Rest in peace, Mr. Davis.

So there’s where I’ll leave it as far as Al Davis is concerned.

Many of the players made it clear on social media today how he changed their lives forever. May he rest in peace.

I’m with Flashfire, if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.

Without the AFL Raiders inspiring the building of the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum, the A’s would have not come to Oakland from Kansas City. Thanks Mr. Davis …. Go Raiders and A’s!

Please?

and wanted them to do. Make a better environment for your team. He did it. The owner of the A’s could have changed the Coliseum while the Raiders were gone, changed it into a baseball only configuration and the Raiders wouldn’t have been able to come back. He was just smarter than the A’s were.

the NFL doesnt exist. he was a winner and he will always be a winner. he knows more about football than most people who play the game.

the last time any team in the city of Oakland was close to winning a championship was the raiders.

I too am of the generation that grew up with the LA Raiders, not Oakland Raiders. I was always a Steelers fan growing up because of my birthplace, Pittsburgh, and my dad. The niners were my second team. The Raiders were irrelevant. Still, I am happy they came back to the Bay Area, there’s plenty of room here for fans of both teams. I notice many people are fans of both local teams mainly because after years of watching only their games on TV and them sucking so bad, it’s nice to watch some good football for a change.

Coincidentally when Al died, I was in the middle of this book called “Badasses” about the 1970’s Raiders…it becomes clear that Al Davis knows football in and out and treated everyone on a personal level with respect.

Some of the other stories I’ve read about him taking care of dozens of players financially after they were out of the league, etc., even his “abstain” vote on the collective bargaining agreement reportedly was because he thought they were unnecessarily screwing over the players. He loved football and loved football players.

As for his impact on the A’s, I’m with jeepers. Every other team found a way out of their multipurpose stadium, including even the pathetic Marlins, who I believe have no fans at all as Miami is full of retirees and transplants from the Northeast anyways, or people from Cuba who don’t give a shit about the Marlins anyways.

So if the Giants, Reds, Pirates, Indians, Marlins, Astros, Padres, Mariners, Twins, Phillies, etc. were able to make it happen, it’s on the A’s and the City of Oakland. Al Davis is a character in the saga but not really the man to focus the rage against, this thread has named many other more deserving recipients of our ire.

I was trying to figure out a way to put my thoughts and feelings in words, and you did it very well. Better than I could have.

I mostly love Al Davis, though I’m not at all blind to his many faults. He created the football team that I loved, and will hopefully love again (though it’s been a while). He helped create the (sorry to say it) greatest league in professional sports and bring it to where it was in, let’s say, before Bill Walsh came around.

Al’s ways were great in a league that really wasn’t very professional or sophisticated. If no one is optimizing the game, then a maverick personality and a go for broke strategy can often succeed. But, once the Bill Walsh and Bill Belichick types of the world enter the league and professionalize it, a new approach is needed.

Al Davis couldn’t compete anymore in today’s NFL. He didn’t change with the league he helped create. The decisions that worked in the past didn’t work anymore, and he wasn’t willing to change his ways.

That’s not to his shame. In recent years, he’s pretty much been the way I might like to be when I’m his age – ornery, cantankerous, rigid, loving every minute of it and unable to figure out why everyone else doesn’t see the world the way he does. And, frankly, it’d be even more fun to thumb my nose at the world if I were the managing general partner of an NFL team.

Post Al, the Raiders have a better chance at success. At the same time, neither the Raiders nor the NFL would have been here in this form without him.

I’ll take the bad with the good. All in all, a life very well lived and a legacy to be proud of.

RIP, Al.

do you guys think that will make it easier for the A’s to stay in Oakland?

R.I.P. Mr. Davis.