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Pity Davis; don’t fear him

William L. Bryan, Special to the News

Published October 17, 2006 at midnight

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Al Davis is not Satan.

In Denver, we ascribe to Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis supernatural powers of evil. The NFL and several cities in California agree, but all of us are wrong. Al Davis is not Satan.

Al Davis is Fidel Castro.

Satan is pure evil, just like both Davis and Cuban dictator Castro used to be. Now Davis and Castro are impotent despots presiding over crumbled systems while their constituents eagerly await their deaths. Both experienced the pinnacle of their leadership 40 years ago and have come to be hated by their own people in recent years for their inability to adapt to modern reality and for their delusional refusal to cede their power. Rather than hating them as we always have, the time has come to reconsider them.

Davis is credited with forcing the AFL-NFL merger in 1966. Between 1963 and 1992, Davis’ Raiders won more than 66 percent of their games, the best percentage in professional sports for that period. In 1987, Davis threw away a seventh-round pick on Bo Jackson, who had refused a monstrous contract as the first pick in the draft the year before in order to play baseball. Jackson agreed to play for the Raiders "as a hobby," giving the Raiders one of the most exciting players of the ’80s and Davis one of his greatest coups.

That was then.

This season the Raiders have already lost five games, but only because that is all they have played. Forbes Magazine values the Raiders franchise at $736 million, which sounds like a princely sum but is actually 22 percent below the league average.

Davis has spent the last 25 years creating his own worst enemies. He won his first lawsuit with the NFL in 1982. He has spent much of his time since then tugging on Superman’s cape, dragging the league into court for a litany of bizarre claims. Davis was purportedly responsible for benching running back Marcus Allen, a class act and possibly the best player in franchise history who went on to five very productive seasons for the Raiders’ hated rival Chiefs. Davis fired Mike Shanahan in 1989, allegedly failed to pay him a significant amount of money, and then sued the Broncos when they hired Shanahan as an assistant. After Sunday’s game, Shanahan is 18-5 as a head coach against the Raiders.

The Pentagon announced in 1998 that Cuba was no longer a threat. The Raiders had their last winning season in 2002. Cuba’s economy is a disaster, and the Raiders have cap problems. Cuba’s infrastructure and the Raiders’ roster are in complete disrepair. Neither Cuba nor the Raiders are likely to see brighter days without a change in leadership.

Castro might actually be dead. Davis might as well be. Davis’ entire life has been the Raiders. He has no fortune outside of his football team and has nothing else in his eulogy.

After years of demonizing Davis and Castro, it is time to stop. The time has come to pity them.