Read the argument from Babe Ruthless and Loyal Homer about who the worst owner in the NFL is.
There are two types of bad owners in the NFL.
The first type is the “Invisible Owner.” That owner who shows reluctance to make any decisions no matter how dire a situation may be. Cleveland Browns owner Randy Lerner is the perfect example of an invisible owner. Rather than get involved in the operations of his team, regardless of how poorly that team is performing, Lerner is quite content to sit back and hide in his owner’s box while his team continues to implode. Either through unwillingness or an inability to effectively involve himself in the running of his team, Lerner’s absence has greatly impacted his team’s ability to develop properly over the 10 years since returning to the league.
The other style of bad ownership comes in the form of the “Meddlesome Owner.” A meddlesome owner is the person who cannot help but involve themselves in so many different aspects of the organization that they simply get in the way. Their need to influence and control every single piece of the team’s operation becomes a hindrance. Rather than let the hired experts within the organization do what they do best, these owners adopt a “my way or the highway” approach to leading their team, and become the biggest obstacle to their own team’s success. Previously, it had been the Cleveland Browns/Baltimore Ravens owner Art Modell that wore the meddlesome crown. Following Modell’s retirement from ownership in 2004, though, it was none other than Al Davis of the Oakland Raiders who stepped in to take his place!
Both Lerner and Davis are worthy candidates for the “worst owner of the NFL debate,” but I have to award the title to Davis, whose stubborn tenacity has impeded the Raiders for a longer period of time than has Lerner’s empty desk.
In January of 2003 Davis appeared to have his Raiders once again on the cusp of NFL dominance. Like so many times during the 1970s and 1980s, the 2002 Raiders had just completed a third consecutive season with at least ten wins and would be representing the AFC in the Super Bowl against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team led by the Raiders’ former head coach, Jon Gruden. It was Gruden and his Buccaneers, though, who would go on to claim a Super Bowl victory that sparked a very drastic downward spiral that the Raiders have been unable to recover from. Since that Super Bowl loss in 2003, the Raiders have not been able to finish a season with a record better than 5-11. The Raiders record in that time has been an abysmal 27-79, and there is no end to the misery in sight for the loyal members of Raider Nation.
Who are the Raider faithful to blame for these struggles? Can a cause for this misery be identified? Yes, it can! All of these problems can be traced back to one person – Al Davis.
The problems began when Davis traded Jon Gruden to the Buccaneers. Davis, who disliked Gruden’s offensive approach to the game (despite its success on the field), sought to deal Gruden away rather than renegotiate a high-priced contract. This single moment become the first domino to topple in a series of drastic interferences by Davis that would lead the Raiders to become the team they are today.
In the eight years since Gruden was traded away Davis has hired FIVE different head coaches, none of whom he has kept around for more than two seasons. He seems to have adopted an extreme interpretation of his “just win, baby” mantra, and now demands IMMEDIATE results. The problem is that the carousel of temporary employees he refers to as head coach leads to instability within the organization. How can the players expect to develop any cohesiveness or consistency when the leadership is constantly in flux?
With instability at coach comes inconsistent and poor talent evaluation. When players are acquired by a team (whether through the draft, trades, or free agency), it is because the coach believes that player is the right fit for their scheme. The problem is that the scheme is changing every two years, but the players are not. Think about the damage that can do to a team – Tom Cable has inherited a team with players drafted or acquired by FIVE different staffs. He has a hodgepodge of athletes, but lacks a football team. There is no guarantee that the acquisitions from one off-season can successfully complement the athletes from other off-seasons.
For those players who are able to successfully adapt from one style to the next, they still do not have ample time to truly perfect their responsibilities. Imagine if an orchestra hired a violinist, but after a year of performances a new conductor is hired that asks the musician to play cello instead of violin. Two years later another change takes place and the musician is switched to the harp, then the flute, etc. When all is said and done the orchestra would sound terrible. Although it technically is staffed by musicians, none of the musicians have had the consistency required to allow them to perform as a cohesive unit. Instead the musicians are constantly trying to learn new instruments.
Al Davis has corrected and over-corrected within his organization so much that the Raiders are spinning out of control. There has been so much upheaval within the franchise that the players and coaches have no sense of unity or cohesiveness. The damage he has done to his team as a result of a meddlesome over-involvement that will likely take years to overcome. As long as Davis continues to enforce his current method of leadership, the Raiders may never truly recover.
