that this tactic isn't working? The Raiders need to re-build through the draft and allow the coaches and players to have some sort of continuity. Al Davis at 79 years old is wearing at least six hats (GM/President/Vice President/ Personnel Director/ Director of Scouting) meaning that you can't do one job properly.
Every other team has the above mentioned positions by different people and they come together and make team decisions which isn't a bad plan seeing as Al is 79. Do you know any 79 year old's doing things? or better yet hire other 79 year old's to do things for them?
I urge you to watch the entire press conference or read reports from guys who were there it was unprecedented as well as odd. I've been a Raiders fan far longer than you think Walter. The Raiders do have talent and can win with Tom Cable as Head Coach. In the event he doesn't then the team will be looking for another coach and probably another entire staff next year and I really don't want to see that, again.
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Daniel Muth 9 months ago
The Detroit Lions and the Oakland Raiders. What do they have in common? Well, they are both laughingstocks and both suffer from abysmal ownership. I say this as a loyal Lions fan. Unfortunately, getting rid of an owner is next to impossible. Al Davis and Ford are conjugal opposites who elicit the same terrible result. Ford will entirely hand over the keys to the GM and won't meddle, though he's proven woefully ineffective at identifying even a decent GM and will allow nearly a decade of futility before he tries someone else. Davis meddles way too much and may be completely crazy at this point. Given the two, I'll take Ford, just because there is some small glimmer of hope that he might get lucky and actually hire a good GM to run the franchise. Unfortunately for the Raiders, Al Davis is micromanaging his franchise, meaning that there is little chance that things will change as long as he is the owner. But at least the Raiders had some good years to look back on. Can't say the same for the Lions (anywhere close to my lifetime anyway).
Lane Kiffin will actually come out of this alright. First he will sue Davis for his due salary and win, because the rules of the league have changed since Al did this to Shanahan. Whether or not Al knows this is a different question. And second, most people will feel sorry for Kiffin and recognize that he actually did a pretty good job with the Raiders, given the situation he was in. He'll get a head coaching gig with a good college program or a head coordinator position in the NFL. I feel for you Raiders fans though. I know what it's like to be crushed by poor ownership.
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Jeff Little 9 months ago
Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment, Daniel.
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J.C. Ayvazi 9 months ago
Well done Jeff - the worse thing about this ongoing disaster is that it was so preventable. The ego of one man, no doubt a great man in the past, who no longer has the necessities to carry on properly has dragged the Raiders into a void. There will be no getting out as long as he is around.
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Jeff Little 9 months ago
Thanks for the compliments and the comments, J.C. Truly dark days for any Raider fan. The entire was presser was a disaster. The Raiders, as you know, have always been a private organization and to put all of the dirty laundry out there and try entirely too hard to sell us on the idea that Lane Kiffin was doing something detrimental to the organization. The last sentence said it all.
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Maloso Omar 13 9 months ago
Great article Jeff, Lane Kiffin maybe gone but the problem still remains in the likes of Al Davis..so long as he is around the day to day operations regardless of who is coaching we will continue to be the laughing stock of the NFL.. I admire Kiffin and I applaud his toughness and his willingess to stand up to the bully that is Davis. ..What a classless way to treat your head coach...I was sitting with my 11 year old son yesterday watching Davis on his press conference and could not believe what I was watching and listening to...the way that he was meticulous on collecting "cause" evidence just seemed so tacky, weird and just awful..I found it hard to explain to my son what has happened to the Raiders..how do you explain to an 11 year old that a once great man of football has gone so bad and is running our beloved Raiders to the ground? One thing that I have not seen any one mention or question is his statement that yesterday morning there were a number of out of work NFL coaches in the commentating and sportscasting field who called him and asked him in which direction the Raiders were heading an insinuation that they were calling him for employment..hmmm I wonder if maybe Jimmie Johnson, Bill Cower, Steve Mariucci OR "Iron" Mike Ditka were those who he referred too. I doubt it.. I wish someone would call him on his statement to see who he was talking about... No coach worth his salt in this game would risk his name or legacy to come and coach under the "Managing General Partner".. They know it would be a loosing situation no matter what they tried to do to improve our Raiders.. I am a season ticket holder I sit in the black hole section 106 row 4 seats 5 and 6 if any one is interested in buying tickets to the remainder of the season let me know...I am not willing to take the long drive anymore to Oakland from Los Angeles..I cannot continue to support this type of behavior..I will remain a season ticket holder just that I will not bo back to Oakland until we get rid of Al Davis..
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Jeff Little 9 months ago
Thanks for the compliments and for taking the time to comment, Maloso Omar 13.
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