From: timr@sco.COM (Tim Ruckle)
Subject: Re: Teams You Love To Hate (was: Favorite Football Teams---Results)
Organization: The Gifted and the Damned
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1992 20:41:20 GMT
Summary: nothing for Al Davis?  yes and no...
Keywords: Raiders, Davis


Va negvpyr <2116@devnull.mpd.tandem.com>
dwelch@mpd.tandem.com (Dan Welch) jevgrf:
} In article <1992Jul24.103001.22259@sco.com> timr@sco.COM (Tim Ruckle) writes:
} [ ... musing about 49er hating ... ]
} >
} >To me is seems reminiscent of my own loathing of the Cowboys when they
} >were America's Team(TM).
} 
} Yep, it's always easiest to hate the guys on top.  Well, sorry, Tim, the
} 49ers have to step aside, because the 'Boys are back again. :^)

Well Daniel, I trust you won't mind the 'Niners showing up in the playoffs
just to make it interesting for you, eh? ;^)

} [...]
} >PS. When i'm not rooting for the Niners, I'm mostly just hoping to see
} >good football.  They only other team I'd call a favorite is the Raiders.
} 
} What?!?  You hated the Eagles because of Ryan, and now hate the Falcons
} because of Glanville, but nothing for Al Davis?  The Raiders' idiotic "bad
} boy" image is so pathetic... 

There are a number of reasons for this:

1) The Raiders were the other "local" team for years.  And I always liked
   them.

2) Al Davis became the Raiders' head coach and general manager when I was
   still walking around in a four-point stance.  He took them from 1-13 to
   10-4 immediately.  Since then, the Raiders have gone 278-137-11, and
   have come away with 3 Super Bowl wins in four appearances.  The only
   teams that can compare to that are the 49ers, Steelers, and Redskins.
   If not for the last two Raider wins you'd have to go back over a decade
   ago to the Steeler dynasty for an AFC win.  They've posted 24 winning
   seasons and had a streak of 16 straight playoff appearances beginning
   in 1965.  The ``Commitment to Excellence'' is not just marketing fluff.

3) Davis may very well be an arrogant dictator and a megalomanical control
   freak.  And yes, moving the team to L.A. was unforgivable.  But overall,
   I'd say that Davis has been very good for pro football.  He's a Hall of
   Famer, and deservedly so.

4) Be_that_as_it_may_and_in_any_case, I don't typically judge a team as much
   on the owner/general manager as I do on other factors.

5) As I said, I do judge coaches.  And I loved Madden's style, and still do.
   Shell is no genius.  But he was a *lineman*.  He's been in the trenches.
   Compare and contrast with some stodgy white guy who's never played a down.

6) Personally, I don't think the "bad-boy" image is so pathetic.  And in
   fact think it has been rather apt over the years.

Nothing for Al Davis?  Yes and no.  Yes where it matters, no (mostly)
where it don't.  And besides, I've got to have *somebody* in the AFC
to root for...

-timr

P.S.:

} And now they have the ultimate weenie-trying-to-be-tough, Eric Dickerson,
} on their team.  What a crybaby.  Just one more reason to root against them.
} Of course, that shouldn't be too hard this year.

Wellsir, one crybaby in camp does not a hated team make.  Maybe Dickerson
has another year left in his legs, or maybe not.  In any case, he'll probably
end up knifed in the showers if he can't keep himself from whining so...  %^)

--
They say best men are molded out of faults,
And, for the most, become much more the better
For being a little bad.
                                --William Shakespeare, _Measure for Measure_
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.pro