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Al Davis Memoriam: RaiderNation Keeps Winning in Oakland
by Jay Randy Gordon
Al Davis, the iconoclastic owner of the Oakland, Los Angeles, and (again) Oakland Raiders was not just a maverick team owner but a local icon in his underdog scrappiness, his occasional vulgarity and brutality, and his flamboyant style—he selected the team’s pirate logo and classical silver and black look.
Although the rapper Ice Cube may have directed a very LA Raider's tribute doc "Straight Outta L.A" and the team captured feelings in Watts and Compton, in the end, Davis moved the franchise back home to Oakland.
Besides his signature statement, “Just WIN, baby !” which embodied his unwavering brevity as well as the unyielding spirit of the Raiders, Al Davis had other choice words for the masses.
“The Quarterback is going down—the Quarterback is going down hard!” “We don't take what the defense gives us—we take whatever the hell we want.” “You have to win— and you have to win with a vision for the Super Bowl.”
Al Davis greets his fans, who often equalled him and his team in intensity and craziness. photo: courtesy RaidersAl Davis was born on Independence Day, 1929, and exuded irreverence as a leader of men for most of his 82 years and certainly for his over 50 years of football. Ironically, he passed on October 8, 2011, a football Saturday (ie there were college games that Saturday, the NFL plays on Sundays) but this year, it was also Yom Kippur.
A member of Oakland’s Beth Jacob Congregation, a modern orthodox synagogue, Davis left us on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, when most Jews ask for forgiveness from the year’s transgressions. This writer, however, has a funny feeling that the private but proud “Mister Davis” parted Oakland and this planet with very few regrets and/or apologies that morning, probably with a smirk, an eyegleam and an inner certainty he left his mark on the game he so loved, lived, and breathed.
“It would be late at night, usually after midnight, at my home in the Berkeley Hills, overlooking Oakland and San Francisco, and the phone would ring, ’Uh, uh Leigh, it's Al, whaddayouknow?’" recalled the sports agent Leigh Steinberg who sent out a great email to this author and several others he knew from his sports agent days the day Mister Davis died.
Leigh attended the University of California at Berkeley, as well as Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, and he fell in love with the Raiders as a student, purchasing season tickets in the days of Kenny "The Snake" Stabler, Ted "The Stork" Hendricks, Fred Biletnikoff, and then player (later Raider Head Coach) Art Shell. Later, he contributor to the business and game of football as a mega-agent, a model for Cameron Crowe’s “Jerry Maguire” (1996).
Sports agent Leigh Steinberg was close friend of Al Davis and had some interesting reminiscences. photo: courtesy L. Steinberg“The accent was a blend of Brooklyn and the deep South,” Steinberg noted. “Throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s, the calls would come like clockwork. Al would pick my brain for every last morsel of player and agent gossip. He was more wired throughout the world of football than the C.I.A. He spent hours every day with the phone glued to his head calling owners, general managers, coaches, players, agents, scouts, football secretaries, and trainers.”
“As we talked, he would digress into other areas of interest—the Greek Wars, the politics of Renaissance Italy, the Civil War. He taught me as much about how to evaluate talent and mold a winning franchise as I could have learned majoring in the NFL at the University of Football. The dawn would be breaking, the Campanile from the Berkeley campus ringing five bells, and still, he would be talking.”
“We need to remember the Al Davis in his prime: the genius innovator of Raider Pride and the vertical passing game,” Steinberg said. “He engineered the survival of the American Football League and forced the NFL to merge. He was on the cutting edge of progressive ways to sign, develop, and mentor players so that they played better in the Silver and Black. He pushed the limits and parameters of team marketing and winning over public interest in a game that was then a distant second to Major League Baseball.”
“He championed African-American capability to coach and be executives and labor leaders. As time passed, he aged, and the game started to pass him by. When I was giving the presenting speech at the 2006 Hall of Fame for Warren Moon, Davis was presenting Coach John Madden. He spoke eloquently at the podium, but he had grown frail and was taken to events in a wheelchair.”
