Davis did more than 'just win, baby'

The founding father of the Raiders Nation, Al Davis, passed away Saturday at the age of 82.

To the legions of fans that make pilgrimages to the Black Hole in Oakland, Davis is the unifying force that made the Silver & Black what it is today.

To NFL commissioners (especially Pete Rozelle) and opposing teams, Davis was extremely polarizing.

The Raiders have been accused of being a dirty team that flaunts the rules of the game since Davis was hired by the team prior to the 1963 season.

Still part of the fledging American Football League, the Raiders hired the then 33-year-old Davis to be both their coach and general manager.

On paper, it seemed like a foolish move by the team in what was thought of as a renegade league.

It turned out that Davis was a decent coach. But what he really excelled at was identifying talent -- particularly talent that other teams deemed to be trash.

Davis drafted players from obscure small colleges like Maryland Eastern Shore (Art Shell) and Texas A and I (Gene Upshaw).

Davis signed quarterbacks who were deemed to be washed up (Jim Plunkett) and castoffs who other coaches declared head cases (John Matuszak).

Love or hate him, Davis knew talent when he saw it and, once upon a time, he knew how to build a winning football team. Between 1967 and 1976, the Raiders went 108-25 and played in Super Bowl I and Super Bowl XI. In Super Bowl I, the Raiders were taken to school by Vince Lombardi’s mighty Green Bay Packers. By Super Bowl XI, the Raiders were the biggest, baddest team in the NFL and pummeled the helpless Vikings in a 32-14 blowout victory.

Plunkett led the Raiders to wins in Super Bowl XV and Super Bowl XVIII. The fact he was even a Raider is another example of Davis’ ability to see excellence when everyone else in the NFL thought he was a washed-up player.

For all the great things Davis accomplished with the Raiders, there can be no denying that he had lost his magic touch in the last years of his life. Between 2003 and 2009, the Raiders suffered through seven straight seasons of double-digit losses.

Davis went through five different head coaches in that painful seven-year span.

The once unassailable Raiders Nation was becoming a laughing stock around the NFL, with Davis bearing the brunt of the criticism.

Last year, led by a punishing running game, the Raiders finished a respectable 8-8.

So what did Davis do? He fired head coach Tom Cable and replaced him with Hue Jackson.

In 2011, the Raiders were beginning to show a bit of the old swagger that made them the scourge of the rest of the NFL.

In a win over the New York Jets in Week 3, the Black Hole was rocking as Darren McFadden ran wild for 171 yards.

Long suffering Raiders fans were beginning to strut around work with a sense of pride that had been missing for a long time.

Little did anyone know that would be the last Raiders’ victory Davis would witness.

To truly understand what made Davis tick, you had to understand the three pillars in which he built the Raiders’ image around:

Pride and Poise

Commitment to Excellence

Just win, baby

Most than just words, these were mantras that Davis lived his life by.

Under Davis, the Raiders did more for African Americans and visible minorities than any other team in the NFL.

It was Davis who hired Art Shell, making him the first African American head coach in the modern era of the NFL.

It was Davis who hired Amy Trask, making her the only female CEO in the NFL.

Black, white, Latino, male, female … Davis didn’t care about the colour of your skin or your ethnic background; he was only interested in people who would make the Raiders a winner.

Was Al Davis perfect?

Far from it.

There are many people who make jokes about Davis and take shots at him for the way he ran the team the last few years.

Most of it well deserved, to be quite frank.

But in his memory, I hope people also take a moment to reflect on the legacy Davis left -- not only the Raiders, but the NFL and professional football in North America.

Personally, I choose to remember Al Davis for this famous post-game speech on TV after Marcus Allen and the Raiders beat the Redskins in Super Bowl XVIII.

Just win, baby; just win. Truer words were never spoken.

Jim Lang is co-host of Brady and Lang in the morning on Sportsnet Radio the FAN 590 and a columnist for sportsnet.ca.