Post by TheShadow on Dec 24, 2005 21:50:53 GMT -5
Part two of two...
---------------------
By Len Pasquarelli
More family history
In order to make the vertical passing game a real threat
for opponents to
fear then Al had to get a big strike receiver. Art Powell
was the man
targeted by Al to fill that role. He had just played out
his option with the
New York Titans and Buffalo signed him to a contract.
Buffalo didn't turn
in the contract to the NFL for fear of owing the Titans
compensation. Al
flew to Powell's house in Toronto, signed him, and sent
the papers to the
league office. Big, strong-armed quarterbacks were il
primogentio, the
favorite son, for Davis' "gutter gang." To strike with the
vertical game the
team needed il musculo in the pocket.
Later in the 60's, the Colts and the Raiders both drafted
Charlie Smith
and both teams were trying to sign him. The Colts were
playing in
California that summer so Carrol Rosenblum (Owner), Don
Kelly (GM)
and Don Shula (Coach) wanted to meet the running back and
set up an
interview. The Raiders caught wind of the meeting and sent
an impostor
to the workout. The Oakland actor had a good build but ran
stiff and tight,
turning the trio off their pursuit entirely. When the
Colts came to play the
Raiders in the preseason, a player came up to Shula and
said, "Hi
Coach." Don asked Al who that was and Al responded,
"That's Charlie
Smith." Shula replied, "That's not the Charlie Smith I
know!" Later,
Charlie Smith came back to haunt Shula in the 1974
Dolphin-Raider
playoff game, now known as the "Sea of Hands." It was Al's
slight of
hand that made this epic battle possible. When Al joined
the team he
wanted to emphasize the military operation of the gridiron
battles with the
statement "We Go to War!" Al Davis carried this credo into
his next
football station: AFL Commissioner.
Fight for Territory
The established league of the NFL looked scornfully upon
the upstart
AFL. All the balls in flight represented cowardice to the
smash-mouth
run-oriented NFL. Owners like Lamar Hunt of the Dallas
Texans
repeatedly applied to enter the NFL. Not only did the NFL
deny Hunt
admission into their fraternity, the league placed an NFL
team in Dallas,
the Cowboys. When the AFL owners became serious about
establishing
their league on firm ground, they brought up their locally
grown heavy
hitter. Al Davis became the AFL's peso pesado.
Stories conflict on this point, but Al Davis and Wayne
Valley were
unaware of the clandestine meetings between Texan
neighbors Tex
Schramm and Lamar Hunt on the topic of merging the AFL and
NFL.
Schramm made NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle aware of the
merger
talks and very few others. There had been an agreement
between the
leagues to not touch players who played out their option,
but the New
York Giants of NFL made the first aggressive move by
taking Buffalo's
kicker Pete Gogolak. As a result: "Al Davis, as the AFL's
'hit man', was
setting the stage for a merger through his pillaging
inroads into the NFL's
star picture." The NFL had the big TV contract and, as a
result, had the
big-name quarterbacks. The new Don of the AFL spread his
rapacious
fingers over the NFL rosters and had pilfered the NFL of
its star
quarterbacks. Even Roman Gabriel was suited to play for
the Silver &
Black. The AFL's Commissioner's response: "Dealing with
optioned
players is a two-way street. While we haven't talked to
optioned players
in the past, we will now." The NFL fretted losing to the
upstart league and
the merger talks sped up. Al Davis served as the AFL
commissioner for
less than 120 days. No matter the station he held in the
AFL, Al exuded
the Raider Cosanostra -- "Ne Vadiamo a la Guerra!" (We Go
to War!).
Clandestine Methods and Informant Network
Way back in the AFL days a young sportswriter approached
the winning
QB of a particular team after a game. He complimented the
gullible QB
and started to inquire as to why he called this particular
play or how he
would react to that particular defense. The flattered QB
rambled on to
this sportswriter for some time. Finally, the writer's
curiosity sated and
his notebook full, he thanked the QB and left. Next week
that team
played that sportswriter's team and lost. The
"sportswriter": none other
than Al Davis.
When John Madden coached at San Diego State, the master
communicator worked his way into Sid Gillman's Charger's
workouts.
Madden, already a great football analyst, relayed
information to a grateful
Al Davis. Madden was one of Al's covert informers
stationed all around
the country to provide intelligence on the workings of
upcoming
opponents.
