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Originally Posted by 3rd&48ers
When the Raiders were good in the late 90's - early 2000's everybody wanted to play there but after black Sunday everything went downhill fast. After 3 or 4 years of being bad, Al started severely over paying to get players to play for them, He was a brilliant mind in his time but he wanted to do it his way until the end and it was his choice to do so because it was his team. Al was a great guy, the players loved him but he crippled his own team severely with his reaches. Yea, he made alot of bad choices but also delivered 3 Superbowl trophies as well. Al was a fun owner, I wish he had stepped down and put it in capable hands and had a chance to enjoy the team instead of it being in such a long funk at the time he died.
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People forget that Al Davis is one of the most monumental figures in the evolution of the NFL into what it is today. He did it all. Fan, player, coach, commissioner, owner.
What you say about his decline is true, but I would add he fell so in love with speed that he drafted track stars instead of football players. Later in his tenure, he drafted a lot of fast guys who didn't pan out because they weren't very good as football players. He fell too in love with speed. He needed someone to temper that desire in him, but nobody could or would, so he went off the rails.