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.”