Iconic Oakland Raider Owner Al Davis Dies

NFL pioneer Al Davis, the iconic owner of the Oakland Raiders has passed away at age 82   .

Love him or hate him, the mark that Brooklyn, NY born Al Davis left on the game of football and the NFL is undeniable. 

In 1963 he became the coach and general manager of a struggling AFL franchise that was playing at a high school stadium and finished 1-13 the year before he arrived.   He turned them into the intimidating force that was the winningest team in professional sports during the 60s', 70's and 80's and claimed three Super Bowl championships in 1976, 1980 and 1983.

If there's a controversial event or iconic play in NFL lore, the Raiders are involved.   Whether it's the 'Heidi Game', the 'Immaculate Reception', the 'Holy Roller', 'Red Right 88', or the 'Tuck Rule Game', the history of the NFL and the history of the game thanks to Al Davis has an unmistakable silver and black thread and swagger.  



And yeah, some of the innovations and rule changes you're familiar with in modern day NFL football are the result of the Raiders in many cases, too.  

When your team's offense employs a 'vertical' passing game or plays 'bump and run' coverage, thank Al Davis and his Raiders for popularizing it. 

He was one of the few owners left in the NFL who made his money strictly from the income of the team and was an equal opportunity employer when it came to finding the best players and people to play for, coach and run his organization. 

He was the first to actively scout and mine HBCU's for football talent.  He was the first to draft an African-American quarterback, hire an African-American head coach in the modern era with his 1988 hire of Art Shell in 1988, the second Latino coach in Tom Flores, and the first female executive/CEO in Amy Trask.   

And speaking of hiring coaches, he was responsible for the trend of hiring young coaches.  He had some great ones such as Hall of Famer John Madden, Mike Shanahan, Jon Gruden and Lane Kiffin, but as they will all tell you, the real coach of the Oakland Raiders was Al Davis.


In 1966 he became the last commissioner of the AFL and aggressively pursued NFL star players even as Lamar Hunt and other AFL owners were negotiating terms for a merger of the two leagues favorable to the AFL.   Davis' bellicose posturing and aggressive stances led to a common draft, the AFL-NFL Championship game that later became the Super Bowl and by 1970 the unified league.

One of the things he didn't get was becoming commissioner of the merged NFL, which went to Pete Rozelle   That led to a decades long feud between the two men, which fed into the Raiders 'us against the world' chip on their shoulders team mentality.  He sued the NFL and won the right to move the team to LA in the early 80's, then moved them back to Oakland in 1995.  

But his feuds and innovations reshaped pro football over the last half century and fuelled its rise to become the most popular sport in the US.

“He is a true legend of the game whose impact and legacy will forever be part of the NFL,” current NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement.

One of the larger than life iconic personalities and owners of the league is gone, and will definitely be missed.

Moni's Thoughts About Renee

This post is about Renee Richards, not my favorite Canadian blogger, but y'all know I think Ms. Martin at Womanist Musings is all that and three bags of ketchup flavored chips.

I just finished watching the ESPN documentary entitled Renée, about her life, becoming a reluctant trans rights spokesperson and just trying to live her life after the television cameras and the intense public attention has moved on.  It also brought back some memories for me, especially during Meghan Stabler's segment of the documentary.



I was a teen in the 70's a year from entering high school when Renee Richards burst into our collective consciousness and our headlines.back in 1976.   I was a high school sophomore when she won her lawsuit that gave her the right to play in the 1977 US Open. 

As someone who was struggling with those same gender issues at the time and was trying to define and figure out who I was, what was going on and why I felt the way I did, she was mine and it seems like just about every transwoman who was a teen in the 70's lightbulb moment.  

Since I grew up in Houston, those of us who lived there already had a trans shero in Toni Mayes thanks to her successful 1975 lawsuit stopping HPD from using the anti-crossdressing law to harass her that Phyllis Frye took down five years later. 


As Meghan mentioned in the documentary, this was the 70's.   We didn't have The Net and we had to find info on transgender issues through microfiche files of newspaper articles in the local library, the rare book or documentary that talked about the subject or cut out newspaper clippings and save them to read later

And seeing Renee's story on screen brought me back to thinking about my own trans journey and specifically my feelings about my high school days.  Was more than a little frustrated about being on the wrong gender team at the time.  I was envious of many of my female classmates and watching them blossom at various speeds into their own burgeoning femininity and feeling like I was alone, in the middle and not part of anyone's team.  

I didn't know at the time that I wasn't alone. I had a classmate going through the same journey from the transmasculine side.

I had more questions about the future than confident definitive answers and although I was unaware I was doing it at the time, was pushing women away who wanted to get to know my 'twin' on a more intimate level. 

Toni Mayes, Phyllis Frye and Renee Richards were my torches guiding me to the beginnings of knowledge about trans issues.  It was the first clue it was possible to transition and still have your hopes and dreams at the same time of a positive life.   It would take me a few more years to sort the issues out, face my fears, summon the courage to do so and finally handle my trans business.  


Back to the documentary.  It was a nice blast from the past and a reminder of how far we have come in some ways, but another reminder of how far we trans people still have yet to go in terms of societal acceptance.

And it was interesting to see how the life of a reluctant trans pioneer turned out.