Walt Michaels, head coach of the Jets, claimed that Al had
bugged his
team's locker room during the 1981 playoff game with the
Raiders. On
the day before the Raiders played the Browns a mystery
Raider coach
named Maury Schleicher got on the "Cleveland Browns bus
parked at the
Oakland Coliseum. After boarding, Schleicher sat down and
became a
'reporter-for-a-day', as quarterback Bill Nelsen and Head
Coach Blanton
Collier (and the rest of the team) drove to a nearby
practice field for a
closed practice. They were trying to avoid prying eyes. As
both coach
and player were engrossed in conversation discussing the
next day's
game plan, Maury was sitting in the seat behind the coach
and
quarterback as they drove to the final workout. The only
deadline this
reporter was going to have would be with Al Davis." Blanda
kicked the
winning field goal at the end of the game during his
Herculean stretch of
improbable game heroics. Two years later the mystery man
was
identified by Jets coach Weeb Ewbank and assistant Walt
Michaels as a
spy on their team bus. Schleicher was dropped off on the
highway.
When the San Diego Chargers coach Harland Svare accused Al
of
placing bugs in the light fixtures and the big boss caught
wind of it, Al
responded with a shrug saying, "I can tell you one thing,
the thing wasn't
in the fixture." Air Coryell's high-octane offense had to
contend with the
suspiciously soggy Oakland turf come gameday, dramatically
effecting
the timing and speed of the offense. To this day Al toys
with the notion of
his band of nefarious spies poised as janitors, news
reporters, and
coaches. In the press conference announcing the signing of
Jeff George,
Al said that the controversial quarterback's history was
thoroughly
investigated. Even if they used listening devices, which
he would neither
confirm nor deny, the information on the renegade was
satisfactory to Al.
Encounter With the Law
Dan Birdwell, a bear of a defensive lineman, was having a
bit of trouble
with his wife. While driving separately to Houston from
Oakland with all
their belongings in the trailer hitched to his vehicle,
Dan saw his wife
speed ahead into the horizon. Dan didn't follow suit since
he was towing
the trailer. Alone, Dan's mind began to wander until he
saw a familiar car
rushing forward in his lane. At the last second, Dan drove
the car sharply
into the desert sand, sending the trailer twisting. She
was going to end
their difficulties right then and there. As a result, Dan
shirked on his
monthly payments and eventually ran afoul of the law. The
next time the
Raiders played the Oilers they were greeted by a platoon
of deputies at
the airport who refused to allow anyone to disembark until
Birdwell was in
their custody. "Davis acknowledged that Birdwell was on
board and
agreed to let the deputies have him, along with a twist of
Al Davis magic.
Al would substitute the Raiders assistant general manager,
Scotty
Stirling, for Birdwell - Scotty would fill in for Birdwell
while the Raiders
scrambled down to the bank to get cash or certified checks
for the back
payments." The Godfather always comes through when parts
of the
mafiosi are in trouble.
La Familia
As a member of the Raider family, the mafioso Madden
learned that
respect wasn't earned and sustained without a fight. "Al
believes that if
you don't believe in something strong enough to fight for
it, then you don't
believe in it strong enough to do it. Al always would make
you stick up
for what you believed." Al was known to say that he fought
with John
since their first day together ... and that's exactly why
he liked him!
Recent coaches until Jon Gruden did not have the backbone
to provide Al
the fight that would draw out their mettle. Derisive
elements that got in
the way of the Raiders becoming and maintaining their
"football power,
any player, coach or owner who posed a threat of dividing
the team, was
dispatched out of Raider-land with a one-way ticket. In
the Raiders first
decade, team division centered on alcohol abuse and racial
discrimination, along with marital discord." After all,
this was a family
here in Oakland. The bad apple, the rat, il bastardo, was
quickly chased
out of la Familia.
Davis is a spendthrift creature of habit. He must have the
same table
when he eats out (with a phone that he's installed), dips
in no
recreational activities, and spends most of each day
planning for the
future of the Raiders. "The only time he seems to be
lavish is when it
concerns his team or the health or welfare of somebody he
knows." The
Raider Don searches to win at all costs, but the one
adversary that
continues to mystify the big boss is death, and it's a
concern for anyone
related to the Raider family; whether through internal
ranks or the
development of a strong opponent, Al strives to intervene
between life and
death of well-known intimates.
Most Raider fans know well the story of Carol Davis's
illness and how Al
stood by her bedside while Flores ran the team. Many have
also heard
the tale of Del Courtney, the Raiders' original band
leader. Struck by a
mysterious illness, Al gave Del the best medical attention
and maxim to
live by: "Del, you're a Raider. Raiders don't die." Lesser
known stories
are of the San Francisco columnist Wells Twombly and
assistant coach
Lew Erber, two men in their forties. Twombly had a liver
disorder long
after he had an aversion disorder for the Raiders which he
expressed
eloquently in his articles. Davis found out that an
out-of-country surgical
process had success with this liver problem and attempted
to persuade
the writer to go. He declined and died shortly thereafter.
