Post: #1

http://thestacks.deadspin.com/the-most-h...1125418929



With football about to start I thought I'd take the time to honor the Late Al Davis, owner of the Oakland Raiders.

Davis is in the HOF and his accomplishments in diversity are well known.

What is not as well known is that Davis had Game. He decided he wanted to run a pro football team at age 6. He was a shameless self promoter who held grudges. He was obviously extremely high in the Dark Triad.

To me, Davis' greatest contribution to our culture was tolerance. He took players no one else wanted and built a team with a unique identity, the vaunted Raider Mystique.

Davis let his players be themselves and they played hard for him. Almost no one manages like that today in any field. He trusted his players. Ike Lassiter said "I told Davis I could play if the coaches didn't jump on my back all the time. They left me alone and I played." The full list of unconventional players recruited or resurrected by Davis is too long for one post. Gene Upshaw summed it up best when he said that Davis let you be you.

In Super bowl XV the Eagles were burned out by coach Dick Vermeil, a workaholic micromanager. Coach Tom Flores let his Raiders party in the French Quarter until it was time to get to work. The Raiders defeated the Eagles 27-10 after having lost in the regular season 10-7 to the same Eagles team. Raiders players said they knew that if they lost every NFL team would adopt Vermeil's strict regimen.

In Super Bowl XVIII the experts said the Redskins would defeat the Raiders by 3 touchdowns or more. The Raiders dominated 38-9. On that day each Raider outplayed the Redskin in front of him and Davis' Raiders had their greatest moment. The Lombardi trophy was presented to Davis by commissioner Pete Rozelle, whom Davis had beaten in court for the right to move to LA. Davis was magnanimous, not wanting to ruin the moment of triumph.

Super Bowl XVIII was dubbed Black Sunday by NFL Films. It was the high water mark for Davis and his team. Changes to society and the NFL have resulted in the Raiders struggling since then but for a 20 year period the team that broke all the rules dominated the league as The Team of the Decades.

Davis was asked about his iconoclasm and he said he didn't want to be a part of society because of the hypocrisy, false morality, and arbitrary rules.

Even if you are not a fan of the Raiders or football I recommend reading about the Great Al Davis or watching NFL Films presentations of this inspirational figure. He is an example of how to use self promotion and framing to turn good skills into a great reputation. He let the people under him do the winning for him which is as it should be.

RIP Al

Post: #2

Agree with a lot of Davis' strongpoints which you point out, but those same characteristics caused him to run the Raiders as a colossal failure for the last 25 years until his death.

His "strong frame" essentially became a cloak of stubbornness, as he refused to concede that his tactical knowledge and talent evaluating ability were lacking as the league continued to progress.

Davis was, however, superb at identifying talented coaches who were hidden beneath the ranks with other teams. The problem was they either didn't want to work for him (Sean Payton) or they left as soon as possible and went on to win Super Bowls for other teams (Jon Gruden, Mike Shanahan). Not a mark of a good CEO.

Post: #3

The problems were there in the 60's and '70's but the rest of the league hadn't caught up to him. To compete he would have had to change the fundamentals of the team, destroying The Mystique. He fired Shanahan for damaging the Raider brand, not for losing. Art Shell was hired to restore the brand. They immediately got violent, penalized, etc. but also returned to the playoffs.