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Is Al Davis wrong to force Lane Kiffin out as Oakland Raiders coach? Two Raider fans debate

The rumors are flying all over the TV and the Internet. “Al Davis is forcing Lane Kiffin out as head coach of the Oakland Raiders.” Much of the Raider nation is up in arms over the potential departure of Kiffin after one year as head coach of the Oakland Raiders. In fact, there is a tsunami of discontent with Al Davis as many Raider fans side with Kiffin in this dispute, believing that Al has lost it and is making a colossal mistake. Others in the Nation see Davis’s move as justified when viewed against his record and his flirtations with NCAA coaching jobs. Today, guest writer GG Eden a member of raiderfans.net will take the position that Lane Kiffin should be shown the door, whilst I take the position that Al needs to back off and let Kiffin coach the team.

Al Davis is making a mistake

Lane Kiffin is the 4th different coach that the Raiders have had since Jon Gruden’s departure in January 2002. Bill Callihan lasted two years, Norv Turner lasted two years, Art Shell was mercifully fired after one year, and now it looks like Lane Kiffin will be gone after a year. This is no way to build a winning football team. It takes more than one year for a coach to come in and turn things around, especially when a team is as far down as the Oakland Raiders have fallen.

Lane Kiffin may not be the second coming of Vince Lombardi or Bill Walsh, but he is not Wane Fontes II:The Revenge, or Art Shell part duex either. In fact, after only one season Lane Kiffin is an unknown quantity. Sure the Raiders were 4-12 in his debut season. Bill Walsh was 2-14 his debut season and followed that up with a 6-10 season, granted the rest of his career he only had one season with single digit wins. The Raiders were 2-14 in 2006, so it could not have been expected (except for maybe a certain occasionally homeristic MVN blogger who got over hyped with a good preseason showing) that the Raiders were going to be in contention.

Regardless of the record, there was a palpable sense of improvement in the Raiders in 2007. Being in games late only to lose is a heart rendering situation. Those losses are often worse than being blown out. That one play that clinches the loss feels like a kick somewhere not so nice, but the fact that the Raiders were in games screamed improvement. It looked like with one more offseason and a few roster tweaks, those close ones would be going the Raiders’ way. Now with Kiffin possibly gone that means starting from scratch yet again.

Admittedly, there were times when Kiffin’s play calling left something to be desired, but he was a first year NFL head coach who had just made the jump from being a co-offensive coordinator at the NCAA level. That is a huge jump. He also did not have the offensive weapons to fully open his playbook. Its hard to call a deep pass when there is no speed receiver that can catch the ball consistently. It didn’t help matters much that he had the still gimpy Daunte Culpepper and noodle armed Josh McCown. Culpepper looked slightly more mobile than Kerry Collins out there, and ended his season trying to race defensive back Stanford Routt, who ran a 4.2 forty. Smart move Daunte. McCown was injury plagued all season, despite playing through the pain, but does not have the requisite arm strength to stretch the ball down field.

Many people will blame Kiffin for not playing Michael Bush, but according to Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee speaking on ESPNEWS, that was a contentious issue between Al and Lane. Lane wanted to cut Jordan and play Bush but Al blocked that move.

Al brought in Lane Kiffin to be the head coach, but whenever Lane tried to make a move apparently he had Al breathing down his neck and countermanding him. The final straw apparently was when Kiffin wanted to fire Rob Ryan and bring in a new defensive coordinator. Kiffin was disappointed in the play of the defense, and rightfully so. The defense could not get a stop when the chips were down. (exception being 4th and 1 against KC.) The run defense was pathetic. Kolby Smith, and RON DAYNE both went over the 100 yard mark against them. With a performance like that, there is every reason to believe that a change would not hurt.

It is time for Al Davis to step back and let his coaches do their jobs. This is no longer1976 and the game has changed and not for the better. In the book Slick: The Silver and Black Life of Al Davis, there is a telling line:

“He’s still talkin’ about how, hell, we don’t believe in a tailback orient offense because it’s never won a Super Bow,” said Todd Christensen. “Well look at John Riggins with the Redskins, look at Joe Morris with the Giants, look at Walter Payton with the Bears. And now look at the Raiders. What are Marcus Allen and Bo Jackson? They’re running the ball almost two-to-one to passing plays.

“Again, let’s see things as they really are. Raider football–in the the technical sense–doesn’t exist any more. If it exits, it exists in their character.”