“In 1976, my second year as a sports attorney, I signed ‘The Tossin' Tulsan’ Jeb Blount, quarterback from Tulsa. It came time for the Raider pick in the second round and their braintrust voted 9-1 to select Chris Bahr, [Punt Kicker] from Penn State, the pick—Jeb Blount. The [hold out] one: Al. And he was brilliant for years!”
Davis's gimlight grin, especially in old age, came to resemble the Raider's stylized skull and cross bones. photo: courtesy Raiders“In 1981, I represented their first round draft pick, Curt Marsh, [Left Tackle] from the University of Washington. The Raiders had the most confusing front office imaginable. I negotiated with eight different representatives over the years, including Al, Ron Wolf, and Steve Ortmayer. Curt was huge, Al loved huge lineman, big bodies and characters.”
“At the end of his career, Howie Long, my client, wanted to redo his contract one last time. I was worried because Al could get stubborn with players he felt crossed him – like Marcus Allen and Steve Beuerlein—and not treat them very well. Howie was holding out and my apprehension grew… Al gave in and gave Howie the contract he was asking for. Al loved his core of loyal players and took care of them forever. He paid for medical treatments and helped his alums out of financial problems. And, he was totally prepared to pay top dollars to his favorite players.”
“Al Davis,” concludes Steinberg, “was one of the greatest innovators and pioneers in the history of the NFL.”
Leigh Steinberg provides an inside look into its unique intensity of RaiderNation, which also produced and popularized characters like Lyle Alzado, John Matuszak, Gene Upshaw, Jack Tatum, Lester Hayes, George Blanda, Big Ben Davidson, and the great John Madden. The famously acerbic coach turned television commercial maker and commentator—who came bursting through posters and people like Big Ben in the old Miller Lite TV spots—personified the manic energy of football Oakland-style.
This was the crowd Davis ran and ruled. Irreverent, a bit crazy—a lot crazy, even—and very Oakland—a healthy outlet for that swashbuckling pirate energy that sometimes rules the streets here.
Like him, love him, despise him, revere him. Oakland, the Bay Area and football in general, has lost an icon. Is this the end or is a new beginning for “#Raidernation?” Man up, Oakland.
Jay Randy Gordon is the author of the book BusiBUZZ (foreword by Leigh Steinberg), a gamer, a “Triple Diamond Super Connector” on BranchOut for Facebook, a new content producer residing in Marin County. , Website.
Posted on Oct 14, 2011 - 10:19 AM
by Jay Randy Gordon
Although the rapper Ice Cube may have directed a very LA Raider's tribute doc "Straight Outta L.A" and the team captured feelings in Watts and Compton, in the end, Davis moved the franchise back home to Oakland.
Besides his signature statement, “Just WIN, baby !” which embodied his unwavering brevity as well as the unyielding spirit of the Raiders, Al Davis had other choice words for the masses.
“The Quarterback is going down—the Quarterback is going down hard!” “We don't take what the defense gives us—we take whatever the hell we want.” “You have to win— and you have to win with a vision for the Super Bowl.”
Al Davis greets his fans, who often equalled him and his team in intensity and craziness. photo: courtesy RaidersA member of Oakland’s Beth Jacob Congregation, a modern orthodox synagogue, Davis left us on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, when most Jews ask for forgiveness from the year’s transgressions. This writer, however, has a funny feeling that the private but proud “Mister Davis” parted Oakland and this planet with very few regrets and/or apologies that morning, probably with a smirk, an eyegleam and an inner certainty he left his mark on the game he so loved, lived, and breathed.
“It would be late at night, usually after midnight, at my home in the Berkeley Hills, overlooking Oakland and San Francisco, and the phone would ring, ’Uh, uh Leigh, it's Al, whaddayouknow?’" recalled the sports agent Leigh Steinberg who sent out a great email to this author and several others he knew from his sports agent days the day Mister Davis died.