Less gruesome
for the Godfather was Lew Erber's story. Lew and Al
departed under
intense conflict in 1981. Within a couple of years, Lew
was diagnosed
with a rare virus that prompted grand mal seizures. Al
found the best
doctors for Lew and as the disgruntled employee's health
improved, he
was dumbfounded to discover his benefactor. Said Erber,
"Tom, Al and I
didn't even talk the last few years I was with the team. I
can't believe that
he would help me after the way we didn't get along. He is
a difficult
person to understand."
The Godfather will slay you if you get in the way of his
empire, but he will
take care of you when life bumps up against the one thing
the
organization cannot dominate. An excerpt from a recent Jim
Jenkins
article shows how clearly Davis values the necessity of
adversaries and
that puny little fights are mere blips on the screen where
his vision is
played out: "Last year, for example, when ABC's Al
Michaels attacked
Davis during a telecast of a Raiders game, Trask went
ballistic. She also
publicly lambasted Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan for
asserting
that Davis owed him money after firing him as Raiders
coach in 1989. 'I
have arguments with Al all the time that we should respond
to some of
the people who attack us, but he doesn't always see it
that way,' Trask
said. 'He counsels me to focus on the larger picture.'"
The Godfather
protects, guides, and remembers those who come into his
House of
Thrills. If he comes to your house, please, don't feed him
fish!
Sources used are as follows, with a rough reference and in
no
particular order:
Flores, T. and Cooney, F. (1992). Fire in the Iceman.
Svihus, B., Hawkins, W., and Dalby, D. (1987).
Raider—How
Offensive Can You Be.
Matuszak, J. and Delsohn, S. (1987). Cruzin' with the
Tooz.
Madden, J. and Anderson, D. (1984). Hey, Wait a
Minute (I Wrote
a Book!).
Cassady, S. (1975). Oakland Raiders: The Good Guys.
Jenkins, J. (September 3, 1998). "Trask, Allen
considered likely
successors to Davis," in the Sacramento Bee.
---------------------
By Len Pasquarelli
More family history
In order to make the vertical passing game a real threat
for opponents to
fear then Al had to get a big strike receiver. Art Powell
was the man
targeted by Al to fill that role. He had just played out
his option with the
New York Titans and Buffalo signed him to a contract.
Buffalo didn't turn
in the contract to the NFL for fear of owing the Titans
compensation. Al
flew to Powell's house in Toronto, signed him, and sent
the papers to the
league office. Big, strong-armed quarterbacks were il
primogentio, the
favorite son, for Davis' "gutter gang." To strike with the
vertical game the
team needed il musculo in the pocket.
Later in the 60's, the Colts and the Raiders both drafted
Charlie Smith
and both teams were trying to sign him. The Colts were
playing in
California that summer so Carrol Rosenblum (Owner), Don
Kelly (GM)
and Don Shula (Coach) wanted to meet the running back and
set up an
interview. The Raiders caught wind of the meeting and sent
an impostor
to the workout. The Oakland actor had a good build but ran
stiff and tight,
turning the trio off their pursuit entirely. When the
Colts came to play the
Raiders in the preseason, a player came up to Shula and
said, "Hi
Coach." Don asked Al who that was and Al responded,
"That's Charlie
Smith." Shula replied, "That's not the Charlie Smith I
know!" Later,
Charlie Smith came back to haunt Shula in the 1974
Dolphin-Raider
playoff game, now known as the "Sea of Hands." It was Al's
slight of
hand that made this epic battle possible. When Al joined
the team he
wanted to emphasize the military operation of the gridiron
battles with the
statement "We Go to War!" Al Davis carried this credo into
his next
football station: AFL Commissioner.
Fight for Territory
The established league of the NFL looked scornfully upon
the upstart
AFL. All the balls in flight represented cowardice to the
smash-mouth
run-oriented NFL. Owners like Lamar Hunt of the Dallas
Texans
repeatedly applied to enter the NFL. Not only did the NFL
deny Hunt
admission into their fraternity, the league placed an NFL
team in Dallas,
the Cowboys. When the AFL owners became serious about
establishing
their league on firm ground, they brought up their locally
grown heavy
hitter. Al Davis became the AFL's peso pesado.
