The late great Hall of Fame owner, GM and former head coach of the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders Al Davis was certainly an enigma. He was both great and weird. He was innovative but eventually became stuck in the past. His raiders teams won 3 Super Bowls and were a dominant force in the old AFL and eventually the NFL in the 1960s through the 1980s.
But at the end of his life, Davis was a stubborn old man, refusing to step aside even as his health and ability to put a winner on the field began to decline. His raiders suffered 7 straight losing seasons in his last 8 seasons as GM. In his last season in 2011, he died before the season ended and his team finished 8-8.
Sound familiar? We may be entering the Jerry Jones version of Al Davis’ career ending. Hope not but does anyone think Jerry would listen to reason at this point?
Al Davis was known to be the primary mentor for Jerry Jones when he became an owner and GM of the Cowboys at aged 46 in early 1989. Davis always told Jerry that he should never cede control of his team to anyone. And Jerry has certainly taken that to heart. It is certainly no coincidence that Jerry has now tied Al Davis as the oldest General Manager in NFL history. At some point in 2025, Jerry will surpass Davis as THE oldest.
The saddest part of all this is at the end of his storied career, Al Davis basically went into a cocoon, listening to no one but family and sycophants who feared him too much to tell him he was hurting his team. If you look at some of Davis’ actions the last few years, it was crazy. Some examples include:
- He drafted K Sebastian Janakowski in the first round of the 2000 draft, and although he was a good K, he would have been available in the later rounds.
- He drafted QB JaMarcus Russell with the first pick of the 2007 draft and Russell turned into perhaps the biggest QB bust of this century.
- He hired and fired 7 head coaches in a little over a decade, making Jerry look stable. He hired two coaches for one year stints.
Davis was famous for firing coaches at the drop of a hat and was famously hard to work for late in his career as opposed to his earlier years when he had all time great coaches like John Madden and Tom Flores who won SBs in the 70s and 80s. Unlike Jerry he did not hold post game pressers after every game and did not do media interviews around the clock.
Bottom line: Jerry Jones has become what Al Davis became late in his career - out of touch, angry, isolated and not capable of putting a team together anymore that could win playoff games. I would love to think Stephen or Charlotte could do an intervention but that is not likely.
