Al Davis: A Mixed Legacy
By Nick Ostiller
Al Davis, who was considered one of the greatest villains in American sports for the better part of 40 years, passed away this week. He was 82. The longtime owner was both hated and loved, irking some with his assertive arrogance while receiving praise from others for his unwavering philosophy. These contradictory traits were precisely the reason the death of this football fixture elicited such mixed reactions.
Contemptuous, enterprising, quarrelsome, belligerent: This is how many people saw Al Davis, the villain. Ever since joining the Raiders as head coach and general manager in 1963, Davis ran things the way he wanted, whether anybody else liked it or not.
His motto for the team was simple: "Just win, baby." And his team listened, compiling their first winning record in franchise history the year he arrived, before going on to win three Superbowls during his tenure. The Raiders played an angry and aggressive style of football, no doubt mirroring their owner's personality. Davis was also credited with introducing the signature team logo that has survived to this day.
Davis' relentless search for the most lucrative location for his Raiders to call home led to legal troubles and rifts with fellow owners, who unanimously voted against the Raiders' potential relocation to Los Angeles. Davis, in line with his "my way or the highway" philosophy, sued the league and eventually had his Raiders moved down south.
However, the team used a former middle school as their practice facility in Los Angeles, which had been left decrepit by the time Davis moved the Raiders back to Oakland after 12 years. The facility was in such disrepair that millions of dollars were needed to bring it up to code and turn it back into a school.
The neighborhood rejoiced the departure of Davis and his imperious organization, yet Los Angeles to this day remains without an NFL team and has only one Superbowl championship on which to reflect. That championship was courtesy of Davis' Raiders.
Davis was not completely a bully. Proud of his Jewish heritage and sensitive to anti-Semitism, Davis did not tolerate prejudice and racism within his organization. In 1963, he refused to let the Raiders play a preseason game in Mobile, Alabama, amid segregation laws. There were other heroic triumphs for Davis, who was responsible for hiring Art Shell as the first African-American head coach in the modern era, as well as making Amy Trask the league's first female chief executive.
These were the two sides to Al Davis. He defined the Raiders for five decades and his legacy will not soon be forgotten. The day after his death, his Raiders took the field in Houston, the city where Davis helped move the 1965 all-star game after he refused to let it be played in a racially divided New Orleans. Despite being out-gained 473-278 in the game, the Raiders still found a way to "just win, baby."