"Commitment to Excellance"... not latly.

There once was an NFL team that struck fear into the hearts of opposing teams, a team with the best coach in football, John Madden, and players with nicknames like “The Snake”, Ken Stabler and “Hitman”, George Atkinson.

That team was the Oakland Raider’s and the year was 1976. That year Madden guided the Raider’s to a 13-1 record and beat the Minnesota Viking’s.

Fast forward to 2009

Since losing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneer’s in Super Bowl XXXVII, The Raider’s have had five different Head Coaches who have combined for a record of 24 wins and 72 losses in the regular season.

This season the Raider’s are 4-8. You might be thinking, why is this team so awful?

Let’s go back to 1963.

In 1963 the Raider’s, then part of the American Football League, made Al Davis ,then an assistant coach for the San Diego Charger’s ,their Head coach and General Manager.

Since becoming GM Davis has had a history of controversy, part of this is Davis’ tendency to overrule head coaches. From 1963-1965 Davis took the Raider’s to a 23-16-3 record before being named Commissioner of The AFL.

On Showtime’s “Inside The NFL”, former All-Pro Defensive Tackle Warren Sapp said, "All the preparation that goes into a week of work is there, the practicing that you have to put in order to do these things, sometimes [Al Davis] messed with that part of it and that's what kills you,"
Davis has been accused of undermining coaches such as Mike Shanahan and Art Shell.

In 1988 only four games into the season Davis fired Shanahan, who later won two Super Bowls with the Denver Bronco’s, because players complained about Shanahan’s rules concerning team discipline.

As GM, Davis has had a history of Drafting players like QB Todd Marinovich in 1991, who was the worst bust in NFL history prior to Ryan Leaf, overpaying Free Agents such as cornerback Larry Brown and getting over-the-hill players like defensive tackle Ted Washington in 2004.

In 1982 Davis angered fans by moving the team from Oakland to Los Angeles in pursuit of more money.

After beating the Washington Redskin’s in Super Bowl XVIII, the Raider’s have made the playoffs a total of seven times in 25 years?

On May 14. 1992 former Raider’s Defensive end Lyle Alzado died of brain cancer.Alzado had been one of the first players to admit to using anabolic steroids.

Alzado’s death along with the drug problems of Marinovich contributed to the Raider’s image as criminals & malcontents. In 1995 the Raider’s moved back to Oakland but since then Davis has been at odds with Alameda County over the lease agreement to use the Oakland coliseum.

In 2002 family members of the late Ed McGah, an original owner of the Raider’s filed a lawsuit charging Al Davis with mismanagement of the team and sought to fire Davis.

Douglas MacCarther once said, “old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”

Perhaps aging owner’s die but in Oakland, Al Davis and his grasp on reality have already faded away.