Al Davis, NFL owner and fashion icon.

Al Davis is one of the NFL’s most legendary figures.  Even before he started scaring children as a very old man, he was one of the most important men in football.  He hired the first black coach in NFL history.  He hired the first Latino coach in NFL history.  He hired the first woman general manager in NFL history.  And, no doubt, he fired them all.  Al Davis, the man who gave the Oakland Raiders their bad attitude, passed away yesterday at age 82.

Davis was one of the most lawsuit-prone NFL owners ever, and Davis was constantly getting in trouble with the league and doing things his own way.  Whether it’s taking on troubled players nobody else will pay for, spending first round draft picks on special teams players with huge kicking legs, or being the first owner to blatantly move his franchise in the pursuit of more money (and he probably would’ve moved back to LA again in a few years), Davis was a man who absolutely refused to do anything by anyone else’s rules but his own.

In a lot of ways, Davis was football’s Steve Jobs.  He had his ideas, he had his dreams, and he stuck with them.  Jobs had his iPhone; Davis had the vertical passing attack that revolutionized football in 1963 as the Raiders’ coach, GM, and eventual owner.  Whatever you want to say about Davis, the man had a vision and he stuck with it.

Tags: AFL, NFL, National Football League, Al Davis, Oakland Raiders, Al Davis dead at 82, Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis dead at 82, football, professional football, Oakland, Los Angeles Raiders, Al Davis dead, obituaries, NFL hall of famer Al Davis dead, American Football League

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