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Al Davis

Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2011 6:59 am
by WoVeU
I've been a Raiders fan for 30 years, through many ups and many downs. And through it all the one thing the Raiders have never been was boring. With Davis at the helm this simply could not happen. The Raiders never failed to reflect a few aspects of Al's character. They were never static, Al didn't do static. Because static was, after all, another way of not doing anything. Al was a mover and a shaker for better or worse, moving to the beat of his own heart and shaking things up any and every time things seemed too settled. Al made many decisions I didn't agree with, and that was fine with him. He wasn't the owner of the Raiders because I loved them. I was a Raiders fan because of how they did things, the way they played the game. That then means, I loved them, because of Al's vision of how the game should be played. Thereby I loved the Raiders because Al Davis owned them. I think that is how he saw it. And I was stuck with this "Commitment To Excellence!" The excellence wasn't always there, but the commitment surely was. I always likened Davis to the NFL's MacArthur. Doing things his way and always looking for a fight, getting knocked down only as a preface to rising again. But the last whistle has sounded. The NFL will take the field tomorrow and the Raiders will go on. But every time a sweaty man in Silver and Black lays a "slobber-knocker" on an opposing player, I for one, will imagine Al smiling and see that look of content on his face. Rest in peace Al.