(pg343)

This was speaking about the Raiders in the 1990 season. That was 18 years ago, and it seems that Al was already out of touch. These words came from the mouth, not of a Raider hater, but of a Raider great. Its time, Al. You had a great run, not step back and let the coaches coach.

Al is right to tell Kiffin to walk the plank

by GG Eden

Before I outline the body of my debate, I must say that, although I have a strong affinity towards Al Davis, my ultimate affinity is with the truth. I always try to be as unbiased as possible. Truth above ego always. So, I am not trying to find arguments to defend Al Davis here. Instead, I am attempting to dissect a situation objectively and make a judgment based on degrees of truthfulness.

Even before the Kiffin fiasco began, one must appreciate that Al Davis is a popular target for criticism and blame. There are no doubt times in the past where Al Davis has erred, or deserves criticism, blame. But if we’re to analyze the Kiffin fiasco properly, we cannot have a default attitude based on Al Davis’ past. Why? Because that is prejudice, bias. One must look at every case individually. The perception too is that Lane Kiffin is a young man with no precedence of being conniving, a fresh-faced innocent. But the reality is that Lane Kiffin is a baby-faced assassin. He is not stupid or lacking wiles. So he must be adjudged accordingly.

Since the rumors and reports started emerging of a rift between Al Davis and Lane Kiffin, there has been a concerted, prejudiced, default stance taken by national and local journalists to savage and crucify Al Davis at every opportunity. The journalistic integrity and skills have been abysmal. Many of the preeminent articles written about the Kiffin fiasco are shameful in their bias, pettiness, and downright hatefulness. It’s clearly highlighted a propaganda campaign to savage Al Davis and attempt to influence the public to share their hatred, pettiness, and bias. What follows is piggy-back article after article that takes the same theme and rehashes it. What you have then is a mass hysteria among the journalists themselves who point to the insisting that they can see the Virgin Mary, and therefore fans eating it up by the spoonfuls and also insisting that they too see the Virgin Mary. As a man, a fan, and an observer, it is apparent that all these journalists savaging Al Davis are only exposing their true colors throughout the process more than they are exposing Al Davis for any wrong-doing. There has not been one article anywhere that has even attempted to be objective, to impartially analyze everything, or even to default defend Al Davis. This alone confirms not that all these reporters are right in their assessments of the Kiffin fiasco, but only in confirming their prejudice and agenda of hatred.

Another misconception is that the Oakland Raiders is run very differently from other NFL franchises. The only essential uniqueness is that Al Davis is the last of the great hands-on owners like George Halas and Paul Brown before him. A football franchise is not too dissimilar to other industries or fields. Like the movie studios, a banking corporation, or even the US Army. In all those fields there are these types of men throughout history like General George Patton, Orson Wells, or Stanley Kubrick, to name just a few.

All these men share the same types of characteristics. They are all highly knowledgeable about their field, they are all hands-on, they are all super-passionate task-masters, have a very clear and hard-nosed philosophy, and are legendary pioneering figures. The types of men who rise and become such dominant and domineering characters in any field of endeavor usually share these characteristics. They are not mere mortals like other men in their same fields, and therefore cannot be expected to be like them.

One must analyze first what the norm is throughout the NFL. What the hierarchical structures are. How they work. The Oakland Raiders is no different to any other NFL franchise. They all have an Owner, a General Manager, and a Head Coach. In that hierarchical order of power and control. The Head Coach itself, throughout the NFL, is often a position that does not have full control over football matters. And, again, the only Head Coaches who have such power and control are legendary figures themselves with decades of NFL experience. Men like Bill Cowher, Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, to name a few.

Often, even these legendary figures do not have ultimate say. An example is Jerry Jones overruling Bill Parcells over Terrell Owens. Not just overruled but forced out the door in preference for retaining Terrell Owens. This is Bill Parcells we’re talking about! It’s ironic but interesting to note that Lane Kiffin was allowed by Al Davis to trade Randy Moss away. A similar situation where the supposedly demonic Davis granted a rookie Head Coach to have his way. Done so out of a desire to do the right thing by his new, young Head Coach. Where is the demon here? Right around the NFL, as we speak, Owners and General Managers are overruling their Head Coaches on football matters. Where is the incessant 24/7 barrage of hateful press towards these franchises, owners, and general managers? Instead, it’s always a popular easy-out for the media to focus on the big bad Al Davis.

