I'm sure all of you now have heard or have at least heard someone talking about Al Davis's press conference he had yesterday. If you haven't...here's ESPN's clip of it...
Al Davis blatantly calls Lane Kiffin a liar and says he is "bringing disgrace to the organization," and a "flat-out liar." Lane later backed up his honesty with this lame interview.
So who is telling the truth? I'll bet you're
wondering who's side I'm going to take aren't you? I'll give you a hint, it's not the dude to the right...
Al Davis blatantly calls Lane Kiffin a liar and says he is "bringing disgrace to the organization," and a "flat-out liar." Lane later backed up his honesty with this lame interview.
So who is telling the truth? I'll bet you're
wondering who's side I'm going to take aren't you? I'll give you a hint, it's not the dude to the right...If you're confused by the picture, I personally photo-shopped this picture because my man looks like skeletor, spitting image.
There are numerous people around the league up in arms about how Al Davis has handled this situation with Lane. Chris Mortenson (who broke this story for ESPN five minutes after it happened) did a great interview on Mike & Mike in the Morning (which I watch every morning and you should too) in which he made some very insightful things. Among them were:
How he believes, that it's rather obvious that Al Davis is lying about Lane's role in the front office and decisions he's been a part of.
An interesting story about, while being rolled to the airplane after the last second Buffalo loss, criticizing Lane's management of his timeouts. Basically he was talking to his buddy (the roller of his wheel chair) about how he thought Lane should have done this and that during the game...blah blah blah. What he didn't know is that Lane was two feet behind him and heard every word. After Lane heard this, he came up to Al and said "Do you need to talk to me about something?" Al promptly responded "Oh, um, no. I didn't see you there." He then went on the plane without resolving the situation. Hmm, I wonder why they weren't talking.
How his phone was "blowing up in the press conference from numerous head coaches and front office officials were up in arms," about how Al Davis, a well renowned stickler of money to his coaches. (Mike Shanahan being a prime example...) Basically if you can prove that your coach was in breach of contract then you can fire him without honoring the rest of his contract, which Al Davis has just done (Kiffin is out $3.5 Million).
The reason everyone is a little upset about this is that it is relatively obvious that Al Davis has planned on doing this since the end of last season. How is this obvious?
Basically Lane Kiffin was a little upset with his D coordinator last year and wanted to fire him. Interestingly enough, Lane's dad Montae Kiffin, happens to be one of the best D coordinator's of all time. So Kiffin mentioned his name for his new D coordinator, and why wouldn't you? Al Davis flipped and refused to let Kiffin fire his D coordinator Rob Ryan. Making for an interesting relationship between them.
How Rich Gannon, a former close friend of Al Davis, told him that the only reason the Raiders front office used to be successful is that the former GM ran mediation between Al and everyone else in the franchise. Now he's gone, and shit has hit the fan. The turmoil in the front office apparently had a lot to do with why Jon Gruden left.
Al Davis then went on a name bashing serenade after the official press conference, stating:
"Kiffin didn't want to draft Jamarcus Russell, he was in talks with Brady Quinn, but I made him"
"The Denver Broncos should have asterisks next to both of their Super Bowls"
Accusing the patriots of "tampering" with Moss while he was on the Raiders.
"Mike Lombardi has been fired from every job he's ever had and can't find one in the NFL." (former employee of the Raiders front office)
"Norv Turner was a good coordinator and I might have been impetuous with him, but let's see what he does."
"The tuck game was the doom to a lot of things." (Referring to the unraveling of patriots loss where the Tuck rule was invented in 2001)
Needless to say, Davis was on a roll all day.
If you ask me what I think about Davis and the Raider's franchise I could answer it in three words: you are screwed. Al Davis's mom lived to be 103 years old and I can conceivably see him being around for at least another 10 years. With that being said, who in the hell is going to want this job? The Raider's have had five coaches in the past six years...FIVE. That's a little over one year per coach. At what point does Al Davis realize, "maybe it's not the coaches that are the problem."
I'm going to end this on a great quote I heard today coming into work.
"At what point do the coaches start introducing themselves at the beginning of the season as interim head coaches?"
There are numerous people around the league up in arms about how Al Davis has handled this situation with Lane. Chris Mortenson (who broke this story for ESPN five minutes after it happened) did a great interview on Mike & Mike in the Morning (which I watch every morning and you should too) in which he made some very insightful things. Among them were:
How he believes, that it's rather obvious that Al Davis is lying about Lane's role in the front office and decisions he's been a part of.
An interesting story about, while being rolled to the airplane after the last second Buffalo loss, criticizing Lane's management of his timeouts. Basically he was talking to his buddy (the roller of his wheel chair) about how he thought Lane should have done this and that during the game...blah blah blah. What he didn't know is that Lane was two feet behind him and heard every word. After Lane heard this, he came up to Al and said "Do you need to talk to me about something?" Al promptly responded "Oh, um, no. I didn't see you there." He then went on the plane without resolving the situation. Hmm, I wonder why they weren't talking.
How his phone was "blowing up in the press conference from numerous head coaches and front office officials were up in arms," about how Al Davis, a well renowned stickler of money to his coaches. (Mike Shanahan being a prime example...) Basically if you can prove that your coach was in breach of contract then you can fire him without honoring the rest of his contract, which Al Davis has just done (Kiffin is out $3.5 Million).
The reason everyone is a little upset about this is that it is relatively obvious that Al Davis has planned on doing this since the end of last season. How is this obvious?
Basically Lane Kiffin was a little upset with his D coordinator last year and wanted to fire him. Interestingly enough, Lane's dad Montae Kiffin, happens to be one of the best D coordinator's of all time. So Kiffin mentioned his name for his new D coordinator, and why wouldn't you? Al Davis flipped and refused to let Kiffin fire his D coordinator Rob Ryan. Making for an interesting relationship between them.
How Rich Gannon, a former close friend of Al Davis, told him that the only reason the Raiders front office used to be successful is that the former GM ran mediation between Al and everyone else in the franchise. Now he's gone, and shit has hit the fan. The turmoil in the front office apparently had a lot to do with why Jon Gruden left.
Al Davis then went on a name bashing serenade after the official press conference, stating:
"Kiffin didn't want to draft Jamarcus Russell, he was in talks with Brady Quinn, but I made him"
"The Denver Broncos should have asterisks next to both of their Super Bowls"
Accusing the patriots of "tampering" with Moss while he was on the Raiders.
"Mike Lombardi has been fired from every job he's ever had and can't find one in the NFL." (former employee of the Raiders front office)
"Norv Turner was a good coordinator and I might have been impetuous with him, but let's see what he does."
"The tuck game was the doom to a lot of things." (Referring to the unraveling of patriots loss where the Tuck rule was invented in 2001)
Needless to say, Davis was on a roll all day.
If you ask me what I think about Davis and the Raider's franchise I could answer it in three words: you are screwed. Al Davis's mom lived to be 103 years old and I can conceivably see him being around for at least another 10 years. With that being said, who in the hell is going to want this job? The Raider's have had five coaches in the past six years...FIVE. That's a little over one year per coach. At what point does Al Davis realize, "maybe it's not the coaches that are the problem."
I'm going to end this on a great quote I heard today coming into work.
"At what point do the coaches start introducing themselves at the beginning of the season as interim head coaches?"
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