Raiders Owner Al Davis "is a man of contradictions," making
the Raiders "a team of incongruities," writes SPORTS
ILLUSTRATED's Michael Silver. Silver's examples: though Raiders
employees "live in fear of Davis ... discipline barely exists"
and while the team preaches loyalty, former team trainer George
Anderson says, "For Al Davis, loyalty means, 'You be loyal to me.
I'll think about being loyal to you.'" Several former Raiders
paint an unflattering picture of the franchise and their former
boss: Former tight end Jamie Williams likens Davis to an "evil
emperor"; former fullback Steve Smith feels the Raiders have
underachieved in past years "because Al screwed everything up";
and one former assistant charges that Davis pits people against
each other in meetings, saying "the more you discredited people
to Al, the better off you were." Employees accuse Davis of
abusing power and he has also been known to undermine coaches by
requesting specific plays during games and ordering certain
players be started in front of others. In '88, Davis ordered
coach Mike Shanahan to start Willie Gault ahead of Tim Brown, but
Shanahan refused. Shanahan: "Everyone there is afraid of him, so
that's the behavior he expects" (SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, 6/3 issue).