One of the key points that defends Lane Kiffin is that he should have ultimate control over personnel hirings. Or even that he should have more control. In particular, the ability to hire and fire his defensive coordinator and/or members of his staff. Again, taking a look throughout the NFL, we see many examples of Owners and General Managers who do not grant the Head Coach this power. We also see many teams where the General Manager and/or Owner have already hired their coordinators weeks or months before they even hire a Head Coach. Where is the 24/7 media campaign to demonize these Owners and General Managers for this behavior? Why is it okay for every other franchise to do this but it is evil of the Raiders to do it?

Further to that, and the essence of my problem with Lane Kiffin, is that Al Davis, this legendary figure, who is an Owner and a General Manager, has granted a young man the rare opportunity to be a Head Coach of an NFL team. Lane Kiffin was an assistant Offensive Coordinator in the NCAA. Ordinarily, his best chance would be to patiently and diligently work his way up towards Offensive Coordinator and finally Head Coach in the NCAA. From there, he would perhaps get an opportunity as an Offensive Coordinator for an NFL team for 2-5 years, and then, depending on his level of performance, might become hot commodity for a Head Coaching job in the NFL. That whole road often takes decades. It is Al Davis’ left-field approach that has granted this young man stuck at the back-end of the coaching queue a chance to stand at the front of the queue. This is a most generous opportunity, even cynically, where now Lane Kiffin is on the map. Where he has fast-tracked and by-passed the whole culture of the NFL coaching merry-go-round above many men who have years more dedication, experience and loyalty shown to the NFL, their owners, and probably deserved it more than Lane Kiffin. In my opinion, the mistake Al Davis made was in hiring Lane Kiffin as a Head Coach above the man who also applied for the same job but ended up remaining and working underneath Kiffin. It would surely create tension. It would surely inflate the ego of a naturally egotistically driven young man like Lane Kiffin. Instead of being humbled by the opportunity and looking to knuckle-down and prove his worth to Al Davis, his boss, Lane Kiffin stomped into Alameda with a chip on his shoulder to prove to everyone that he could scalp Al Davis. Right from the beginning, he has snubbed his nose at his boss, ignored his advice, deliberately benched players that Al Davis wanted to retain or placed them last on the depth chart never to even get any significant reps in practice. He deliberately started a too-injured Josh McCown to spite Al Davis’ preference for Daunte Culpepper. So much so that in the end all that Lane Kiffin achieved was to riddle McCown with too many niggling injuries that only got worse the more he got used. He didn’t even do the right thing by his quarterback. And the extent of this power game with Davis is that Lane Kiffin let his coaching suffer in the process. He wasn’t able to do more offensively due to the limitations of McCown (injured or otherwise) at quarterback. The play-calling and scheming was compromised therefore to the detriment of other players around him and facets of the game. In short, instead of embracing this rare opportunity and knuckling down to do a great job, he invested far too much time trying to push Al Davis, trying to bully him, trying to play power games with his boss and his defensive coordinator, and playing silly media games of “who’s my starter”.

Lane Kiffin’s play-calling itself was abysmal. There was none of this “explosive offense” that he promised. Instead, it was sophomoric in its planning and execution. Ideas like ignoring 20 yard Field Goals down 0-6 early in the 2nd quarter while other times taking multiple 55-65 yard Field Goal attempts at the most inopportune time, like 1 minute left in the half that causes a turnover of possession and the other team to quickly score a TD on a shortened field and move 17-0 up at the half. Using so extensively an injured and limited McCown ends up meaning that a lot of the down-field passing is eradicated, and the opposition can easily counter the short game through press coverage. When Kiffin calls run-run-pass on 3rd and long, it therefore places extra risk of failure on the shoulders of all his players. The defense keys in, defensive backs cheat up the field, blitzes are sent, and therefore intercepts, fumbles, sacks, and incomplete passes occured too regularly. If Kiffin preaches the idea of minimal turnovers, his own coaching not only amplified the probability of turnovers and offensive line penalties occurring, but his own adoration of long field goal attempts themselves were like a coaching turnover. Kiffin coached the team into being a turnover machine, and was all too ready to deflect blame towards Tom Cable and/or leap to the defense of his prefered quarterback. One cannot count the times that Lane Kiffin said of McCown post-game something like, “forget all the mistakes for 3.5 quarters, focus on the last 7 minutes of garbage time when McCown did something good, and how that’s something to work on for next week”. Here is a head coach who all season showed resilience to learn, to take advice, to utilize players on his roster who could help him be more explosive, and who’s MO was to always defend himself, his favorite players, and justify it all with a bunch of empty abstract platitudes.

