Over the weekend, Raiders owner Al Davis passed away at the age of 82. Davis is one of the most important figures in NFL history. At different times in his life he was also the Raiders coach as well as their GM, and was briefly the commissioner of the AFL, which eventually merged with the NFL to create the behemoth we see every Sunday. Davis, like George Steinbrenner, the enigmatic former owner of the New York Yankees, is not someone who can simply be blessed as flawless. In fact, in the rush to lionize him for the Raiders’ 3-2 start this season, people forget how incompetent they thought he was over the last decade, how everyone acknowledged that his very presence was ruining the team. There were often talks of how the Raiders needed to be “rescued” from Davis, as they endured seven consecutive losing seasons following Super Bowl XXXVII in 2002. They forget how he moved the franchise to Los Angeles in the 80’s only to move them back to Oakland, or how he benched future Hall-of-Fame running back Marcus Allen for no other reason than because he didn’t like him.
NFL Notes & Records: Week 5 -- Vick flourishes in another loss
The story of the league’s history can’t go very many pages without mentioning his name. His persona, the crotchety old man in a black leather jacket, will live on forever, as will many of his quotes: “The quarterback must go down, and he must go down hard.” “Just win, baby.” But he wasn’t infallible, and as far as being the owner of the team is concerned, he may not exactly be missed. Many of the tributes to him ring insincere, since it seems the same people who lambasted him for drafting JaMarcus Russell and making bad pick after bad picking are now praising his hiring of Hue Jackson as though it was a stroke of genius.
If this sounds pithy, I don’t mean it to be. I’ve always felt that people need to be treated as three-dimensional figures with flaws and problems and vanity, like the rest of us bums. I can’t tell you how annoying it was for Jerry Falwell to be treated like a sweet little old man when he died, even though there were thousands of things he said that showed what a vitriolic muckraker he was -- like when he blamed gays and lesbians for 9/11. Same thing with Michael Jackson. He was a brilliant, brilliant musician, but as flawed and eccentric a celebrity as we’ve ever seen, a man who literally wore his flaws on his face. And yet everyone wanted to focus on his music and disregard everything else that made him Michael Jackson. Davis was a legendary man, who none of us won’t soon forget, and he did a ton of great things for the Raiders and the NFL. But let’s not disrespect who he was by conveniently ignoring his faults and convictions, because that’s what made him who he was.
So, if I haven’t lost you through those first couple paragraphs, here’s some of the other historical things that happened in the NFL on Sunday.
- Michael Vick is officially the greatest running back in NFL history. Vick rushed for 90 yards on Sunday, and is now the all-time record holder for rushing yards by a quarterback, as well as the single-season and single-game leader in that category. Unfortunately, Vick’s team looks downright dreadful thus far. The Eagles are 1-4 in a rather shabby division lead by the Redskins, and it’s early, but only five of the 100 teams since 1990 to begin 1-4 have made the postseason. Next week’s matchup with the Redskins is obviously a must-win. The Eagles are displaying all the traits of bad teams. They’re turning the ball over, they’re not managing their timeouts well; they’re missing field-goals and making bad penalties. Yesterday, they committed five turnovers, not to mention jumping offsides on the final play of the game, which prevented them from getting the ball back. The Eagles are finding more and more ways to lose, something that will probably keep them out of the playoffs from the look of it.
- The records are starting to fall. Week 5 continued the rampant passing numbers we saw through the first four weeks, and it’s only a matter of time before history is made. ProFootballTalk points out that there have already been ten 400-yard passing games this season, which is only three off of the single-season record in 1986 and 2004. Meanwhile, there are still half a dozen quarterbacks capable of breaking Dan Marino’s single-season yardage record, potentially seven depending on what Matthew Stafford does tonight.
- Roethlisberger ties Steelers mark. Ben Roethlisberger went from being questionable to even play against the Tennessee Titans with a sprained foot to throwing for a franchise-record five touchdowns, a record he had already tied in a previous game with Terry Bradshaw and Mark Malone. Right no, the NFL is transparently being run by passing teams. The Packers and Lions and Patriots are great because they have great quarterbacks; the Colts lost Peyton Manning, and now it looks like they’re the front-runners in the Andrew Luck sweepstakes. The Steelers have a made living as a team that runs, but with Rashard Mendenhall battling a hamstring injury and looking average even when he’s healthy, it was important for Ben to show he can still have a good game. The Steelers are still a force to be reckoned with in the AFC.
- Janikowski kicks three from beyond 50 yards. Sebastian Janikowski may not be as accurate as he should be, and his off-the-field track record leaves something to be desired, but he is as lethal as any kicker in the history of the NFL. On Sunday, Janikowski converted three separate 50-yard field-goals, tying a single-game record. And it should be noted that the man who drafted him was Al Davis.