Leigh attended the University of California at Berkeley, as well as Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, and he fell in love with the Raiders as a student, purchasing season tickets in the days of Kenny "The Snake" Stabler, Ted "The Stork" Hendricks, Fred Biletnikoff, and then player (later Raider Head Coach) Art Shell. Later, he contributor to the business and game of football as a mega-agent, a model for Cameron Crowe’s “Jerry Maguire” (1996).
Sports agent Leigh Steinberg was close friend of Al Davis and had some interesting reminiscences. photo: courtesy L. Steinberg“As we talked, he would digress into other areas of interest—the Greek Wars, the politics of Renaissance Italy, the Civil War. He taught me as much about how to evaluate talent and mold a winning franchise as I could have learned majoring in the NFL at the University of Football. The dawn would be breaking, the Campanile from the Berkeley campus ringing five bells, and still, he would be talking.”
“We need to remember the Al Davis in his prime: the genius innovator of Raider Pride and the vertical passing game,” Steinberg said. “He engineered the survival of the American Football League and forced the NFL to merge. He was on the cutting edge of progressive ways to sign, develop, and mentor players so that they played better in the Silver and Black. He pushed the limits and parameters of team marketing and winning over public interest in a game that was then a distant second to Major League Baseball.”
“He championed African-American capability to coach and be executives and labor leaders. As time passed, he aged, and the game started to pass him by. When I was giving the presenting speech at the 2006 Hall of Fame for Warren Moon, Davis was presenting Coach John Madden. He spoke eloquently at the podium, but he had grown frail and was taken to events in a wheelchair.”
“In 1976, my second year as a sports attorney, I signed ‘The Tossin' Tulsan’ Jeb Blount, quarterback from Tulsa. It came time for the Raider pick in the second round and their braintrust voted 9-1 to select Chris Bahr, [Punt Kicker] from Penn State, the pick—Jeb Blount. The [hold out] one: Al. And he was brilliant for years!”
Davis's gimlight grin, especially in old age, came to resemble the Raider's stylized skull and cross bones. photo: courtesy Raiders“At the end of his career, Howie Long, my client, wanted to redo his contract one last time. I was worried because Al could get stubborn with players he felt crossed him – like Marcus Allen and Steve Beuerlein—and not treat them very well. Howie was holding out and my apprehension grew… Al gave in and gave Howie the contract he was asking for. Al loved his core of loyal players and took care of them forever. He paid for medical treatments and helped his alums out of financial problems. And, he was totally prepared to pay top dollars to his favorite players.”
“Al Davis,” concludes Steinberg, “was one of the greatest innovators and pioneers in the history of the NFL.”
Leigh Steinberg provides an inside look into its unique intensity of RaiderNation, which also produced and popularized characters like Lyle Alzado, John Matuszak, Gene Upshaw, Jack Tatum, Lester Hayes, George Blanda, Big Ben Davidson, and the great John Madden. The famously acerbic coach turned television commercial maker and commentator—who came bursting through posters and people like Big Ben in the old Miller Lite TV spots—personified the manic energy of football Oakland-style.
This was the crowd Davis ran and ruled. Irreverent, a bit crazy—a lot crazy, even—and very Oakland—a healthy outlet for that swashbuckling pirate energy that sometimes rules the streets here.
Like him, love him, despise him, revere him. Oakland, the Bay Area and football in general, has lost an icon. Is this the end or is a new beginning for “#Raidernation?” Man up, Oakland.
Jay Randy Gordon is the author of the book BusiBUZZ (foreword by Leigh Steinberg), a gamer, a “Triple Diamond Super Connector” on BranchOut for Facebook, a new content producer residing in Marin County. , Website.
Posted on Oct 14, 2011 - 10:19 AM
