If there's a lesson that can be learned from the rift that has erupted between Oakland Raiders head coach Lane Kiffin, and owner Al Davis, it is this: let the buyer beware.
Davis has completely ostracized Kiffin, barring him from team meetings, personnel decisions and the hiring and firing of his own coaching and administrative staff. Why would Davis so tie the hands of the man he's paying to run his football club? Well, the answer is simple: Al Davis is a cheap old bastard.
Clearly, Davis doesn't want Kiffin to continue as coach, so why not ax him? Well, coaches in the NFL (unlike players in the NFL,) have guaranteed contracts, so if you want to fire the coach you'll have to pay the remainder of the dollars owed. It's believed that Kiffin's contract is in the neighborhood of $1.7 million for next year, the final of the two year deal he signed prior to the start of last season. There's apparently an option for a third year, but it doesn't look too likely they'll opt for that. So, for Davis to show Kiffin the door it'll cost him a cool $1.7 million. However, if Kiffin quits first, Davis is off scott free.
Kiffin may be the youngest coach in the league, but he's not stupid. Valuing money over pride, when Davis presented Kiffin a letter of resignation for him to sign after the season, he thumbed his nose at Davis and stayed on board.
Of course, Kiffin is not totally without sin in this ordeal. The event which supposedly set off this powder keg was Kiffin putting his name out there for possible college head coaching positions that opened up this year. Hearing this, Davis decided he didn't want another Bobby Petrino on his hands, and went to work making Kiffin's life incredibly uncomfortable.
Now, some people may say, “Hey, it's Al's team, if he wants to fire the guy, who cares?” Well, this is true, Al Davis is the owner of the Raiders and it's his team. However, it's his cheapness which is ruining this once proud franchise. Davis won't open his wallet to hire a top tier coach, this is why he had to turn to a 31 year old man whose top coaching achievement was being the offensive coordinator for USC. Furthermore, despite Kiffin's attempt to bring some accountability to the team, Davis won't allow the firing of his coaching staff because he would have pay off their contracts.
Where will this go from here? Well, who wants to play for a coach living on borrowed time, putting in a half-assed effort just to get a paycheck? Who wants to coach a team when they know their days are numbered and they have no authority over anything except for whether or not to punt on forth down?
So, next year, look for the Raiders to again be not only the bottom feeders of the AFC West, but the NFL as well. At least Al Davis will have saved some cash.
1 comment:
Al Davis is an old crazy man, sure he's got suitcases full of money but he's saving that for a new hair piece. You could say he did good things for football and you may be right but that was too many years ago and he's out of contact with reality.
So live with it or ignore it.
Post a Comment