Stories conflict on this point, but Al Davis and Wayne
Valley were
unaware of the clandestine meetings between Texan
neighbors Tex
Schramm and Lamar Hunt on the topic of merging the AFL and
NFL.
Schramm made NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle aware of the
merger
talks and very few others. There had been an agreement
between the
leagues to not touch players who played out their option,
but the New
York Giants of NFL made the first aggressive move by
taking Buffalo's
kicker Pete Gogolak. As a result: "Al Davis, as the AFL's
'hit man', was
setting the stage for a merger through his pillaging
inroads into the NFL's
star picture." The NFL had the big TV contract and, as a
result, had the
big-name quarterbacks. The new Don of the AFL spread his
rapacious
fingers over the NFL rosters and had pilfered the NFL of
its star
quarterbacks. Even Roman Gabriel was suited to play for
the Silver &
Black. The AFL's Commissioner's response: "Dealing with
optioned
players is a two-way street. While we haven't talked to
optioned players
in the past, we will now." The NFL fretted losing to the
upstart league and
the merger talks sped up. Al Davis served as the AFL
commissioner for
less than 120 days. No matter the station he held in the
AFL, Al exuded
the Raider Cosanostra -- "Ne Vadiamo a la Guerra!" (We Go
to War!).
Clandestine Methods and Informant Network
Way back in the AFL days a young sportswriter approached
the winning
QB of a particular team after a game. He complimented the
gullible QB
and started to inquire as to why he called this particular
play or how he
would react to that particular defense. The flattered QB
rambled on to
this sportswriter for some time. Finally, the writer's
curiosity sated and
his notebook full, he thanked the QB and left. Next week
that team
played that sportswriter's team and lost. The
"sportswriter": none other
than Al Davis.
When John Madden coached at San Diego State, the master
communicator worked his way into Sid Gillman's Charger's
workouts.
Madden, already a great football analyst, relayed
information to a grateful
Al Davis. Madden was one of Al's covert informers
stationed all around
the country to provide intelligence on the workings of
upcoming
opponents.
Walt Michaels, head coach of the Jets, claimed that Al had
bugged his
team's locker room during the 1981 playoff game with the
Raiders. On
the day before the Raiders played the Browns a mystery
Raider coach
named Maury Schleicher got on the "Cleveland Browns bus
parked at the
Oakland Coliseum. After boarding, Schleicher sat down and
became a
'reporter-for-a-day', as quarterback Bill Nelsen and Head
Coach Blanton
Collier (and the rest of the team) drove to a nearby
practice field for a
closed practice. They were trying to avoid prying eyes. As
both coach
and player were engrossed in conversation discussing the
next day's
game plan, Maury was sitting in the seat behind the coach
and
quarterback as they drove to the final workout. The only
deadline this
reporter was going to have would be with Al Davis." Blanda
kicked the
winning field goal at the end of the game during his
Herculean stretch of
improbable game heroics. Two years later the mystery man
was
identified by Jets coach Weeb Ewbank and assistant Walt
Michaels as a
spy on their team bus. Schleicher was dropped off on the
highway.
When the San Diego Chargers coach Harland Svare accused Al
of
placing bugs in the light fixtures and the big boss caught
wind of it, Al
responded with a shrug saying, "I can tell you one thing,
the thing wasn't
in the fixture." Air Coryell's high-octane offense had to
contend with the
suspiciously soggy Oakland turf come gameday, dramatically
effecting
the timing and speed of the offense. To this day Al toys
with the notion of
his band of nefarious spies poised as janitors, news
reporters, and
coaches. In the press conference announcing the signing of
Jeff George,
Al said that the controversial quarterback's history was
thoroughly
investigated. Even if they used listening devices, which
he would neither
confirm nor deny, the information on the renegade was
satisfactory to Al.
Encounter With the Law
Dan Birdwell, a bear of a defensive lineman, was having a
bit of trouble
with his wife. While driving separately to Houston from
Oakland with all
their belongings in the trailer hitched to his vehicle,
Dan saw his wife
speed ahead into the horizon. Dan didn't follow suit since
he was towing
the trailer. Alone, Dan's mind began to wander until he
saw a familiar car
rushing forward in his lane. At the last second, Dan drove
the car sharply
into the desert sand, sending the trailer twisting. She
was going to end
their difficulties right then and there. As a result, Dan
shirked on his
monthly payments and eventually ran afoul of the law. The
next time the
Raiders played the Oilers they were greeted by a platoon
of deputies at
the airport who refused to allow anyone to disembark until
Birdwell was in
their custody. "Davis acknowledged that Birdwell was on
board and
agreed to let the deputies have him, along with a twist of
Al Davis magic.
