If Al Davis Were Alive, He Would Definitely Be The Most Likely To Hire Me As An NFL Coach, Or Member Of The Player Personnel Staff

Even though I’ve grown up a Kansas City Chiefs fan my whole life, Chiefs and Raiders rivalry jokes aside.

I truly do feel like if Al Davis were alive, he would definitely be the most likely to hire me as an NFL coach, or member of the player personnel staff.

I know the last few years of his life were cause for people to make a mockery of him, but in his younger days.… As someone who follows the history of the game, he was really innovative and did a lot of things to move the league forward before they became trendy, or popular. Not to mention, unlike most owners these days, he didn’t make his money in order for him to own the team in some other venture in life. For example, to further articulate my previous points. Paul Allen who was the former owner of the Seattle Seahawks, and Portland Trailblazers. He made his fortune co-founding Microsoft with Bill Gates. Bud Adams who was the former owner of the Tennessee Titans, who were previously the Houston Oilers, made his money as an oil tycoon. Arthur Blank who owns the Atlanta Falcons, also owns Home Depot.

The constant battling with the Commissioner and league offices over various business and legal practices just overshadows all the other work Al Davis did for the sport of football.

Al Davis was an actual coach who became an owner. So much like myself, he actually knew what he was doing as far as building a team goes. He started out as the Wide Receivers Coach for the Los Angeles/San Diego Chargers from 1960 to 1962 under Sid Gillman. Who created the modern NFL passing game. Then he went to the Raiders in 1963 as the 1st successful Head Coach they had. Then he stepped down from doing that to be Commissioner of the rival league to the NFL known as the AFL, which the Oakland Raiders were a part of. After that, when both leagues merged in 1970, he went back to the Raiders and became 1 of the majority owners.

He had the 1st Latino Quarterback start for the Raiders, which is Tom Flores in the sixties. Tom Flores became the 1st Latino Head Coach, and simultaneously, 1st Hispanic individual who won a Super Bowl, with the Raiders in the eighties also. 1st black/brown skinned African-American Head Coach who was a former player for the Raiders during their heyday in the seventies under John Madden as the Head Coach, Art Shell. 1st woman CEO of an NFL franchise, Amy Trask. In the sixties, he was 1 of the 1st coaches to draft brown/black skinned African Americans from historically black colleges, which was seen as very radical. In today’s NFL the league is nothing but 70% players of black/brown African descent. So I definitely feel like if there’s one team that would take a shot on me, it would be the team led by Mr. Al Davis.

With my theater and film skills, let me channel my inner actor as I do my Al Davis impression in his trademark Brooklyn, New York accent. This is what I have a feeling our conversation would sound like.

Al Davis: “Dat Brad Freeman is 1 of da most innovative young people I’ve ever met. Too bad he’s a Kansas City Chiefs fan. Cause he’d make a great Raider. Nobody eats, sleeps, breathes, and lives his life every second of the day, to be the greatest of all time more than he does. He is the very embodiment of the commitment to excellence that it takes to be a champion around here. He’d lead da Raiders for the next 10 years at least. He told me his goals were to do nothing but be the best and be remembered for all time at whatever profession he does. I asked him the 1st thing you do to fix da team? He said, he was gonna fix da Quarterback. I looked him dead in the eye, and said, Brad Freeman… You’re gonna dominate your profession.”

Los Angeles/San Diego Chargers Uniforms

So with last night’s Monday Night Football game in Los Angeles at Sofi Stadium being in a lightning delay (which is the only way a football game is ever delayed for those that don’t know), even though they were in a dome, which defeats the purpose when the sides are open. It really got me to thinking.

1. They’re in a dome which protects them from the elements, so that they can play the game no matter the weather. So why make the sides open like an outdoor stadium with no roof? It defeats the purpose right? The commentators were out on the field, the fans were told to shelter in place, but the players and coaches making thousands and millions of dollars are allowed to go back to the locker room for their safety. So if you’re making the big bucks, apparently you’re allowed to take cover right!? Everybody else is seen as expendable as far as I can tell. LOL.

2. Any sports, and especially football fan knows that the classic nineteen sixties powder blue and white Chargers uniforms are considered the best in football from an artistic standpoint. I always said that the Chargers should make a modern version of those sixties uniforms, and just continually wear those. And sure enough, all it took was for them to move back to Los Angeles in 2016 for them to permanently change their uniforms into a modern version of those classic powder blues that I mentioned before. They were the Los Angeles Chargers in 1960 which is the year they were founded. But starting in 1961 and continuing until 2015 they were the San Diego Chargers, with a darker navy blue, gold, and white color scheme, starting in the seventies.

I totally feel like they ripped off my idea, but I digress.

I also feel it important to make it clear that I’ve always felt that the Chargers should’ve stayed in San Diego, because that’s where they've been for most of their history, except for 1960 and 2016 to the present. I feel the same about the Rams, who share a stadium with the Chargers now. They were in Cleveland from 1937 to ‘45, and then LA from 1946 to ’94. ‘95 to 2015 they were in St. Louis. I feel like they should’ve always been the Los Angeles Rams. Even the great Eric Dickerson has backed me up on this. As far as the Raiders go, I’ve always felt they should’ve stayed in Oakland because from 1960 to '81, they were in Oakland. Next, they moved to LA from ‘82 to ‘94. Then back to Oakland from ‘95 to 2019. Now, they’ve moved to Vegas as of 2020. 2021 is the 1st year fans were allowed in the new stadium since COVID.