Al Davis press-conference primer

An Al Davis press-conference primer: A whole lot to talk about, right AD?

4:48 p.m. update: It’s official. Hue Jackson is the new Raiders coach and will be introduced at a press conference tomorrow.

* Great point by Lowell Cohn: Yes, Mike Martz’s cool, calm running of the Bears’ offense is more proof of Mike Singletary’s limited vision. I doubt Singletary and Martz could’ve co-existed over any long-term period, but Singletary’s dispatching of Martz–and subsequent hiring of Jimmy Raye–was the biggest staff error of Singletary’s struggling tenure.

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And all those down-field passes to Greg Olsen vs. Seattle yesterday? I thought Martz didn’t use the tight end. That was positively Harbaugh-like, and I mean that in a good way

-Looks like Al Davis will be hiring Hue Jackson (or Mystery Candidate) any day now–tomorrow maybe?–and that means there will be a news conference to announce it.

With Al Davis as the centerpiece, dominant voice, feistiest presence and living icon. Most entertaining events in Bay Area sports, by the way.

Everybody else will just be a prop, up to and including Jackson. As is every coach next to Al, or beneath Al, or being fined by Al, or being yelled at by Al.

Just thought I’d toss out an AD Presser cheat-sheet, as we expectantly await Al’s first full-fledged media appearance since Sept. 30, 2008–the day he fired Lane Kiffin and promoted Tom Cable to interim coach.

Remember, in that time span, the man who emodies everything about the franchise–he’s the owner-president-GM-personnel director-PR director–has not explained his thoughts on:

-The end of JaMarcus Russell’s Raiders career;

-The acquisition of Richard Seymour;

-The acquisition of Jason Campbell;


-The Raiders great 2010 draft class;

-The victory in Kiffin’s grievance arbitration;

-The continued fizzle of Darrius Heyward-Bey;

-The break-out of Darren McFadden;

-The renaisssance of Tommy Kelly;

-The voiding of Nnamdi Asomugha’s contract;

-The comments criticizing the organiztion by Shane Lechler after the Cable dispatching;

You add whatever Al’s going to say about his reasons for dumping Cable and hiring Jackson/Mystery Candidate, and that’s a lot to talk about.

And there’s nobody better–actually there is NOBODY ELSE–to do it than AD.

Some other points…

* Presuming the hire is Jackson, this is another confirmation of the Al Davis Coaching-Hiring Code.

-Since the late-1980s, Al has rigidly alternated between burly offensive line coach (like Art Shell or Tom Cable) and offensive strategist (like Lane Kiffin or Jackson), time and again.

Jackson would be the 11th consecutive iteration of that pattern.

I’d say he has a bettter shot at it than Norv Turner and Kiffin, since Jackson has been in the system for a year and also has a much more vibrant personality than those two gameplanners, which is partly what seems to attract Al to the OL types.

But he also likes the gameplanners. Once he gets tired of the OL types (like Cable). Then he gets tired of the OL types…

* Here’s what I wrote in 2008, summarizing the code and the Al Davis double-presser in 2008, which also included an overhead projector I seem to recall.

* It’s always amusing to go back on the things Al gets mad at, in real time. Here’s the chat after the Lane Kiffin/Tom Cable double-session.

* More from the Lane Kiffin hiring: Deng Xiaoping, Lane Kiffin, Al Davis and me.

As a recent Tweet-responder reminded me, the funniest part of this item (now) is the series of angry Raiders-fan comments on the bottom, furious at me because I dared to question Al about the wisdom of hiring Kiffin.

* The Rustling Ratto, summing it up better than I ever have: Al Davis hates his head coaches.

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