The Oakland Raiders were one of the teams of the 70's (Pittburgh and Dallas are the two) led by coach John Madden. Kids today know Madden from his popular video game and don't remember that he led the Raiders their first Super Bowl in 1976. Since then the Raiders have been in disarray led by the capricious Al Davis.
Al Davis took over the Raiders underhandedly, when former managing partner Wayne Valley was out of the country on business. Davis had the "takeover" papers drawn up and had the other partners on his side, ultimately taking over the organization.
Davis started his career as a offensive line coach with the then Los Angeles Chargers for two years. In 1963, he took over the Oakland Raiders and led the team to a 10-4 record. Also, winning the coach of the year.
Over the years since John Madden retired, Davis has hired 10 coaches (including two stints by Art Shell) with the premise the coach would run the vertical passing that he likes so much.
The Raiders haven't had a winning record since 2002, after losing the Super Bowl to the Jon Gruden led Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
This year if JaMarcus Russell can play like a number one overall player the Raiders can creep up on you.
Davis just needs to bequeathed the daily operations to a more modern day football executive so the team can compete with the upper echelon teams in the NFL.
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Craig A. Ward, host of Chalk Talk
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