In Defense of the Indefensible: The Direction, the Oakland Raiders, and Al Davis

These days, we Raider fans have endured the humiliation that has been wrought upon us by the wayward direction of Al Davis and the Oakland Raiders. Many people wonder: why? Usually, those who wonder are fans of ho-hum teams with no legacy or one marred by the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders.

Everybody loves to hate the Raiders. Why? Because the Raiders defiantly challenged the perceptions of NFL teams and fans and won while doing it. As of Winter 2003, that has not been the case.

We soldier on though, because we still believe in the intelligence of Al Davis, but not his stubbornness. We want to see Davis defeat his critics, but know that Davis cannot do that alone. For one, he needs to find coaches he can trust and empower them.

I still believe in the basic philosophy that Davis employed in the 1960's-1980's—that being: defense, running, and timely bombs. I think though that Davis needs to update his concepts of personnel and coaches, because the players now, are physically different than a generation ago. The best way of doing that is with coaches he can trust.

Even though, Al Davis and Jon Gruden had their differences in terms of personnel and philosophies—perhaps, it would be best for them to reunite.

When Gruden came in, back in 1998, the Raiders were reeling from the 4-12 season of Joe Bugel. 

Before that, the Raiders weren't truly "bad" as many would like fans to believe, but they weren't great. They endured the drama of the Art Shell firing and the return from Los Angeles and would post win totals around .500. Keep in mind, that was during the time when the AFC West featured John Elway in Denver and Joe Montana in Kansas City. 

It should go without saying that the Raiders had one of the toughest schedules in the NFL and would finish well, considering the competition. In other words, they were the Texas Tech to Texas and Oklahoma.

Gruden though, took that team back to .500 and then to contention. Davis brought Art Shell from retirement after firing him a decade earlier, so why can't Gruden come back?