Oakland Raiders Al Davis...Are We Getting the Whole Story?

Following Al Davis' passing this past weekend, it's been fascinating to read about the man in detail to help provide perspective on his life and contributions to the game of football.  

Yet what's interesting, but perhaps common of obituaries, isn't what's being said, but what's left unexplained, as the end of the story seems to be glossed over or ignored for the sake of hiding a less than stellar final decade.

More often than not, the best we can get from any of the major national columnists is Peter King's brief sidenote...

"The shame of being young today is all you've seen is Davis' Raiders flounder. In the last nine seasons, Oakland has been a bad team and adrift as a franchise, and he'd been unable to bring in a smart man to help him run the front office day-to-day. But look at the first 42 years of Davis' professional career, and it's clear he belongs on the Mount Rushmore of football history."

A few days later, in his Bengals past 17 years Monday Morning Quarterback column, King initially celebrates the Raiders recent success, highlighting their win over the Houston Texans, but also takes a moment a bit later to point out the Raiders, since returning to Oakland, have been arguably no better than the Cincinnatti Bengals...

"If you're not a student of history, you might wonder, rightfully, what's with all the hue and cry about Al Davis. I mean, since 1995, when the Raiders moved back to Oakland after spending 12 years in Los Angeles, this is how they compare to another struggling AFC franchise:

Years Games W-L Pct. Playoff Years Coaches Oakland 17 260 107-153 .412 3 9 Cincinnati 17 260 103-156-1 .398 2 4

So what exactly happened here? 

It's easy to write about the good times of days gone by, but for Raiders' fans who have only heard of the myth and legend, I would want some answers to questions about my team and how the better part of last two decades were essentially lost.

Understand, I'm not looking to expose any of the man's short-comings or dump more dirt on his grave. I'm merely curious how someone can get what amounts to free pass for running one of the leagues best franchises into relative obscurity.  

On the other hand, perhaps it's sad that all of the older writers need to make such an effort to remind us that Davis once was a visionary, and in turn, make apologies for him, like Peter Richmond in his writeup on Grantland... 

"Yes, the man's empire had been on the wane of late. For the past seven or eight years, hoping my Raiders might rebound, I couldn't stop hearing the Keith Reid lyrics for Procol Harum: 'The seaweed and the cobweb have rotted your sword; your barricades broken, your enemies lord.' But mistaking Al Davis for Davis 2.0, the steward of the dark era that began when he yanked his team from the East Bay's desperate, hungry maw to try to make easy money down in the City of Illusion is to mistake the Salinger who wrote Catcher for the guy who later favored very young women, and ended up eating frozen peas for breakfast and spending a lot of time in an orgone box."

Richmond even goes one step further by allowing Davis himself to acknowledge the situation...

"But at one point, without my asking about the current malaise, Davis said to me, 'I know this: that I let it slip the last several years. That will tarnish a legacy that was tough to beat. But somehow or other I'll get it back before I'm gone.'"

Did Al get it back? Has the Raiders fast start this season earned him a reprieve for the moment, given the team's past struggles? 

With little doubt, Al Davis' contributions to the NFL are beyond measure, but to gloss over the end seems a bit shortsighted.  For a man who had a fondness for history, but who also guarded his legacy, it's a tough call.  Most have chosen to tread the line with caution, but are these writers doing the man a disservice by ignoring the whole story?

I like to believe that somewhere within the story of Al Davis, there are lessons to be learned with both the rise and fall, and perhaps now...rebirth? 

Until then. as Nancy Gay in her piece for Fox Sports states, "To so many, Davis and his catchphrases—“Pride and Poise," “Greatness of the Raiders,” “Just Win, Baby!”—had become empty clichés."

Sadly, to the majority of football fans under the age of thirty, especially those outside the Bay Area, Al Davis was Mr. Burns in a tracksuit.  A rich, ruthless, yet colorful eccentric with a fondness for speedy wideouts, who, in turn, ran the once proud Raiders into the ground. As a fan of the game, I simply want to know the why and how...