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Davis, Vick top list of most disliked in sports
Al Davis has been linked to the Oakland Raiders since 1962, first as the coach and general manager, then as an owner. It’s been a largely successful but controversial ride, one that’s included highly publicized spats with the NFL, lawsuits against him from three California cities (Oakland, Los Angeles and Irwindale) as he moved his club up and down the West Coast, and calling out many of his coaches and star players.
Davis’ profile has dimmed in recent years, thanks mostly to the Raiders’ futility on the field from 2004 to 2009. But over the past couple of years, he’s fired coach Lane Kiffin after barely more than a season, then feuded with Kiffin’s successor, Tom Cable, who Davis also just fired even after he led the team to an improved 8-8 record this past season. All the while, there was Davis’ constant second-guessing of the coaching staff on who to start at quarterback after the flop of 2007 top draft pick JaMarcus Russell.
At age 81 Davis can proudly look back on a career that’s included three Super Bowl titles and a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He also stands as the most disliked sports figure in America. According to the latest survey by E-Poll Market Research, 68 percent of the public gives Davis the thumbs down on likeability. The biggest adjective respondents apply to Davis: “creepy.” Basically, any softening of Davis’s image long after his prime maverick days in the 1980s and 1990s seems to have been washed away in the past couple of years.
“There are just certain guys that people just love to hate,” says E-Poll CEO Gerry Philpott. “A lot of news has come out of Oakland lately, none of it good. That’s not going to reflect well on the owner.”
The “top” five:
1. Al Davis
2. Michael Vick
3. Jerry Jones
4. Tiger Woods
5. Manny Ramirez
Read more: http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ys-forbesmostdislikedinsports013110
Al Davis has been linked to the Oakland Raiders since 1962, first as the coach and general manager, then as an owner. It’s been a largely successful but controversial ride, one that’s included highly publicized spats with the NFL, lawsuits against him from three California cities (Oakland, Los Angeles and Irwindale) as he moved his club up and down the West Coast, and calling out many of his coaches and star players.
Davis’ profile has dimmed in recent years, thanks mostly to the Raiders’ futility on the field from 2004 to 2009. But over the past couple of years, he’s fired coach Lane Kiffin after barely more than a season, then feuded with Kiffin’s successor, Tom Cable, who Davis also just fired even after he led the team to an improved 8-8 record this past season. All the while, there was Davis’ constant second-guessing of the coaching staff on who to start at quarterback after the flop of 2007 top draft pick JaMarcus Russell.
At age 81 Davis can proudly look back on a career that’s included three Super Bowl titles and a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He also stands as the most disliked sports figure in America. According to the latest survey by E-Poll Market Research, 68 percent of the public gives Davis the thumbs down on likeability. The biggest adjective respondents apply to Davis: “creepy.” Basically, any softening of Davis’s image long after his prime maverick days in the 1980s and 1990s seems to have been washed away in the past couple of years.
“There are just certain guys that people just love to hate,” says E-Poll CEO Gerry Philpott. “A lot of news has come out of Oakland lately, none of it good. That’s not going to reflect well on the owner.”
The “top” five:
1. Al Davis
2. Michael Vick
3. Jerry Jones
4. Tiger Woods
5. Manny Ramirez
Read more: http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ys-forbesmostdislikedinsports013110
anyway.