Let us examine another rookie Head Coach in the NFL. Gary Kubiak of the Houston Texans. Here is a man who has several years of NFL experience for the Denver Broncos. He was hired as Head Coach with a lot of restrictions and restraints, and savvy NFL experienced men placed above him and alongside him as assistant coaches who would look over his shoulder and have ultimate say over him but less say than the General Manager. Kubiak was also only granted control of the offense, and only limited control at that. However, Kubiak never complained or snubbed his nose at all these men. Instead, he has openly spoken about how much he appreciates that platoon of support staff, how he wants to learn from them, anything to make him a better Head Coach. Lane Kiffin, in contrast, has had the completely opposite attitude, one which places himself as deliberately vying against Al Davis rather than working alongside him, humbly learning from him. With all the advice he sought and word he’d heard about working with Al Davis, he took it upon himself to start a war of attrition, a power struggle.

Right away, the notion that Lane Kiffin was being shorted out of control of his team is incorrect. He accepted the job knowing full well what Davis was like, what Davis demanded in terms of limitations of control. And pushing as he did for more control, he was granted the power to hire 5 offensive offensive assistants and to name his staff (players, roster, scouts). Which he was given by Davis. This sort of control has been acknowledged as being a lot more than what other Raider Head Coaches have been given, and beyond that, is unheralded for such a young and inexperienced man as Lane Kiffin. For Lane Kiffin to take it upon himself to actually release Rob Ryan from his contract or try to release him behind Al Davis’ back is clearly a breach of contract, and just lacking common decency and appreciation of the hierarchical structure itself. Al Davis is still his boss. Where is the sincerity in there to work alongside Davis? Not only Rob Ryan but Brian Millard as well. Lane Kiffin has no jurisdiction to grant himself this level of control.

Next we analyze the Arkansas rumors. At some point mid-season, Lane Kiffin is rumored and reported to be slyly seeking Head Coaching jobs in the NCAA while still under contract with the Raiders. Mid-season! This was months before any of the Rob Ryan being fired rumors occurring and therefore complaints about not being given ability to hire/fire coaches on the defense. This leads, apparently, to the conclusion that Lane Kiffin was merely using the Raiders and Davis to prosper his own career, to quit on his team, his players, the fans, and his boss, to take up a head coaching job where he would have ultimate control and power. These are the motivations and actions of a man with an agenda and drive towards power-mongering. Nothing else. The whole Kiffin fiasco is fueled by a desire to control everything, to be the ruler of a team 100%. It is very ironic and hypocritical of Kiffin given Davis is where Lane Kiffin wants to be. A wannabe shark. It is also begins to expose Kiffin as a man of shallow platitudes when all the while he is selling to the media and fans this attitude of not being a quitter. It is also hypocritical of Kiffin to even complain about any perceived lack of control when you consider that if one of Kiffin’s assistant coaches took it upon himself to fire another assistant coach or to dare bully and challenge Kiffin over some personnel decision, that he would immediately and harshly be dealt with. A good example here is how Kiffin had a problem with Dominic Rhodes’ attitude, and childishly placed him at the back of the depth chart all year if not for Fargas’ injury late in the year. Or, how BJ Ward made one error and was sent right out the door immediately. Kiffin demands absolute loyalty and obedience from those underneath him, as part of the hierarchical structure. Yet, he is thumbing his nose at his boss, and deliberately waging a personal war. And has the hide to complain and pout about being overruled.

In conclusion, what we have here is a young power-mongering man, not embracing the opportunity afforded to him in the NFL by a legendary figure who commands respect and humble learning from. Instead of knuckling down, eating up adversity, and knuckling down doing the best job, utilizing the best players, and doing it for the term of his contract in order to validate his hiring and give to the Raiders a long-term commitment, Lane Kiffin has shown either an conniving agenda to use Davis and the Raiders to springboard himself towards a more power-orientated head coaching job elsewhere…..or…..has shown a man full of hot air who just didn’t have the cojones, the smarts, and the ability to survive the rigors of the NFL. A man out of his depth, pouting and whining a sly way out of a difficult job, fleeing for something easier and nicer.

GG Eden is a member of raiderfans.net, and always looks to bring unique views to the table.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 12:05 am and is filed under 2008 Raiders Offseason, Raider Nation, Oakland Raiders Rumors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.