Unfair, selfish Al Davis ready to put final dagger in Raiders

Just last year, owner Al Davis vowed that he won't retire until he’s won at least two more Super Bowls.Here’s something I vow: The Raiders won’t even come close to one Super Bowl with Davis at the top.And here’s another: Davis will never fully retire, even after he’s gone. The decisions he makes now will haunt the next regime well beyond his own reign.Even when the 79-year-old parts ways with the organization he built from the ground up -- which will likely be thanks only to serious health complications -- Davis will continue to impact the franchise. The 43 Polamalu black jersey
ill-informed decisions he’s made over the past five years have caused enough damage to the organization to garner harmful results well beyond the life of the longtime owner.How ironic that in the same week defensive tackle Tommy Kelly is arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence, head coach Lane Kiffin is ready to be fired. Kelly was rewarded with a whopping $50.5 million contract from Davis in the offseason for doing all of nothing in 2007. Kiffin is coming off a 15-point victory in Week 2. But Kiffin is on his way out, and Kelly will likely resume life as normal. Everything seems backward in Oakland. Probably because it is.The Raiders are just two weeks into the 2008 season, sitting 1-1, and coming off a win in which the offense rushed for 300 net yards. After two games, Oakland’s ‘O’ ranks 13th in the NFL in total yardage, second in rushing yardage and second-year passer JaMarcus Russell still hasn’t thrown an interception. The Raiders are alone in second place in the AFC West. And now Kiffin is about to be canned. And only for saying what everyone has wanted to say and already knows about Oakland’s organization: that Davis runs the show. Kiffin refuses to be a puppet to Al’s games.And who would replace him? Somebody more than willing to have his strings pulled by Davis, D-coordinator Rob Ryan.Team sources have already confirmed that Ryan’s curse-filled rant just days before the team’s meeting with Kansas City was a directly ordered assignment from the man upstairs. Davis reportedly told Ryan to say something along the lines of, “I run the defense, and it’s all on me … I meet with the owner in the offseason. He’s the boss, he’s the man that hired me, and that’s been well-documented. I don’t meet with him on game plans,” which were Ryan’s actual words.Of course, there’s no reason why Ryan couldn’t be a great coach. He can motivate, players like him and, most importantly, Davis likes him.But just two weeks into a regular season in which your quarterback is 23 years old, leading rusher is 21, top pass catcher is 22 and head coach is fired is no way to start a campaign. These top offensive weapons (Russell, Darren McFadden and Zach Miller) have seen just one coach in their NFL careers -- the way it should be after only one or two seasons. Somebody like left guard Robert Gallery has been around for three different coaching regimes (and likely soon to be four) that have come and gone since his rookie season just five years ago. Look 4 Brett Favre White jersey
at that result.Firing the 33-year-old Kiffin, the NFL's youngest head coach, would put every player on the Raiders’ roster and every coach on the staff in an unfair, difficult situation. But it’s going to happen. If not today, next week or the week after, then certainly at the end of the season.Al Davis will never be happy with a head coach. His antics over the past half-decade have turned the franchise he loves into the laughingstock of the NFL.Unfortunately, this latest antic may be the straw that broke the camel’s, er Raiders', back.Anthony Carroll can be contacted at (97)