ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP)—For nearly all of Al Davis’ tenure with his beloved
Raiders, the franchise has been a near-perfect reflection of its prominent
leader.

That was true when the rebellious owner of football’s renegade franchise
built a team that dominated the opposition on the way to three Super Bowl titles
in the 1970s and ’80s and the best record in American professional sports.

Unfortunately for the Raiders, that has also been the case more recently
when an owner described by his critics as out-of-touch and often times
vindictive has overseen a run of failure in one of the most dismal stretches any
team has ever endured.

Oakland (3-9) is one loss away from becoming just the third NFL team to lose
10 or more games for six straight years. Unlike the previous biggest losers—
Tampa Bay (1983-94) and Detroit (2001-06)—the Raiders began this stretch the
year after going to the Super Bowl.

But with 70 losses and counting since that title game loss in early 2003,
Davis’ team has a chance to tie the Bucs record for ineptitude with 74 losses
from 1983-88.

“It’s hard for him,” former Raiders coach Tom Flores said. “I’ve known
him for a long time. I worked for him for 20 years and helped him win Super
Bowls. I’ve been through the good days, the bad days. His whole life is this
team. Until he can’t he’ll never stop doing what he thinks is right for this
team. That’s the way he is and he’ll always be that way.”

While there have been five head coaches, numerous assistants and scores of
players in this stretch, the constant has been Davis.

By serving as both owner and general manager of the franchise, Davis is a
throwback to a simpler era in the game when titanic figures like Paul Brown and
George Halas ran every aspect of their franchises.

Davis is not nearly the public presence he once was, when he attended
practice almost daily and strutted the sidelines in his trademark jumpsuits. Now
at age 79, Davis struggles to get around and spends much of his day working at
an office away from the team facility.

He plans to hire another front office executive in the offseason and has
talked about eventually passing the team on to his son Mark. But for now he
remains in charge.

“Al has always been his own general manager. He relies on a lot of people
but he remains in charge. Al Davis works just as hard as he ever has worked,”
said senior executive John Herrera, one of Davis’ closest advisers with the
team.

“Everybody says that the game has passed Al Davis by, that all of his
success was in the ’60s and ’70s. But what about the ’80s when we won two Super
Bowls, or the ’90s when we were competitive or the beginning of this decade when
we were a dominant team?”

Those all seem like ancient history now.

This year has been particularly difficult. A feud between Davis and former
coach Lane Kiffin, which became public in January, continued all the way through
the first month of the season before the coach was fired.

A bizarre 90-minute news conference in which Davis lambasted Kiffin while
exposing the dirty laundry of the franchise and admitted on an open microphone
that he didn’t know much about the successor he chose, brought criticism from
some usual suspects as well as some former Raiders.

Raiders officials dismiss much of the criticism as either misguided or from
bitter former employees.

But the off-field distractions have taken their toll on the players. Safety
Gibril Wilson called the franchise the “laughingstock” of the league earlier
this season, while other players have also talked of the frustration with
playing in Oakland.

“You can only bite your lip and play football,” said star cornerback
Nnamdi Asomugha. “That’s what they pay us for. With everything that’s going on,
none of us are blind to it. We talk about it as players. We understand the
nature of what’s been going on. But we still have to perform on Sundays.”

Davis was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame after building a
franchise up from the bottom, winning three Super Bowls and dominating opponents
with castoffs and troublemakers in his first two decades with the team.

But in recent years, Davis’ decisions have not panned out, especially when
it comes to the draft and hiring coaches.

Of the eight players Oakland selected in the first round from 2001-06, only
two are starters for Oakland: Asomugha and guard Robert Gallery. Five are no
longer with the team and safety Michael Huff is a backup.

The Raiders haven’t drafted a single position player who has gone to the Pro
Bowl for them since Charles Woodson in 1998, although Asomugha could end that
string this year.

The verdict is still out on quarterback JaMarcus Russell and running back
Darren McFadden, first-round picks in the past two years.

The lack of stars in the draft played a part in the offseason spending spree
that has failed to pay dividends.

Cornerback DeAngelo Hall got a $70 million contract before being cut after
just eight games. Receiver Javon Walker made 15 catches before going on injured
reserve in the first year of his $55 million deal. Penalty-prone tackle Kwame
Harris got a $16 million deal.

After a brief stretch of success following the hire of Jon Gruden as head
coach, the Raiders have had a revolving door of mostly ineffective coaches from
Bill Callahan to Norv Turner to Art Shell to Kiffin to Tom Cable.

“Al has done everything from being a commissioner, head coach and owner. He
understands the game,” said former Raiders defensive back Rod Woodson. “He’s
very knowledgeable of the ins and outs in the game. Sometimes you have to stand
up in what you believe in as a coach because at the end of the day you will take
the blame when things go wrong.”

Kiffin and Davis clashed from the start, with the coach wanting to
completely overhaul the franchise while Davis had loyalty to many longtime
players and employees.

When Kiffin refused to resign and Davis chose not to fire him, the feud
endured. Kiffin spent most of the summer publicly criticizing personnel moves
and his owner before getting fired with a final record of 5-15.

“Al Davis gave him the car to drive but he didn’t give him the car,”
Herrera said. “It was absurd for him to think that he could tell someone with
Al Davis’ experience and knowledge of the game how to run his team.”

Kiffin got a fresh start this week when he was hired to take over as coach
at the University of Tennessee and cited the experience of working with a
“dysfunctional” franchise as one of his strengths.

Just hours later, Cable was rehashing the botched fake field goal that led
to the team’s latest loss and surely irked the owner who is known for his
dislike of such trick plays.

“Like all of us he’s disappointed,” Cable said. “One thing he and I share
is a tremendous passion for winning. Losing is about the worst thing in our
lives.”