No surprise, Kiffin fired; Big surprise, someone actually agreed to take Raiders' job
There are only 32 of them.
That would be head coaching jobs in the NFL. For the thousands of people who get into football coaching, standing on the sidelines of an NFL team -- headphones in place, play card in hand and red challenge flag at the ready -- is the pinnacle.
Maybe that’s why someone would take the job coaching the Oakland Raiders despite what common sense would dictate. The lure of simply running an NFL team must be that overwhelmingly seductive that someone would voluntarily sign up for a tour-of-duty working for Al Davis.
Lane Kiffin’s time in purgatory ended today with the Raiders. He was 1-3 this season and 5-15 overall. If Kiffin thought hanging on would force Davis to honor his contract, well, the young coach is finding out that nothing is quite that easy with Al. News reports indicate that Kiffin was fired, by phone and according to a terse team statement “with cause.” It would appear that Davis doesn’t intend to pay him.
The next guy who will stand on Davis’ sideline reportedly will be Tom Cable, the offensive line coach. And reportedly, Davis interviewed three people, Cable, offensive coordinator Greg Knapp and team consultant Paul Hackett. Cable was the, ahem, winner.
Cable was a head coach in college at the University of Idaho, his alma mater. He was 11-35 there. Curiously, as a player at Idaho, he was on the same team as Scott Linehan, who was also just fired as the head coach of the St. Louis Rams. But at least Linehan was fired face-to-face and he may actually be paid for the rest of his contract.
Cable will be lucky to get such treatment when his time comes.
Comments
I thought Al Davis's press conference was the all time worst. Unbelievable, he look really bad, and I believe the lawyers are lining up to help Lane get his money from Al. Al claims he fired Lane and will not pay him. I am waiting to see what Roger does about this situation.
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Capt.,
Al has not looked good for some time. That press conference was incredible.
-- Bill O.
Posted by: Captain Jack | October 1, 2008 10:31 AM
If the Raiders were a financial institution, Congress would be attempting a rescue.
Thanks for all your great articles.
Robert
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Robert,
Thanks for the kind words. Great analogy.
-- Bill O.
Posted by: Robert Hurdle | October 1, 2008 11:33 AM
Al Davis is about to die which he considers to be a personal loss. He hates to die, and has a pathological hate of the dying process, and anything that he can't control he resents.
He resents Kiffin because he could not control him so, vindictively, he fired him from the job that Al Davis undermined.
While Al Davis is dying, he wants others to die too. The more other people die, the more he lives on after them, hence his responses that terminate the career of others.
I predict that Al Davis will become more strident and vindictive the nearer he approaches his death, and all of his staff will do everything they can to restrain him, but keeping it all hush hush because, even as he lies in his death bed, he will issue threats to fire them all if they reveal his vindictive nature to the world.
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Vito,
What a chilling analysis ... you paint a macabre portrait of the man and the situation. But even if overstated, I doubt that many would enjoy being part of that organization.
-- Bill O.
Posted by: Vito Positano | October 2, 2008 1:15 AM