MVN: Most Valuable Network

The first black NFL head coach, Art Shell, shakes hands with the founding father of Raider Nation

Mr. Davis,

You don't know me.  I was never a top prospect coming out of high school, nor was I a college phenom.  I'm not a coach, a scout, or an agent.  I'm sure that you've seen me over the years, but I know that you don't know who I am.  I don't expect you to know me, nor do I think that you'll ever get to know me.  I do however, expect that you have a good idea of what I'm all about.  I'm a Raider, Mr. Davis.  No, I'm not one that's ever worn the uniform on the field of play.  I'm just a guy that wears the jersey at any Raider function, game, or chance I get to show the world who I am.  I'm a Raider, Mr. Davis, and I want to thank you for being one too.

There's a theory amongst the Raider Nation that you are so much a Raider that you have a black heart.  A black heart that pumps silver blood through the arteries that have helped you to continue to be the life force of a phenomenon that you created decades ago.  A life force that has created millions of other Raiders throughout the world.  A life force that I'd like to thank you for.

Would anyone but you believe that a kid from Brooklyn, N.Y., could ever attain the heights that you have?  A kid that couldn't make the varsity football team at Syracuse University?  Although you couldn't make the cut, you didn't allow that to get in your way.  You hid at every football practice while at Syracuse taking copious notes until the coach caught you and ran you off.  Even then, that didn't stop you.

It's amazing to realize where you are when looking at what you had to do to get there.  After your graduation, you got turned down by the head coach at Adelphi College when you pleaded with him for a job.  You didn't let that stop you then either.  You just went to the school president, sold your abilities, and got that assistant coaching job anyway.

Coaching wasn't your calling though, and football wasn't the only calling you had either.  You joined the Army and parlayed your former line coach position to being assigned as the head coach of Army's Ft. Belvoir, VA, team.  You were on your way, but did anyone besides you realize that you'd make it this far?

You don't fool me Mr. Davis.  I know how important the Raiders are to you, but I believe that it's fourth on your priority list.  A list that includes God, country, and family.  It shouldn't surprise anyone that you are as red, white, and blue as you are silver and black.  How could you not be?  You are born on the day of our nation's independence.

Like our Founding Fathers, you've been a trailblazer who has never allowed fear to change his course.  You've never been afraid to buck the system or challenge the status quo.  The freedom that we celebrate today has always been a practice that you've lived by and allowed others to have.

Unlike our Founding Fathers, your words of 'Just Win Baby,' have always rung true.  While those same founders laid the framework of freedom for all, you ensured that race, religion, or gender was never an obstacle for advancement while you had a say.

It's true that you could be considered a founder of today's football, but the truth is your closer to being the Abraham Lincoln of the modern game.  Your hiring practices and your treatment of people is the epitome of the 'I have a dream,' speech that Martin Luther King once bellowed for the world to hear, but you went even further.

You've made an impact not only in the game of football, but you've helped push social changes that have caused ripples as far reaching as the darkest corners of the planet.  Because of you, equality is more real today than even you might have imagined it could be that day you left home to make your mark.

You were on the staff that coached the first black quarterback in the Pac-10.  This quarterback couldn't even get drafted after graduating from college and was forced to become a defensive back for the Packers.  The quarterback was so talented that he ended up in the hall of fame as a free safety and one of the players that helped to defeat you and the Raiders in Super Bowl II.

Even though that QB, Willie Wood, would go on to be the first black head coach in the modern era by coaching in the World League and the CFL, you would go on to provide even more opportunities that would shape today's game.

Although you inherited the first Hispanic quarterback in American professional football, he was your starter until you traded him for another because you thought that it would help you win more games.  You would later, re-hire that quarterback to be the first Hispanic head coach of the NFL.  He, Tom Flores, would team up with Jim Plunkett to be the first Hispanic quarterback and head coach to win Super Bowls.

You were the first to hire black officials for professional football, the first to draft a black quarterback in the first round, and the first to hire a black man to be an NFL head coach.  Your practice of scouting the small black colleges for talent was not only visionary for the time, but at the same time blind to the practices and attitudes that were prevalent in the business and the culture.

You never stopped there.  When hiring Amy Trask to be a high ranking executive within the organization, it was unheard of.  The only things women were doing as part of football at the time was working the vending stations at the stadium, cheerleading, or being the 'eye candy' of the Sunday telecast.  Now there is a woman in the Hall of Fame for her reporting, while others have become well respected enough to have a website named after them.

You couldn't have known Mr. Davis, could you?  The NFL runs what's called the 'NFL Scouting Combine,' every year to judge many of the same attributes of a player that they used to mock you for doing.  Black head coaches are no longer a rarity and there are plenty of assistants throughout the league who will be a head coach one day.  More women have attained positions of power in other organizations throughout the league.  It's not uncommon to see players from all over the world playing football in the league, which you have been a part of creating.

Did you know?  Did you know that when you jumped into that ocean, called football, that your five foot nothing, hundred and nothing frame would cause as many ripples as it has?  You couldn't have known that you would create a nation that would extend beyond your native land, could you?

The Autumn Wind is a Raider, Mr. Davis, and that Autumn Wind is you.  The U.S. will celebrate the birth of a great nation today, a nation that was built on the values of freedom and justice for all.  Another nation will be celebrating another birth as well, a birth that has helped to spread those American values throughout the NFL and rippling around the world.

You see, Mr. Davis, it doesn't matter to Raider Nation who the citizen is.  The only thing that matters to any of us is that they bleed silver and black like you.  The only color we care about is the color of their jersey must signify those silver and black colors like you.  The only thing we care about, also like you, is winning.

So thank you Mr. Davis and happy birthday.  While we celebrate dual events, the Raider Nation will continue to uphold the singular value, "Commitment to Excellence."