NFL Hall of Famer Al Davis who is one of the most recognizable figure in NFL history with his Raider's jacket and his slicked back hair and his black sun glasses walking up and down the Raiders sidelines until he could not do it anymore. He had his battles with the likes of Mike Shanahan and Jon Gruden along with other coaches and then thre is the feud with Mucus Allen in the late 80's and was always looking for the best deal as he went back and forth between Oakland and LA.
Al Davis' career in the NFL with San Diego Chargers as offensive line coach in 1962 and then in '63 he was brought into be the head coach and general manager of the Raiders and was the youngest coach in the AFL at the time and he helped the Raiders win 10 games after they had 9 wins total over their first 3 seasons in the AFL. In 1966 he became the AFL commissioner and immediately started signing NFL players which immediately had the NFL and AFL talk about playing games against each other and lead to the invention of the Superbowl as the first one was after the next season. He lasted only three month as he did not like the idea of merging with the NFL and went immediately back to the Raiders and became a partial owner with a 10% share in the Oakland Raiders and began making all the coaching decisions for the next 45 years as he became the director of Football operation and then in '76 he had managed to become the sole owners of the team after forcing out Wayne Valley out as a majority owner.
His Raiders between 1967-1969 seasons lost to the three eventual Superbowl winners as they lost to the Green Bay Packers in Superbowl II and followed that up with loses to both the New York Jets and the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFL Championship game and they went onto win the Superbowl. In the 70's the big bad Raiders were founded as they won the AFC West title 6 times and won Superbowl XI all under Head coach John Madden and after Madden left in '79. The Raiders became the first wild card team to win the Superbowl in '81 in Superbowl XV and then the moving back and forth from Oakland to LA and back to Oakland which started in '82 when they moved to LA where the Raiders won their last Superbowl under the ownership of Al Davis in '83 as they won Superbowl XVII. The Raiders after moving back to Oakland in '94 they became the team that would spend the big bucks for the hot player Larry Brown who was the '96 Superbowl MVP when he caught three passes from Neil O'Donnell the Pittsburgh Steelers while he was the Dallas Cowboy Safety.
Under his ownership the Raiders became one of the most recognizable logos in Football along side the Steelers and the Cowboys and their jackets everywhere and brought some of the craziest fans in football who dressed up and if U were cheering for the opponents U simply did not mess with them.
He was great for the image of the NFL until near his death
Tom Mehegan
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