Oakland Raiders: Why Al Davis Firing Tom Cable Keeps the Raiders Down and Out

Tom Cable was let go as head coach of the Oakland Raiders this week after leading the franchise to one of its best seasons in quite some time.

The Raiders went 8-8 in 2010, including a perfect 6-0 mark against the AFC West.

For the first time since the franchise spiraled into an abyss following its loss to Tampa Bay in Super Bowl XXXVII, it seemed like the Raiders were for real.

Players were responding to Cable, and the team came just two wins shy of winning the division and hosting a playoff game.

Cable's three seasons in Oakland were all for nothing, it seems, though the franchise will now look to hire its sixth head coach since 2003.

That type of dysfunction can only be linked to one person: the Silver and Black owner, Al Davis.

Not much of a surprise. Davis has been doing it for a long time, hiring and firing like it's nobody's business.

But why, after the most successful season in nearly a decade, would you fire the man responsible?

We will likely never know the answer considering the man who holds it.

Al Davis's decisions as owner have time and time again failed the franchise. He hand picks players like JaMarcus Russell, and does his worst Jerry Jones impersonation far too often.

As long as Al Davis is associated with the Raiders' front office, or even the franchise for that matter, it will be insignificant.

The playoffs will always escape it, and the best players will never want to play there.

If the past eight years haven't proved that, then Tom Cable's firing does.

Patrick Clarke is a student at Towson University and a writing intern for Bleacher Report.