Oakland Raiders – Al Davis

Remember when you could hear Davis state the Raiders’ motto, “Commitment To Excellence,” without activating your gag reflex? Now Davis, at 81, is committed to, what, arriving at the office before the sun goes down (something he can’t always accomplish these days)? Granted, the man’s age and health issues should not be causes for cheap nfl jerseys
mockery; the real issue is the decayed, distrustful state in which Davis allows his franchise to toil as he becomes an increasingly absentee owner. Coach Tom Cable’s, ahem, accidental bumping of then-defensive assistant Randy Hanson last summer was the product of the paranoia and misplaced allegiances that Davis encourages, and the resulting inaction on his part as a manager led Hanson (still ostensibly employed as a personnel consultant) to sue Cable and the team, setting the stage for some potentially embarrassing revelations. Davis also stood by passively as Cable, after an ESPN report in which he was accused of domestic violence by two different women, issued a statement to the network in the hours before a game in San Diego admitting that he had once struck his ex-wife, Sandy. It would be one thing if Cable could coach, but he registered the team’s seventh-consecutive season with 11 defeats or more (an ongoing NFL record) in 2009 while coordinating an offense that scored just 17 touchdowns. Naturally, Davis chose to keep Cable on, perhaps still reeling from the premature firing and concurrent public trashing of Arizona Cardinals jersey
prior coach Lane Kiffin. Davis was wrong about Kiffin, just as he claimed in his infamous overhead-projector press conference that Kiffin was wrong about quarterback JaMarcus Russell(notes). It turned out Davis was wrong about that, too, as evidenced by his decision to dump the player he picked first overall in the ’07 draft after three seasons of dubious dedication and meager productivity. In reality Davis, whose team had the league’s lowest attendance in ’09, spends more time thinking about money than winning. In 2007 he managed to convince three venture capitalists to pay him $150 million for 20 percent of the team – and zero say in its management. Now, after blowing the dough on busts like Russell, Javon Walker(notes) and Gibril Wilson(notes), Davis is looking for more: Sources say he tried to get the same venture capitalists to bite on another 20-percent chunk, with no success. Fortunately, he and his lackeys have their priorities in order, as evidenced by the franchise’s decision Wednesday to run a headline on the team’s website attacking an ESPN personality for reporting that the team had discussed trading for Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart(notes). Says an AFC owner: “He’s running a lunatic asylum. It’s a mess. No one has any idea what’s going on out there. I think it’s safe to say he wouldn’t be buy football jerseys
employed by 31 other teams.” Other than that, Davis is doing a bang-up job.