Al would substitute the Raiders assistant general manager,
Scotty
Stirling, for Birdwell - Scotty would fill in for Birdwell
while the Raiders
scrambled down to the bank to get cash or certified checks
for the back
payments." The Godfather always comes through when parts
of the
mafiosi are in trouble.
La Familia
As a member of the Raider family, the mafioso Madden
learned that
respect wasn't earned and sustained without a fight. "Al
believes that if
you don't believe in something strong enough to fight for
it, then you don't
believe in it strong enough to do it. Al always would make
you stick up
for what you believed." Al was known to say that he fought
with John
since their first day together ... and that's exactly why
he liked him!
Recent coaches until Jon Gruden did not have the backbone
to provide Al
the fight that would draw out their mettle. Derisive
elements that got in
the way of the Raiders becoming and maintaining their
"football power,
any player, coach or owner who posed a threat of dividing
the team, was
dispatched out of Raider-land with a one-way ticket. In
the Raiders first
decade, team division centered on alcohol abuse and racial
discrimination, along with marital discord." After all,
this was a family
here in Oakland. The bad apple, the rat, il bastardo, was
quickly chased
out of la Familia.
Davis is a spendthrift creature of habit. He must have the
same table
when he eats out (with a phone that he's installed), dips
in no
recreational activities, and spends most of each day
planning for the
future of the Raiders. "The only time he seems to be
lavish is when it
concerns his team or the health or welfare of somebody he
knows." The
Raider Don searches to win at all costs, but the one
adversary that
continues to mystify the big boss is death, and it's a
concern for anyone
related to the Raider family; whether through internal
ranks or the
development of a strong opponent, Al strives to intervene
between life and
death of well-known intimates.
Most Raider fans know well the story of Carol Davis's
illness and how Al
stood by her bedside while Flores ran the team. Many have
also heard
the tale of Del Courtney, the Raiders' original band
leader. Struck by a
mysterious illness, Al gave Del the best medical attention
and maxim to
live by: "Del, you're a Raider. Raiders don't die." Lesser
known stories
are of the San Francisco columnist Wells Twombly and
assistant coach
Lew Erber, two men in their forties. Twombly had a liver
disorder long
after he had an aversion disorder for the Raiders which he
expressed
eloquently in his articles. Davis found out that an
out-of-country surgical
process had success with this liver problem and attempted
to persuade
the writer to go. He declined and died shortly thereafter.
Less gruesome
for the Godfather was Lew Erber's story. Lew and Al
departed under
intense conflict in 1981. Within a couple of years, Lew
was diagnosed
with a rare virus that prompted grand mal seizures. Al
found the best
doctors for Lew and as the disgruntled employee's health
improved, he
was dumbfounded to discover his benefactor. Said Erber,
"Tom, Al and I
didn't even talk the last few years I was with the team. I
can't believe that
he would help me after the way we didn't get along. He is
a difficult
person to understand."
The Godfather will slay you if you get in the way of his
empire, but he will
take care of you when life bumps up against the one thing
the
organization cannot dominate. An excerpt from a recent Jim
Jenkins
article shows how clearly Davis values the necessity of
adversaries and
that puny little fights are mere blips on the screen where
his vision is
played out: "Last year, for example, when ABC's Al
Michaels attacked
Davis during a telecast of a Raiders game, Trask went
ballistic. She also
publicly lambasted Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan for
asserting
that Davis owed him money after firing him as Raiders
coach in 1989. 'I
have arguments with Al all the time that we should respond
to some of
the people who attack us, but he doesn't always see it
that way,' Trask
said. 'He counsels me to focus on the larger picture.'"
The Godfather
protects, guides, and remembers those who come into his
House of
Thrills. If he comes to your house, please, don't feed him
fish!
Sources used are as follows, with a rough reference and in
no
particular order:
Flores, T. and Cooney, F. (1992). Fire in the Iceman.
Svihus, B., Hawkins, W., and Dalby, D. (1987).
Raider—How
Offensive Can You Be.
Matuszak, J. and Delsohn, S. (1987). Cruzin' with the
Tooz.
Madden, J. and Anderson, D. (1984). Hey, Wait a
Minute (I Wrote
a Book!).
Cassady, S. (1975). Oakland Raiders: The Good Guys.
Jenkins, J. (September 3, 1998). "Trask, Allen
considered likely
successors to Davis," in the Sacramento Bee.